TORONTO -- The NHL and Rogers Communications announced a new 12-year national media rights deal Wednesday to air games on multiple platforms in Canada.

The agreement, which was first reported Monday, is valued at $11 billion Canadian dollars, or roughly $7.7 billion U.S. The new deal runs through the 2037-38 season.

In Canadian dollars, it is worth more than double the previous contract signed in November 2013 that cost Rogers $5.2 billion in the local currency. Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said the company is proud to continue its partnership with the NHL.

"Hockey is Canada's game and we're proud to be the home of hockey," Staffieri said in a statement. "Sports are core to our company, and these rights are the most valuable sports rights in Canada."

This is the league's latest source of revenue after contracting with ESPN and Turner Sports in 2021 for the current U.S. TV and streaming rights deal for $4.5 billion over seven years combined.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was asked during Wednesday's news conference about doing the deal in relation to the political climate between the United State and Canada, with the NHL going with a Canadian company rather than including Amazon, which also has a deal with the NHL.

"I don't personally think it's appropriate for us, when we're focusing fans on hockey, to weigh into the political spectrum," he said. "I don't think people want us to do that. I think they want to use sports as an escape. I hope that what we're seeing is a moment in time and things can get back to a normal reality."

Bettman did acknowledge economic concerns and how any turmoil would affect the league.

"I have concerns from a business standpoint for the league that if the Canadian economy suffers by what's going on, that will impact the way we have to do business from an economic standpoint," Bettman said. "As I think you all know, our teams in Canada pay their players in U.S. dollars, and if the Canadian dollar drops, that will be an issue that we'll have to deal with. But I'm hoping we're focused on a moment in time and these two great historical allies can get past where they are at the moment."

Bettman said the league and Rogers have a shared commitment to best serving Canadian fans and the unmatched passion that they have for the game.

"For more than a decade, Rogers has done an incredible job of conveying what NHL hockey, our players, and our teams mean to hockey fans and their communities from coast to coast to coast," Bettman said.

The deal includes national rights across all platforms, including TV, digital and streaming, for all national regular-season games, in all languages, as well as out-of-market rights for all regional games.

It also includes national rights to all playoff games, the Stanley Cup Final and all special events and tentpole events, in all languages.

The agreement allows for strategic sub-licensing for a subset of the rights, including national French-language and a single-night exclusive national package.

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bulgarian side Arda Kardzhali invited club great Petko Ganchev and feted him at their first division match on Wednesday, two weeks after they held a minute's silence for their former player thinking he had died.

When Arda played Levski Sofia last month, players from both sides lined up at the centre circle to honour Ganchev.

But before the day was done, the club posted a message saying they had received "incorrect information about his death" and that the 78-year-old was very much alive.

On Wednesday, the club said their 'legend' was a special guest for their match against Cherno More, where the home side won 4-0. Ganchev also received a jersey with his name and the No. 9.

"Before the match Petko Ganchev saw the sport director Ivaylo Petkov, who gave him a jubilee jersey... He watched the match in the company of other ARDA veterans," the club said.

"Once again we apologise to Petko Ganchev for the gaffe two weeks ago."

Ganchev said he received several phone calls when the club held a minute's silence while his wife was in tears when he got home late to watch the match.

"When I heard the terrible news, I poured myself a little brandy," he had told Bulgarian outlet Blitz.

"To bury you alive is very stressful. Truthfully, the situation was not pleasant."

When Antony was packed off on loan from Manchester United to Real Betis, the Spanish club were convinced they were signing a player who would improve the club's fortunes and not the forlorn figure who had struggled so badly in the Premier League.

Antony arrived at United for an eye-watering fee of nearly 81 million ($105.02 million) in 2022, but by the time he left in January he had lost the spark that had made him a joy to watch at Ajax Amsterdam.

Once hailed for guiding the Dutch club to the Eredivisie title, the Brazilian winger failed miserably to justify his price tag and was loaned to Betis having picked up more bookings than goals scored in two-and-a-half seasons at Old Trafford.

But Betis had a plan for him and although they were ridiculed for their David Lynch-inspired video to unveil their new signing, it is the Seville-based club that is now having the last laugh.

Since his arrival, Antony has four goals and four assists in 12 games in all competitions with Betis fighting on two fronts as they bid to win the UEFA Conference League and secure Champions League qualification for next season.

"I am very happy ... I found myself, I needed to find myself, I needed to be happy, I needed my family to be happy too. Every day that goes by, I see that it's the best decision I've made," Antony told DAZN.

"I am enjoying the city, the club, every day. [Seville] reminds me a lot of things from Brazil -- the sun, the food, everything. The people are also very warm. I'm very happy and that's important for us as Brazilians."

The 25-year-old has rediscovered his confidence on the ball which was largely absent during his time at United.

Betis were 10th when he arrived but now -- on the back of a six-game winning streak which included a 2-1 derby victory over Sevilla -- Manuel Pellegrini's side are sixth, six points from a top-four spot.

Betis have not played in the Champions League since the 2005-06 season and would like to keep Antony at the club beyond the current campaign.

"We have to crowdfund so he can stay at least another year," his teammate Isco said.

"We've noticed a change since he arrived. He brings us a lot. I'm happy to have Antony here, he's surprised us all with his humility and desire to help."

Betis do not have the option to buy Antony but if it were up to him, he would make the Villamarin Stadium his new home.

"I am very grateful to United for everything ... I lived difficult moments at United, but also very good moments," he added.

"I'm also preparing myself to be here today, enjoying myself. And well, today my head is here, I am very happy."

U.S. men's national team midfielder Tyler Adams has voiced his support for the idea of bringing promotion and relegation to MLS, saying it would improve the competitiveness of the league.

Promotion and relegation is the model used by soccer leagues in nearly every country throughout the world, including England, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Argentina, but the idea has been kept at arm's length by MLS since the league's inception in 1996.

However Adams, who plays his club soccer in the English Premier League with Bournemouth, said he has seen the benefits of the system.

"I would like to see [promotion and relegation] it in MLS, in the U.S. I think that would add to the competitive nature of the league," Adams, who captained the USMNT at the 2022 World Cup, told USA Today this week.

"It just gives everyone a lot more to play for when you know there's a risk of going down when you don't play well, so it adds a little bit more pressure, adds a little bit more nerves and excitement for the fans as well. So hopefully one day it's in MLS."

Adams came up through the youth ranks at MLS club New York Red Bulls, before moving to Europe with RB Leipzig in 2019. He experienced relegation from the Premier League to the English Championship with Leeds United in 2023.

Adams' comments come as club owners for the United Soccer League (USL) voted last month to introduce a promotion and relegation system. It marks the first time the system would be implemented in the United States.

In February, the USL confirmed plans to launch a Division One men's professional league in 2027 to rival MLS within the sanctioning standards of the U.S. Soccer Federation.

USL said that league would operate completely separately from MLS, despite working under the same sanctioning by U.S. Soccer as a professional soccer league. This new league would give the USL a three-tiered pro system featuring the Division One, plus a second-division called the USL Championship and third-division USL League One.

MLS commissioner Don Garber has pointed to the lack of promotion and relegation as being a key driver in investment in the league, which has seen expansion fees for climb to $500 million for newest club San Diego FC. However, he has not completely ruled out the system existing in some form in the future.

NJ/NY Gotham FC and United States women's national team defender Tierna Davidson tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee and has been added to the NWSL's season-ending injury list, Gotham FC announced on Wednesday.

Davidson exited Friday's scoreless draw with the Houston Dash just before halftime following a noncontact knee injury.

"We are heartbroken for Tierna," Gotham FC general manager and head of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West said in a statement. "Our club will do everything we can to support her through this recovery and rehabilitation process. We know she will come back stronger than ever."

Davidson previously tore her ACL in her right knee in 2022. That injury sidelined her for most of that year, and the long recovery contributed to her missing out on the 2023 World Cup squad.

She left Stanford University early to turn pro in 2019 and was on the roster for the USWNT's World Cup triumph that year.

She was a starting center back for the USWNT last year in its run to a fifth Olympic gold medal. Davidson was voted Gotham FC captain by her teammates prior to the start of the 2025 season in March.

"Tierna is a warrior, is our captain. It was devastating seeing her coming off the pitch how she did but then seeing her on the pitch at the end of the game, it was also a message from her to the team of how strong she is," Gotham FC coach Juan Carlos Amorós said after Friday's game.

Davidson joined Gotham as a free agent ahead of the 2024 NWSL season and quickly became one of the team's defensive anchors.

She was replaced by fullback Gisele Thompson on the USWNT roster that will face Brazil twice over the next week.

The USWNT is also without fellow starting center back Naomi Girma, who has not played internationally in 2025 due to a lingering calf injury.

MIAMI -- Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka admits he hoped the LIV Golf League would be further along in its fourth season as it prepares to play its first tournament in the U.S. starting Friday at Trump National Doral.

The breakaway circuit funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is undergoing a bit of a reset with former Merlin Entertainments CEO Scott O'Neil replacing Greg Norman, in addition to other leadership changes, as well as a new broadcast deal with Fox in the U.S.

"I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret," Koepka said Tuesday. "No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction."

The league, which has team and individual competitions being played concurrently, shotgun starts and 54-hole tournaments, didn't see a bump in TV ratings in the U.S. in its first four events in 2025, which were played in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

O'Neil, who replaced Norman as LIV Golf's CEO on Jan. 15, is overseeing the league's strategic vision, business operations and global growth. One of his first tasks in his first three months on the job was changing LIV Golf's slogan from "Golf But Louder" to "Long LIV Golf."

O'Neil, 54, was previously the president of Madison Square Garden Sports and oversaw operations of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. He later managed the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils as CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment before taking over Merlin Entertainments, which operates theme parks and hotels around the world.

"There's a place for LIV Golf in the world," O'Neil told ESPN on Tuesday. "That's one thing I've 100 percent committed to. I think the notion of being the F1 of golf is real. It's 100 percent real. Auto racing is a really interesting analogy because in the U.S. you've got NASCAR and you've got the [IndyCar] Series, and then you've got F1, and they all work pretty well together."

LIV Golf and the PGA Tour haven't worked together since Norman disrupted the sport by poaching several of the tour's top stars, including Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and others, with guaranteed contracts reportedly worth more than $100 million.

The PGA Tour and the PIF sued each other in federal court, but the lawsuits were dropped when they signed a framework agreement on June 6, 2023, to form an alliance that would reunify the sport. That deal expired at the end of 2023, but the sides have continued to try to hammer out a deal the past two years.

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott for more than four hours at the White House on Feb. 20.

U.S. President Donald Trump also met with Monahan and Scott in Washington on Feb. 4. Trump owns the golf course where LIV Golf is competing this week.

O'Neil isn't a part of the negotiations between the PIF and PGA Tour, but receives regular updates from Al-Rumayyan. Sources have told ESPN that team golf's place in the sport, and whether the LIV Golf League would continue to be played in its current form, are big obstacles in the negotiations.

"The reality of the way I see the world is I see the LIV Golf League with a lot of hope and a lot of future," O'Neil said. "I hope that we find a way to get more opportunities to have the best players in the world playing together. It might not be in a nice, neat bow, or it might be. We'll see."

O'Neil has been welcomed a bit more than Norman was by golf's establishment. O'Neil will attend next week's Masters, the first major of the season, after being invited by Augusta National Golf Club. Norman, a three-time Masters runner-up, had to purchase tickets to attend the 2024 tournament. A dozen LIV golfers are in the Masters field, including five past champions.

O'Neil declined to say whether LIV Golf has extended contracts for golfers who joined the circuit in its early days. O'Neil did point out that LIV Golf extended its contract with the South Australian state government to host a tournament at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide through 2031. An estimated 100,000 fans attended the Australian tournament in each of the past two seasons.

Bringing that excitement to the U.S. is the next step. According to published reports, about 34,000 viewers watched the final round of Joaquin Niemann's victory in Singapore on March 16 on FS1.

An average of about 3.6 million viewers (with a peak of 6.2 million) watched the final round of the Players Championship on the same day, and about 1.5 million tuned in to see Rory McIlroy defeat J.J. Spaun in a playoff at TPC Sawgrass the next day.

O'Neil called the U.S. a "pretty saturated market," and said the league is doing well in terms of viewership around the world. He said 2.5 million watched LIV Golf's season opener in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 6-8.

"It's not that the facts aren't accurate," O'Neil said. "It's just we're playing a different game. Check our ratings in the Middle East. Check our ratings in Europe when we're playing there.

"I like where we are, like our positioning. I like being a global sports league. I think that's different. I'm happy to be held accountable for ratings on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'm happy to take a beating, quite frankly, if they're not high enough. Nobody can possibly be any more critical of us than us."