ETF Summary

The International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that Salt Lake City is its preferred host for the 2034 Winter Olympics − a significant move that all but guarantees the Games’ return to Utah a little more than a decade from now.

Karl Stoss, the chair of the future host commission for the Winter Games, said in a news conference that the IOC’s executive board had agreed to enter into ‘targeted dialogue’ with Salt Lake City and U.S. Olympic Committee officials about 2034. Under the IOC’s revamped bid process, this means that no other host city will be considered for the 2034 Olympics unless Salt Lake City fails to meet a requirement for hosting, which is highly unlikely.

In addition to zeroing in on Salt Lake City for 2034, Stoss said the IOC is entering targeted dialogue with France for the 2030 Winter Games and ‘privileged dialogue’ with Switzerland for 2038.

The French Alps and Salt Lake City are expected to be formally announced as the 2030 and 2034 hosts, respectively, at the IOC session in Paris in July.

‘2034, it’s perfect for us,’ Fraser Bullock, president of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said at a celebratory watch party Wednesday, shortly after the IOC’s announcement.

‘They said ‘yes well you need to submit all your bid files and everything else.’ Guess what? We’re ready. We can push the send button tomorrow. We’re ready, willing and able.’

Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games and had long been favored to host another edition. The only lingering question over the past two years has been whether that next chance would come in 2030 or 2034.

The USOPC had stated its preference for 2034, to allow for some space after it hosts the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Olympic officials have viewed Salt Lake City’s reliable winter climate as a strong point of its bid, as well as its stated intent to use existing facilities, some of which date back to the 2002 Games. Stoss called Salt Lake’s master plan ‘very compact’ and stressed that it would require no capital investment.

Public polling in support of a Salt Lake City bid hasn’t hurt, either.

‘What has been submitted (by Salt Lake City), and the demonstration of support, is outstanding,’ said Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s executive director of Olympic Games. ‘They have brought all the guarantees needed already at this point in time. So [their proposal] is extremely strong.’

Barring a shocking turn, Wednesday’s news indicates that Salt Lake City will join Los Angeles and Lake Placid, New York as the only U.S. cities to host multiple editions of the Olympic Games. It also means that France and the U.S. will each host a Summer and Winter Olympics in a six-year span. Paris will host the Games next summer.

Milan, Italy (for the 2026 Winter Olympics) and Brisbane, Australia (for the 2032 Summer Games) are the other future hosts that have been decided, as the IOC continues to grapple with diminishing interest in hosting the Games due to cost concerns and decreasing public support.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.

He’s the most polarizing man on the Hall of Fame ballot. Fans have been screaming at him for 44 years, managers and players cursing him, and he has a personality bigger than virtually every player who steps onto the field.

He is Cowboy Joe West.

This is a man who has umpired more games (5,460) than anyone who ever lived; who recorded two albums; sang with Mickey Gilley and Merle Haggard; appeared at the Grand Ole Opry; designed the umpire’s chest protector; played an umpire in ‘The Naked Gun’; spent nine years as the umpire union’s chief, and is one of eight men on the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Era ballot. The winners will be announced Sunday at the baseball winter meetings in Nashville.

Did you think West − who once grabbed reliever Jonathan Papelbon for making a lewd gesture, threw pitcher Dennis Cook to the ground while breaking up a fight and tussled with manager Joe Torre − was just a gruff, heartless bully and the most flamboyant umpire in the land?

Well, then you don’t know West, 71.

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This is the same guy who was asked if he could call a veteran baseball writer who was dying from cancer. West instead went to the writer’s home and spent several hours with Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News before he passed.

When Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo’s father, Sam, died in 2017, guess who was at his funeral? Yep, West.

When a man sent West a letter, telling him that his grandfather had died and he was the one who gave him his first baseball at the old Astrodome, West sent flowers to the funeral. The next time he was in Houston, West got the man front-row tickets and a visit to the umpire’s room, where he took his young son.

‘He can’t pass a kid without saying hello and making sure they’d get a baseball,’ said Jon West, Joe West’s younger brother. ‘He’s just got such a big heart for kids. He’d go to children’s hospitals all of the time and bring players along, just to get smiles on their face.’

So if you think Joe West won’t break down and sob if he gets a call Sunday night, informing him he’ll be just the 11th umpire inducted into Cooperstown, you don’t know West.

‘Oh my God, I was crying when he was telling me he was on the Hall of Fame ballot,’ Jon West said. ‘We both dreamt about playing in the big leagues growing up in Greenville, South Carolina. Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were our idols. And to be in the Hall of Fame, the same place as them, the whole family will be crying, particularly Joe. It would mean the world to him.’

Says Rita Scott, Joe West’s wife: ‘I think everyone’s impression of him is this gruff guy with this hard exterior, but really, he’s a marshmallow inside. He’s so compassionate and caring. I don’t think it’s registered in his mind yet that he even made the ballot; I can’t even imagine how emotional he’d be if he makes it.’

The ballot, which consists of managers, executives and umpires who impacted the game since 1980, is loaded. You can make a case for all eight to be inducted. West joins former umpire Ed Montague, former managers Jim Leyland, Lou Piniella, Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson; eight-time All-Star and former National League president Bill White, and the late Hank Peters, the longtime Orioles general manager.

There are 16 members on the voting committee, and they are prohibited from submitting more than three votes. It takes 12 votes for induction. Piniella and Leyland are expected to be elected, with Piniella missing by just one vote in his last election. Who knows if there’s even room for anyone else.

West has stories with all four managers on the ballot, two of whom he ejected three times in his career.

There was the time Cito Gaston asked if he could review a potential fan-interference call in 1992. “I said, ‘Cito, you guys build a $1.1 million ballpark in Toronto, and you made it where a fan can still interfere?” West told him.

There was the time Dwight Gooden was making his big-league debut in 1984 in Houston and manager Davey Johnson told West, ‘Will you take care of my kid? It’s his first day in the big leagues.’ Gooden pitched a dominant 1-2-3 first inning, and West told Johnson, ‘Hey Davey, this kid doesn’t need any of my help.’

There was the time Lou Piniella may have been a bit late calling in a reliever, and when Piniella walked to the mound, he complained about the strike zone to West. ‘Lou, if you had done your job, you wouldn’t have been here,’ West told him.

Piniella: ‘When did you start managing?’

West: ‘Last inning, when you quit.’

Leyland was a Class AA manager with the Detroit Tigers when West was a minor-league umpire in 1974, and a young minor-league player started screaming at fellow umpire Steve Rippley. When the game ended, the minor leaguers were summoned and harshly scolded.

‘You will never argue with the umpires,’ Leyland said. ‘That’s the manager’s job.’

West still laughs uproariously about the time a streaker ran onto the field at old Baltimore Memorial Stadium. Security guards grabbed him and took him to Peters, the GM.

‘What do you want to do with him?’ they asked Peters, according to West.

Peters: ‘Give him $200 and tell him to come back Wednesday.’

Plenty of stories, wonderful memories and a message West hopes will resonate with all umpires.

‘My first priority has always been to the game of baseball, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the commissioner’s office,’ West once said. “My second priority is to the profession, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the union. And the third is to do in your heart what you know is honest, moral and correct.

‘If you have those things in that order, nothing that you do will be wrong, no matter how much they argue on the field.’

Love the man or hate the man, if Joe West isn’t inducted into Cooperstown one day, it’s hard to imagine any umpire ever will be again.

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale.

Eternal optimist Deion Sanders seems to say stuff like this all the time:

‘We’re really going to be good.’

‘We’re gonna win. We’re gonna win. We’re gonna win.’

‘You gonna be pleased with what’s coming. I promise you that.’

He talked that way before the season, after he was hired to coach a Colorado football program that finished 1-11 in 2022. Then he talked that way after the season, when his team lost six consecutive games to finish 4-8.

So why should we believe him now?

Here are his three biggest failures and successes in 2023 − and how they show he may be right, or wrong, about being on the verge of a breakthrough in 2024:

Big failure No. 1: The offensive line

Deion Sanders and his staff overlooked the maintenance of this position, one way or another – through recruiting or retention during their massive roster overhaul before the season.

Five offensive linemen from last year left the team after the April spring game, including Jake Wiley, who went to UCLA, and Jackson Anderson, who transferred to Texas-San Antonio.

Wouldn’t some of those players have come in handy this season for Colorado, which ranked second nationally in most quarterback sacks allowed with 56? Last year, the Buffaloes only allowed 23 sacks during a 1-11 season. This season, the lack of protection from the line ended up costing the health of quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who ended the season with a fracture in his back.

Last week, on his Colorado Coaches Football Show, Sanders acknowledged “we built it differently” by bringing in skill position players without as much focus on linemen on the inside. He also said it’s being fixed.

‘We built from the outside-in,’ he said. ‘So the skill positions were established. Now the internal (line) is gonna be established. Because we already had the skill and we got skill coming from everywhere trying to get in now. You’ve got the phones jumping off the hook for the bigs (linemen) because they see a lack thereof. Therefore, you’ve got a multitude of bigs … who want to block for Shedeur.’

Big failure No. 2: The Stanford game

Sometimes a loss is so bad it can alter the trajectory of a season. At halftime of this game on Oct. 13, the Buffs were 4-2 and leading at home 29-0. Then after losing this game in double-overtime, 46-43, the Buffs never won again. Deion Sanders admitted he sensed “complacency” in his team at halftime. So why didn’t he do more about it?

Anything to stop the bleeding could have avoided it: more aggressive play-calling on offense, a trick play to shift momentum, a key stop on defense. It’s up to Sanders to help facilitate that so the roof doesn’t keep caving in a game like this.

If the Buffs had survived this one, they could have built momentum toward the minimum six wins required to become eligible for a postseason bowl berth. It could have changed the whole narrative of this season’s obituary.

Big failure No. 3: Unforced errors

Colorado lost five games by seven points or fewer. How many would the Buffs have won without so many unforced errors? Many of these mistakes relate to discipline and management, which all goes back to coaching.

The Buffs ranked second nationally with 107 penalties committed, behind only New Mexico (4-8), which rang up 119 penalties.

One coaching blunder against Oregon State Nov. 4 ended up being the difference in the game. Down 7-3 with 49 seconds left before halftime, the Buffs got the ball on their own 4-yard line.

If the Buffs had run the ball and run out the clock, that would have been the score at halftime. Instead, they got cute despite failing to move the ball all game before that. They attempted passes that fell incomplete on first and second down, stopping the clock and giving Oregon State just enough time to get the ball back to extend its lead to 14-3 with a touchdown right before halftime.

Deion Sanders blamed himself for the gaffe. Colorado lost, 26-19.

Another head-scratcher came in their final game last week at Utah, when the Buffs lost 23-17. Utah got the ball with 7:25 left in the game and then ran out the clock with a 12-play possession that ended on the Colorado 31-yard line as time expired. In other words, the Utes milked the clock for half a quarter by practically sitting on the ball to keep the Buffs from getting another chance to win at the end.

How is that even possible? One reason is the questionable use of timeouts. Colorado had burned two of its three timeouts in the third quarter, including one with less than two minutes after halftime. Sanders said he used one to avoid a five-yard penalty.

Big success No. 1: That glorious start

It was described as the biggest story in sports after the Buffs started 3-0 in front of sellout crowds and national television audiences on Fox and ESPN.

This was a credit to Sanders’ coaching ability – getting his players to believe they had it in them to beat TCU in the season opener and then carry it over two more games after that, against Nebraska and Colorado State.

But they couldn’t sustain that belief, apparently. It almost seemed like the fire burned too hot, too soon and then burned out. Why? Sanders said it was because they lost the necessary “attitude.”

Last week, Sanders still promised to get back the magic. Next year, the Buffs’ first three games are at home against North Dakota State Aug. 31, then at Nebraska Sept. 7 and at Colorado State Sept. 14. They then play in the Big 12 Conference after leaving the Pac-12, where they went 1-8 in 2023.

‘The climax we gave you early on, we gonna get you back there because I know you liked that ride, didn’t you?’ he said. ‘We gonna get you back there.’

Big success No. 2: Upgrading the talent

Shedeur Sanders, son of the coach, was the best quarterback at Colorado since Kordell Stewart in 1994. Two-way star Travis Hunter was the best all-around player in Boulder since the 1930s, when Byron “Whizzer” White played offense, defense and kicker.

Both are set to return in 2024, along with Colorado’s best talent in the defensive backfield since the Buffs won two Jim Thorpe Awards for the nation’s best defensive backs in 1992 and 1994. The depth chart there includes Hunter, safety Shilo Sanders (another son of the coach) and Cormani McClain, the No. 1 cornerback recruit in 2023.

What happens next year after a year of improvement, better blocking and a better supporting cast? The Buffs only had 11 scholarship players who were in their final year of eligibility in 2023 out of a scholarship limit of 85. The transfer portal heats up again Dec. 4, and Sanders plans to target a “plethora” of players from it.

Big success No. 3: Bringing the hype

Critics have taken jabs at Deion Sanders for his habit of being followed around by video cameras and fanning the flames of hype. Let’s be honest about that, though. Those critics are jealous.

Sanders is a marketing tour de force made for the age of YouTube and social media. The advertising value of the attention the Buffs received after hiring Sanders last year through their first four games of 2023 was $249 million more than the same period a year earlier, according to Cision, the university’s media-monitoring service.

What coach wouldn’t want that?

A spotlight that bright helps attract recruits, sell tickets and move merchandise. The Buffs sold out every home game this year for the first time ever and played in front of sellout crowds in 11 of their 12 games. On television, the Buffs entered their final game of the season as the most-watched team in America with 54.3 million viewers, not counting games on the Pac-12 Network, where the viewership wasn’t reported.

According to Sanders, now it’s just a matter of using that spotlight to go shopping for players and bring home the ingredients the team needs.

‘We right on schedule with the plan,’ he said last week. ‘The plan is improve every dern thing we touch. Did we sell out every game? Did this team get better? Is hope instilled? What’s the problem? Somebody tell me what’s the problem.’

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Las Vegas casino magnate Miriam Adelson has reached a binding agreement to purchase a majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks from current owner Mark Cuban.

The move sends shockwaves throughout the sports world as the Adelson family enters the realm of NBA ownership.

Adelson, 78, is the fifth-richest woman in the world, according to Forbes. She is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, founder and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, who died in 2021 at the age of 87. She took over majority control of the Sands Corporation following her husband’s death and on Tuesday filed paperwork to sell $2 billion worth of company stock ‘to fund the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise.’

Wednesday, the Adelson and Dumont families released a statement:

‘The families are targeting a closing of the transaction by year-end, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions and approval of the NBA Board of Governors,’ the statement said. ‘The Dallas Mavericks are one of the world’s most successful and recognizable sports franchises. The team has won an NBA championship, has a long history of attracting international superstars and has been supported by a dedicated and passionate fanbase and leadership group led by Mark Cuban.’

Who is Miriam Adelson?

The former Miriam Farbstein was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to Jewish parents who fled Poland in the 1930s.

A doctor by trade, she earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MD from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. 

She was previously married to physician Ariel Ochshorn, whom she divorced in 1980. They have two children.

After coming to the United States to study heroin addiction treatment at Rockefeller University in New York, she met and began dating Sheldon Adelson in 1988. The couple married in Jerusalem in 1991.

How old is Miriam Adelson?

Miriam Adelson was born Miriam Farbstein on October 10, 1945.

Last month, she celebrated her 78th birthday.

Does Miriam Adelson have children?

She has two daughters from her previous marriage to former husband, Ariel Ochshorn.

She and Adelson also have two sons, Adam and Matan.

What is Miriam Adelson’s net worth?

Adelson and her family have an estimated net worth of $32.3 billion, according to Forbes − making her the fifth-richest woman in the world.

She is the majority shareholder in Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the world’s largest casino operator with facilities in Singapore and Macao. The company sold its assets on the Las Vegas Strip − including the Venetian Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center − in February 2022 for $6.25 billion, according to Forbes.

Angel Reese, the 2023 Final Four Most Outstanding Player, is finally returning to the court. 

Reese will rejoin LSU for its game against No. 9 Virginia Tech on Thursday, according to coach Kim Mulkey, who declined on Wednesday to give details on why Reese was benched.

The All-American forward missed the Tigers’ last four contests, including LSU’s games in the Cayman Islands over the Thanksgiving holiday. Throughout Reese’s absence, Mulkey declined to give details on why Reese was missing, and would not clarify if she was suspended, injured or gone by choice. But she’s happy Reese is back.

‘It’s a boost having her back period, not just because we’re playing Virginia Tech, it’s just for our team. She’s a tremendous player,’ Mulkey said, according to the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, a part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. ‘One of the best players in the country. She gives us a good matchup with (Elizabeth) Kitley.

‘I expect Angel to just be Angel. She’s been really good in practice.’

Reese was also quiet throughout her absence, though over Thanksgiving weekend she reposted on her social media accounts numerous photos celebrating LSU’s success in the Cayman Islands (the Tigers went 2-0 with wins over Niagara and Virginia).

Reese’s status resulted in plenty of speculation across the basketball community. On Sunday, Nov. 19, the day after Reese was first missing in action, ESPN’s Elle Duncan called Reese’s situation “maybe the biggest story in women’s college basketball.” 

In four games played so far this season, the 6-foot-3 junior forward from Baltimore is averaging 17.0 points and 10.3 rebounds. It’s the third season in a row that Reese has averaged a double-double, including the 2021-22 season at Maryland. (Though Reese is listed as a junior, she’s part of the NCAA’s “COVID class,” meaning she can play a fifth year if she wants.) 

Three games later, in the Tigers’ 109-79 win over Kent State, Mulkey benched Reese in the second half. Afterward, Mulkey would only say it was a “coach’s decision” to not play Reese. 

Also Wednesday, Mulkey announced sophomore Sa’Myah Smith will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL, MCL and meniscus in her right knee during the first game of the Cayman Islands Classic. Smith had been averaging 11.7 points and 7.6 rebounds through seven games this season.

Additionally, Mulkey said guard Kateri Poole, a transfer from Ohio State before last season, is ‘not with the team,’ but declined to give details on if, or when, Poole will return.

Follow Lindsay Schnell on social media @Lindsay_Schnell

FC Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga has been handed a three-game suspension by MLS after a confrontation with referees following a playoff match.

Miazga will miss Saturday’s Eastern Conference final against the Columbus Crew, as well as MLS Cup should Cincinnati advance. The additional discipline will carry over into the 2024 MLS season, as Cincinnati can only play a maximum of two more games in the ongoing playoffs.

MLS announced the ban on Wednesday following an investigation into allegations from the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA) that a player had confronted referees in their locker room after FC Cincinnati’s penalty-kick win over the New York Red Bulls on November 4. Reports later identified that player as Miazga.

‘The MLS Disciplinary Committee has suspended FC Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga for three matches and issued an undisclosed fine for his misconduct following FC Cincinnati’s match against the New York Red Bulls on November 4,’ read a league statement announcing the suspension.

‘Additionally, Miazga will undergo a behavioral assessment through the Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health (SABH) Program and may petition for a reduction in suspension based on continued commitment and compliance with any recommended treatment programs.’

Miazga, the MLS Defender of the Year for 2023, had already served a suspension for yellow-card accumulation in his side’s 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that FC Cincinnati has already appealed Miazga’s suspension, and have had that appeal rejected.

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Matt Miazga incident disputed by FC Cincinnati

The events leading to Miazga approaching referees are convoluted, and were notably disputed by Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan. The center back received a second yellow card for gesturing to fans after having successfully taken a penalty during the tiebreaker that saw Cincinnati advance past the Red Bulls.

Miazga’s gestures were apparently interpreted by referee Victor Rivas as provocative, while the 28-year-old held that he was showing affection for fans of the club where he started his career.

In either case, the yellow cards he got in Harrison, combined with a booking from the first leg of that best-of-three series, resulted in a one-game ban for Miazga.

Not long afterward, some kind of confrontation took place, but the details from there are murky.

‘After the Nov 4th NYRB/FC Cincinnati match, a player gained unauthorized entry into the Officials’ locker room & was forcibly removed by stadium security while acting in an aggressive & hostile manner,’ read a social media post from the PSRA. ‘No one’s safety should ever be at risk & we expect MLS to act accordingly.’

Noonan admitted that Miazga had spoken with referees in their locker room, but characterized that moment as lacking intensity.

‘It’s an hour and a half after the game, he’s got a pizza box in his hand. I think people have this notion that he was in his cleats, running into that room. It’s been fabricated, what happened,’ Noonan told reporters in the days before FCC took on Philadelphia. ‘That part’s also disturbing… My hope is they’re going to make the right decision, having taken all the information over these last couple of weeks.’

Without Miazga and injured starter Nick Hagglund, Noonan had to improvise for the clash with the Union. Yerson Mosquera moved into Miazga’s place in the middle of Cincinnati’s back three, with veteran fullback Alvas Powell improvising as a right-sided center back alongside him.