NFL chief media and business officer Brian Rolapp is leaving the league to become the PGA Tour’s new CEO, Front Office Sports confirmed.

The news was first reported by ESPN on Thursday afternoon, after multiple reports from other outlets earlier this week suggested Rolapp was the favorite to land the new PGA Tour role. The PGA Tour declined to comment.

Rolapp was largely seen as the No. 2 executive at the NFL, and a likely successor to commissioner Roger Goodell, 66. Goodell’s contract runs through March 2027, but he is already in discussions about an extension beyond that. This likely contributed to Rolapp’s decision to leave now, multiple sources told FOS.

One NFL source told FOS that the PGA Tour made Rolapp a “great offer,” and that he “will help them a lot and he will run his own shop.”

As the hands-on architect of the NFL’s 11-year cycle of media-rights deals worth $111 billion, Rolapp is one of the most powerful and influential sports media executives in the world. Under his watch and Goodell’s, the league has expanded beyond its usual reliance on linear broadcast/cable TV partners such as NBC, CBS, Fox, and ESPN to add giant streamers like Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube TV, and Netflix to its roster of media partners. 

Rolapp and the NFL were also savvy enough to add “opt-out” clauses to those deals that were signed in 2021 and run through the 2033 season. The league is almost certain to exercise these opt-out early clauses with most of the media partners after the 2029 season, and with ESPN after the 2030 season.

With Rolapp headed to the PGA Tour, sources say the NFL will rely on a coterie of powerful executives to fulfill his duties until a successor is named. They include: Hans Schroeder, EVP of media distribution; David Jurenka, SVP of NFL Media; and Mike North, VP of broadcast planning. Fox’s telecast of the Eagles’ victory over the Chiefs in Super LIX set a record, averaging 127.7 million viewers.

“We have spent some time planning for this change and are confident we will successfully manage the responsibilities while we align our structure to meet our long-term strategic goals,” Goodell said in a memo sent to team owners on Thursday.

The PGA Tour’s TV ratings have largely rebounded this season after a down year in 2024. Jon Rahm was the last major player to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in December 2023. The tour has increased prize money in an effort to compete with the $20 million individual purses offered by LIV events, and many golfers have called for the competing tours to merge.

Multiple sources told FOS that new LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil, who took that job in January, is excited by Rolapp’s hire, as the two men have known each other since they were in Harvard’s business school together in the late 1990s.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan first announced the search for a CEO in December. “We’re bringing new perspectives onto our team to help us realize the incredible opportunities ahead for our sport,” he said in his end-of-year message. For now, it’s unclear exactly what the official reporting structure will be for Rolapp, as most professional leagues do not have both a commissioner and CEO.

The PGA Tour is still negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which financially backs LIV, about investing in the for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. Last year, the Strategic Sports Group, a conglomeration of professional sports franchise owners, invested $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises, with an option to double that to $3 billion. The PIF is considering a similar arrangement, but it has so far been unable to reach a deal.

OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open’s newest VIP luxury offering is sold out this week—and turning heads—despite its ultra-high price tag.

After a successful debut at the 2024 tournament at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, the 1895 Club has returned, offering fans at Oakmont Country Club the most premium amenities at the most premium prices.

Weekly passes to the two-story, all-inclusive hospitality buildout cost $6,500, and daily tickets ranged from $800 for Wednesday’s practice round to $1,800 for the prime weekend badges. That’s the most-expensive ticket available for the general public. The club sits between holes 14 and 15, and from its balcony has a panoramic view of the entire course, thanks to the lack of trees at Oakmont.

“We used to build our hospitality out in the middle of nowhere and say, ‘O.K., you got air conditioning,’” USGA managing director of partnership and hospitality Bryan Miranda told Front Office Sports. “Now it’s all about the most premium view you can get on the most premium level.”

White-glove restaurant service is available on the first floor, while the second level has more of a sports bar vibe. The USGA sold out of the 650 tickets it made available each day during all four competition rounds. Wednesday, the first day the 1895 Club was open, did not sell out. At Pinehurst last year, the 1895 Club’s capacity was 400 people per day.

New-Age Spending

Expansive corporate hospitality tents have long been a mainstay at most golf events, as tournament sponsors get the most premium spots to entertain clients. But golf’s major championships have been hopping on the recent trend of daily offerings that allow anyone to purchase similar luxury tickets. 

At the PGA Championship in May, a 500-person Club PGA premium offering sold daily tickets for $1,250. At The Masters, Augusta National debuted a second floor at Map & Flag, which cost $17,000 for a weekly ticket.

The Browns’ $2.4 billion plan to build a domed stadium and mixed-use development in suburban Brook Park, Ohio, has taken a major step forward as the state legislature has approved $600 million in public funding toward the project, but many more hurdles remain. 

After weeks of debate, the Ohio Senate passed a $60 billion state budget for the next two years that includes the Browns funding, arriving in the form of a “performance grant” from an account of unclaimed state funds that would be paid back to the state through future tax revenues. That senate move follows a prior approval by the House that instead provides the funding in the form of state-backed bonds. 

A reconciliation process will now start to resolve the differences in the two funding mechanisms before it moves to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature. What’s clear, though, is that there is state-level legislative support for the Browns and this project. 

“What this does is take idle money and puts it to work to create jobs, to create incremental taxes, and that’s why we’re so excited about this project,” said Ohio Senate budget chief Jerry Cirino, a key architect of the plan to use the unclaimed state funds, which derive from sources such as utility deposits, uncashed cashier’s checks, and forgotten bank accounts. 

Two big steps, however, remain for the Browns’ plan to become reality. Another $600 million in local money will need to be found to get to the 50-50 split the team envisions between public and private funds for the project.

The Browns will also need to resolve an ongoing legal dispute with the city of Cleveland, which is fighting the team’s move out of downtown. A law named for former Browns owner Art Modell, who moved the team to Baltimore in 1995, states that a team playing in a publicly supported stadium in Ohio cannot move without giving the city in question six months’ notice and an opportunity to buy the franchise. There are competing lawsuits from the team and the city surrounding the dispute, with little sign of an immediate resolution. 

Mile-High Move?

The Broncos, meanwhile, have been linked to a series of land purchases near Burnham Yard, a railyard property just south of downtown Denver that has been eyed as a potential site of a new stadium. The team’s lease at its current stadium, the 24-year-old Empower Field at Mile High, ends in 2030, and Broncos president Damani Leech told Front Office Sports earlier this year that “pretty soon, we need to figure out what we’re doing” after that expiration.

The team, led by the Walton-Penner family ownership group, declined to discuss the transactions, but regarding the stadium deliberations broadly said, “No determinations have been made as we continue to evaluate several options in and around the Denver metro area.”

An amassing of separate real estate, however, has a similarity to the Bears, who currently play in Soldier Field in downtown Chicago but are increasingly pursuing a new facility on land they own in suburban Arlington Heights, Ill.