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New York City FC and Etihad Airways have agreed to a 20-year exclusive naming rights deal for the team’s new stadium.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Etihad Park is being built with private funds.
The new venue will be one of several pieces of a greater development projects in Queens, New York.

New York City FC renderings for Etihad Park stadium in Queens, NY.
Courtesy: New York City FC.

When New York City FC’s new stadium opens up just before the 2027 Major League Soccer season, it will have a familiar partner’s name tied to it. 
The club is partnering with Etihad Airways for the exclusive naming rights to the new venue in Queens, New York, which will officially be called Etihad Park, according to a joint press release. The agreement is for 20 years and furthers a partnership between the two parties that have worked together since 2014. 

“It’s the most important commercial agreement that we’ll enter into, probably in the history of the club,” said New York City FC Chief Executive Officer Brad Sims in an interview with CNBC. 
The new stadium marks a major step for the club, which currently plays home games at baseball stadiums Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. Sims said the new venue opens up lucrative partnership opportunities, and the naming rights agreement is a prominent one. 
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Etihad Park is being built with private funds.
Etihad Park isn’t the only new addition to Queens. The venue will be part of a larger public-private development that includes 2,500 new affordable housing units and a public school. 
And the new stadium will see traffic for much more than just MLS games, with non-soccer events like concerts and festivals hosted in the stadium and surrounding space. 

“It has very multi-purpose potential in this space, and it’s really important to us, from a business standpoint, commercially, to have those events,” Sims said. 
“I think it’s also important for the local community that this is a vibrant building that is not just open 17 times a year and dark the rest of the year,” he said.
More than 300 sports stadiums around the world will begin to be built or renovated in 2025, according to projections from Deloitte, with a growing emphasis on the importance of multi-use.
“Having an anchor like a stadium is a way to create flow through people, to create a bit of buzz, to actually build up local connections with businesses and things like that, in a way that really propels these things,” said Deloitte Principal Pete Giorgio in an interview with CNBC. 
As for why the new stadium name is Etihad Park and not “stadium” or “arena,” it’s an homage to New York City’s iconic green spaces, according to Sims. More

AS the dust settled on Donald Trump’s election victory, what businesses did investors think would benefit most from his return to the presidency? Tesla? Big oil? Rustbelt manufacturers? No: two firms that lock people up. Shares in GEO Group and Core Civic, which own and run prisons, soared by two-thirds in the three days after the election, beating the rest of America’s 1,500 most valuable firms. More

Congratulations on joining our internship programme. For most of you this is your first experience of the workplace, and with that in mind we have prepared a guide to office etiquette. Other chapters cover what to wear (more), when to use emojis (less) and when to speak in meetings (it depends). More

Cohen Private Ventures, the family office of Steve Cohen, announced on Thursday that Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia and Jimmy Fallon are joining the New York Golf Club’s investor group.
TGL is the new primetime, high-tech golf league launched by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley.
TGL will feature Tour players split into six teams, competing in two-hour, head-to-head matches in a newly designed facility in Palm Beach, Florida.

New York Golf Club includes Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young.
Courtesy: TGL

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new golf league, TGL, is getting some fresh star power representing the Big Apple.
Cohen Private Ventures, the family office of Steve Cohen, announced on Thursday that Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia, Michael Strahan, John McEnroe and Jimmy Fallon are joining the New York Golf Club’s investor group as limited partners. It is the latest round of big names to join the golf upstart that kicks off Jan. 7 in tandem with the start of the 2025 FedEx Cup season.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cohen, who also owns Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, acquired the rights to the New York Golf team last September. The team will be represented in its inaugural season by Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young.
“New York has the greatest fans in the world, and we have built a team that will make New Yorkers proud. We believe this fresh, innovative take on the sport will appeal to traditional and new golf fans alike,” Cohen told CNBC in a statement.
Former New York Giants Super Bowl-winning quarterback Manning says he knows firsthand the excitement New Yorkers have for sports.
“There [have] been a lot of exciting trends in golf with participation growing on and off the course,” Manning said in a statement to CNBC.

TGL is the new primetime, high-tech golf league launched by Woods, McIlroy and former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley. The league will operate in partnership with the PGA Tour, which is an investor, and will run complementary to the Tour schedule. ESPN landed the broadcast rights to the league last October.
TGL will feature Tour players split into six teams, competing in two-hour, head-to-head matches in a newly designed facility in Palm Beach, Florida.
The league was expected to launch in 2024, but the dome being built to house competition collapsed after a power outage.
Other big-name investors in TMRW Sports, the parent company of TGL, include National Basketball Association legends Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Durant; MLB superstars Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout; National Football League quarterback Josh Allen; tennis legend Serena Williams; and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
Former New York Yankees star Jeter told CNBC he was drawn to the investment opportunity because it combines his passion for golf and his love of New York.
“I’m looking forward to seeing NYGC added to New York’s sports legacy,” said Jeter. More

For the second time in two years, the Adani Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, has been accused of criminal activity from the other side of the globe. The first barrage came from Hindenburg Research, a short-seller in New York which accused the group of fraud last year. The second came on November 20th, when federal prosecutors in New York filed a 54-page indictment against Gautam Adani, chairman of the group and one of India’s richest men, along with his nephew, Sagar Adani, and six others. The prosecutors allege that “senior executives and directors” engaged in a scheme “to pay over $250m in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” according to Lisa Miller, the deputy assistant attorney-general for the case. More

WHEN SAM ALTMAN, boss of OpenAI, posted a gnomic tweet this month saying “There is no wall,” his followers on X, a social-media site, had a blast. “Trump will build it,” said one. “No paywall for ChatGPT?” quipped another. It has since morphed from an in-joke among nerds into a serious business matter. More

Hyundai Motor’s newest all-electric vehicle is the 2026 Ioniq 9 SUV – a three-row, up to seven-passenger SUV for the U.S. market.
The new vehicle is Hyundai’s largest EV entry to date, joining the smaller Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 all-electric vehicles in the carmaker’s growing fleet.
The Ioniq 9 is expected to arrive in U.S. dealerships in the spring.

2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 EV.

Hyundai Motor’s newest all-electric vehicle is the 2026 Ioniq 9 SUV — a three-row, up to seven-passenger SUV for the U.S. market.
The new vehicle is Hyundai’s largest EV entry to date, joining the smaller Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 all-electric vehicles in the carmaker’s growing fleet.

The Ioniq 9 is expected to arrive in U.S. dealerships in the spring. Hyundai said the vehicle will be capable of fast charging from 10% to 80% in 24 minutes, will have an estimated range of 335 miles on a single charge and will be able to achieve 0 to 60 miles per hour in as fast as 4.9 seconds.
Hyundai declined to disclose pricing for the new SUV until closer to its arrival in showrooms. The Kia EV9, from Hyundai’s sister brand and which is based on the same vehicle platform, currently starts at around $55,000.

2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 EV.

The Ioniq 9 features a notably different exterior design compared to the Kia EV9 and to its smaller Hyundai EV siblings.
Despite slower-than-expected adoption of EVs, Hyundai has stuck to its previously announced plans to offer a full range of EVs for the U.S., including a portfolio of 23 EV models by 2030.
Hyundai, including Kia, sold the second-highest volume of EVs in the U.S. through the third quarter of this year, trailing only domestic EV leader Tesla. Kia and Hyundai are owned by the same parent company but largely operate separately in the U.S.

The Ioniq 9 is expected to go on sale in Korea and the U.S. in the first half of 2025, with a rollout in Europe and other markets planned later.
The vehicle will be produced at a new multibillion-dollar plant in Georgia.

2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 EV.

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McDonald’s is working on a new “McValue” approach for next year that involves keeping a $5 value meal offer on the menu for the first half of the year, along with introducing a “buy one add one” option, CNBC has learned.
While operators are still voting on the value offerings, the initiative looks likely to pass, two people familiar with the matter said.
In its most recent quarter, McDonald’s reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations, but saw its same-store sales fall globally by 1.5%.

A McDonald’s is seen in the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City, on Oct. 23, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

McDonald’s is preparing 2025 value offerings in a bid to hang onto customers who are fed up with high costs at restaurants.
The company is working on a new “McValue” approach for next year that involves keeping the $5 value meal offer it launched this summer on the menu for the first half of the year, along with introducing a “buy one add one” option for $1 more, CNBC has learned. The “buy one add one” offer includes a double cheeseburger; McChicken sandwich; 6 piece chicken nuggets and small fry; or breakfast options of a Sausage McMuffin, sausage biscuit or sausage burrito and a hash brown, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Local value offerings have been on menus across the country and in the app as of late, including 10 piece nuggets for $1, among other deals, as a part of the broader value strategy.
While operators are still voting on the 2025 value offerings, the initiative looks likely to pass, two people familiar with the matter said.
In a statement to CNBC, McDonald’s said, “We and our franchisees have heard customers loud and clear when it comes to keeping prices as affordable as possible. From the popular $5 Meal Deal, to numerous local and in-App offers on the food they love – we went big on value this summer and fall, bringing fans even more ways to save when they visit McDonald’s. And as we look to 2025, we’re cooking up something even bigger. We can’t wait to share what’s in store.”
In its most recent quarter, McDonald’s reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations, but saw its same-store sales fall globally by 1.5%. Sales rose 0.3% in the U.S., slightly weaker than anticipated by analysts.
On the earnings call, executives said they were working to solidify a 2025 value platform to launch in the first quarter of the year.

“You need, at the foundation, to have a strong value proposition. And that’s been the focus for us in a number of our markets, either strengthening, adding to, adjusting our value programs so we have that good foundation,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said on a call with analysts.
“You need to then overlay on top of that food news that can excite the customer, and you have to have great marketing behind it. And when you do that with news and great marketing, you can get strong full margin check that goes along with some of those value programs,” he said.
But a recent outbreak of E. coli tied to McDonald’s slivered onions dented traffic in October, executives said, which will fall into the fourth-quarter earnings cycle.
The fast-food giant will invest more than $100 million to boost restaurant sales and speed up the recovery at affected franchisees, CNBC reported Friday.
Of that total, $65 million will be invested into supporting owners who have lost business, targeting those in the hardest-hit states. Approximately $35 million will be invested in traffic-driving programs, including marketing efforts, according to a memo to owners and employees viewed by CNBC. 

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