Business

Lego posted a 12% jump in revenue during the first half of 2025, reaching $5.4 billion.
The company added a record 314 new sets during that period.
Lego opened 24 new stores globally during the first six months of the year.

Icons Tiny Plants by Lego.
James Manning – Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images

Flowers, succulents and Formula One race cars helped fuel a 12% revenue bump for Lego during the first half of the year.
The company reported a record 34.6 billion Danish kroner, or $5.4 billion, in revenue as part of its biannual earnings report on Wednesday. Operating profit rose 10% year over year to 9 billion Danish kroner, or $1.4 billion, the company said.

“It’s the best first half ever,” Lego CEO Niels Christiansen told CNBC. “It’s a record on revenue, a record on operating profit, it’s a record on net profit. … So, we are very happy.”
The brick maker launched 314 new sets during the first six months of the year, another record high. Lego has steadily added new product to its portfolio, branching out into home decor with wall art sets. It has also added new license partners and released sets tied to animated children’s program “Bluey” and fan-favorite anime “One Piece.”
Up next is a multiyear partnership with Pokemon, due to hit shelves in 2026.
“You can always find something that you really like, the pop culture you’re into or the passion point you have,” Christiansen said. “That works really well.”
In expanding its catalog of product, Lego has also grown its consumer base. Gateways into the brand such as its line of botanicals — plants, flower bouquets and succulents — and its ongoing partnership with Epic Games — which brings Lego to the digital space and elements from the popular video game Fortnite into the physical world — have encouraged newcomers into the brick-building space, Christiansen said.

“Then they figure out what it is and what it does for them, how it kind of allows them to express themselves, but also de-stress and focus on stuff in a different way,” he said. “So botanicals sets turn out to be good at recruiting new consumers into the brand, and then as soon as they build their botanical set, they may move on to building something else.”
Lego opened 24 new stores globally during the first six months of the year. The company has been opening more physical retail locations in areas that, unlike the U.K. and the U.S., did not grow up with the iconic colored bricks. This includes countries such as China and India.
Having brick-and-mortar places where kids and adults can get their hands on Legos and see the available sets has previously helped bolster sales.

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he was withdrawing an additional $175 million from California’s high-speed rail project.
The move comes after Duffy pulled $4 billion in federal grants for the project in July.
The state of California then sued the government for action, calling it illegal.

NASA administrator Sean Duffy visits the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Control Building at the Kennedy Space Center for Space Launch Complex 39A before the NASA and SpaceX Launch Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station on July 31, 2025 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Getty Images

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pulled $175 million from California’s high-speed rail project on Tuesday, just a month after canceling $4 billion in federal grants.
Duffy cited four projects related to the broader California high-speed rail initiative that would lose funding, including track extensions, grade separations, design work and the construction of a rail station in Madera. Duffy said the full project has thus far incurred $15 billion in costs, calling it a “boondoggle.”

“In twenty years, California has not been able to lay a single track of high-speed rail,” Duffy said in a statement. “The waste ends here. As of today, the American people are done investing in California’s failed experiment. Instead, my Department will focus on making travel great again by investing in well-managed projects that can make projects like high-speed rail a reality.” 

An aerial image shows construction workers building the Hanford Viaduct over Highway 198 and past agricultural fields as part of the California High Speed Rail (CAHSR) transit project in Hanford, California, on February 12, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

In a statement to CNBC, the California High-Speed Rail Authority said the group moved this week to purchase track components to work toward completion of the high-speed rail within the next year.
“This is a continuation of the Trump Administration’s illegal, politically motivated, and baseless attack on California High-Speed Rail and Central Valley communities,” a spokesperson said. “The facts are clear: California is delivering the only true high-speed system under construction in North America.”
Duffy also directed the Federal Railroad Administration on Tuesday to review all obligated grants for the project.
In July, the administration canceled all of the railroad group’s federal funding following an FRA report that found “serious concerns” with the project’s viability, including an alleged inability to complete the project by its deadline and claims of breached terms of its contract.

California filed to sue the Department of Transportation in July for its “illegal” action. In an op-ed in The Sacramento Bee, Duffy replied by writing that California Gov. Gavin Newsom “has no clue what functional government looks like.”
The project was originally envisioned after a state ballot measure passed in 2008 with the goal of connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours, but it was later cut down to serve a shorter 170-mile stretch between Merced and Bakersfield.
According to the FRA, the current iteration of the plan was projected to cost around $22 billion with an estimated end date of 2033.
The railroad system previously told CNBC that most of its funding is provided by the state, not the government. More

Having once described Joe Biden’s electric-vehicle (EV) policies as “lunacy”, Donald Trump briefly seemed to be softening his opposition when he bought himself a Tesla in March. It was his way of helping Elon Musk, the carmaker’s boss and Mr Trump’s one-time pal. Yet after the pair fell out spectacularly a few months later, Mr Trump put his Tesla up for sale. More

Rent growth in the student housing sector slowed to just 0.9% in July across 200 colleges surveyed by Yardi.
Robert Bronstein, founder and CEO of Scion, said the lower end of the student housing market is going back to the more historic, cheaper rental homes on the outskirts of campuses.
Students, he said, are increasingly serious about their living spaces and prefer co-working spaces and remote interview rooms over golf simulators and movie theaters, which were all the rage a decade ago. High-end amenities, he said, no longer drive occupancy.

Annex, a Scion community in Oxford, Ohio, that serves students of Miami University.
Courtesy of Scion

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Consumers are increasingly concerned about the state of the economy, and that is affecting yet another real estate sector — student housing. 

Rent growth in the sector slowed to just 0.9% in July across 200 colleges surveyed by Yardi. The average advertised asking rent fell to $905 per bed, a 1.4% decrease from the $918 peak in March “as operators struggle to lease remaining inventory,” according to the Yardi report.
For perspective, from October through July, rent growth averaged 2.8%, less than half the 5.7% recorded during the same period a year earlier and well below the 6.9% seen a year before that.  
“What we’re seeing is fall-off at the top and the bottom,” said Robert Bronstein, founder and CEO of Scion, one of the country’s largest owners and operators of student housing.
Scion owns roughly 95,000 beds across 83 schools in 35 states, with over $10 billion in assets under management. 
Bronstein said the lower end of the market, that is, students and parents who were struggling most to afford student housing, is now going back to the more historic, cheaper rental homes on the outskirts of campuses. Higher-end students and parents are also changing course. 

“I think that people are saying, ‘You know what, there’s a building that’s three years old, and it costs 30% less than a brand new building, and I wasn’t going to use the hot tub on the roof anyhow. I’m going to go with the less expensive option,'” said Bronstein. 

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Students, he said, are increasingly serious about their living spaces and prefer co-working spaces and remote interview rooms over golf simulators and movie theaters, which were all the rage a decade ago. High-end amenities, he said, no longer drive occupancy. Cost savings are now paramount.
Scion plays in the middle market, acquiring properties mostly at large schools, including the University of Florida, University of Alabama, University of Oklahoma, and University of Mississippi, as well as Texas A&M and Clemson University. 
“We were very active last year. We’re very active this year. This may turn out to be the most active year,” said Bronstein.
He said that after Covid, there’s been a shift in investment toward large, flagship public universities — and it’s accelerating. 
“The top-tier, 40, 50, 60,000-student flagship public schools, they’re posting year after year after year of record enrollment growth. They’re not even coming close to being able to satisfy the housing needs that exist in these markets,” said Bronstein, adding that they are also taking market share from smaller public universities and private schools. 
“I don’t think you can be bullish enough about Madison, Wisconsin, or in Ann Arbor, Michigan, or in Athens, Georgia, or Gainesville, Florida,” he said.
Going big, he said, also gives Scion an acquisition advantage in today’s high-interest-rate environment.
“We’re looking at it like, OK, this is a market we want to be in. We’re not going to be in it with 300 beds. We’re going to be in it with three or four assets and several thousand beds and have real operating leverage,” said Bronstein.
Bronstein said he’s bullish because there’s been a drop-off in new development due to higher costs for construction and capital. That will increase the value of Scion’s existing assets.
In its 2025 student housing outlook report, commercial real estate lender Walker and Dunlop predicted a “dynamic” year for the sector.
“After a period of slowed transaction volume due to macroeconomic headwinds, the market is rebounding as interest rates stabilize, institutional capital builds conviction, and enrollment at major universities continues to rise,” according to the report.
It noted that the Southeastern Conference remains the most active conference for student housing investment, with the Big Ten conference gaining momentum as larger schools see record enrollment growth.
It also highlighted the same shift away from higher-cost buildings stacked with bells and whistles that Bronstein noted. 
“While luxury amenities once defined the sector, the latest trend is a shift toward functionality, convenience, and affordability,” the report said.  More

Uncertainty around tariffs has caused even the wealthiest buyers of Lamborghini supercars to hold off on their purchases, CEO Stephan Winkelmann told CNBC.
Wherever the final tariff rate settles, however, Winkelmann said the levies will have some impact on the company’s business. He said Lamborghinis can’t be produced in the U.S., since the “made in Italy” promise is core to the brand.
For now, the company is fairly insulated from any immediate drop-off in demand, since it has a large back order.

Uncertainty around tariffs has caused even the wealthiest buyers of Lamborghini supercars to hold off on their purchases, CEO Stephan Winkelmann told CNBC.
While the White House recently announced an agreement with Europe on a 15% tariff rate, that rate hasn’t yet taken effect for cars. Lamborghini and other European automakers are still paying a tariff rate of 27.5% on exports to the U.S. With the price of a Lamborghini starting at $400,000, many buyers are choosing to wait for more stable tariff rates before buying, Winkelmann said.

“Some are waiting because they want to be sure that this is the final number that is going to be in place,” Winkelmann said. “Others are fine with it, or we will have negotiations.”

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Wherever the final tariff rate settles, however, Winkelmann said the levies will have some impact on the company’s business. He said Lamborghinis can’t be produced in the U.S., since the “made in Italy” promise is core to the brand. And he said that even the wealthy are sensitive to price increases.
“They are millionaires or billionaires for a reason, so they know what they’re doing and why they’re doing things,” he said. “For us, free trade is the right approach. We all know that is what we want. But then there is the reality, and we have to deal with complexity, since we are in business. … We are ready to face whatever comes.”
For now, the company is fairly insulated from any immediate drop-off in demand, since it has a large back order. Cars being delivered today were ordered a year or two ago. Lamborghini announced this summer to dealers that prices would increase by 7% for the Temerario and Urus models and 10% for the Revuelto.
The company, owned by Volkswagen’s Audi Group, is also riding high from a wave of new models. It reported record revenue in 2024 of more than 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) and deliveries of 10,867 cars. It’s launched three new models since 2023, all plug-in hybrids: the 8-cylinder Temerario, which replaces the Huracan; the 12-cylinder Revuelto, which replaces the Aventador; and the Urus SE, a hybrid SUV.

For an upcoming fourth model, Lamborghini had announced an all-electric grand touring car to debut sometime in 2028. But Winkelmann said with EV demand slowing, the company is considering releasing it as a hybrid instead and will decide by the end of the year.
“There is a flattening in the acceptance of electric cars, not only at the high end and exclusive supercars, but also in the general market,” he said. “So the trend is going to be delayed in general, and we have to decide. For a car like Lamborghini, it’s not important to be the first one to show a new technology, but to be there when it’s accepted and to have the best technology at that time.”
Last week at Monterey Car Week, Lamborghini unveiled a new limited-production supercar called the Fenomeno. It’s the fastest and most powerful Lambo yet, boasting 1,080 horsepower and 0 to 60 in 2.4 seconds thanks to a 6.5-liter, V-12 engine paired with three electric motors.
Lamborghini will make only 29 Fenomenos, which are part of what Winkelmann calls the “few-offs” strategy of super-rare, hyper-performance versions of its current lineup for top clients.
Also helping the company: a surge in wealth around the world that’s becoming younger and more diverse. Lamborghini owners have an average of five cars in their garage, and owners of the higher-priced Lambos have an average of 10 cars. The average age of the Lamborghini buyer now is under 45, and in Asia it’s under 30, he said.
“There are a lot of countries where we have very young customers,” he said. “We have the second generation of wealth. But we also have a very young customer base of entrepreneurs who made their money themselves.”
Relative to the growth in global wealth, however, Lamborghini’s production has remained small. And while the U.S. is still its largest market, Lamborghini carefully manages supply in every country to make sure the brand remains exclusive and special, Winkelmann said.
“We will always look to make sure we do not crowd one market, and to have always a global view where we are selling the cars,” he said.
Women, he said, will also be a key driver. The Urus has welcomed more women buyers to the brand, and Lamborghini is holding more women-focused events, like the “She Drives a Lambo” driving gatherings.
“We have always been a very male-driven brand, very attractive to males with the design and performance,” Winkelmann said. “But on the other side, we are seeing that with the Urus, we have a lot more women stepping into the brand and having confidence with the brand.” More

Frontier Airlines is going after customers who could fly on shaky budget rival Spirit Airline with 20 new routes in major Spirit markets.
CEO Barry Biffle said he’s positioning the airline to become the top budget carrier in the U.S.
Frontier has failed to acquire budget rival Spirit despite several attempts since 2022.

A Frontier Airlines plane near a Spirit Airlines plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 16, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Frontier Airlines is going after customers of Spirit Airlines, whose financial footing has gotten so shaky in recent weeks that it warned earlier this month it might not be able to survive another year without more cash.
Frontier on Tuesday announced 20 routes it plans to start this winter, many of them in major Spirit markets like its base at Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida. Frontier overlaps with Spirit on 35% of its capacity, more than any other airline, according to a Monday note from Deutsche Bank airline analyst Michael Linenberg.

Some of Frontier’s new routes from Fort Lauderdale include flights to Detroit, Houston, Chicago, and Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s also rolling out routes from Houston to New Orleans; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Guatemala City.
Frontier had tried and failed to merge with its budget-airline rival several times since 2022.
“I’m not here to talk about M&A,” Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday when asked whether Frontier would buy Spirit. Biffle said he expects that Frontier would pick up the majority of Spirit’s market share if Spirit collapsed.

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Both carriers have struggled from changing customer tastes for more upmarket seats and trips abroad, an oversupply of domestic capacity, and higher labor and other costs. Spirit’s situation has become more dire however, after it emerged from four months of bankruptcy protection in March facing many of the same problems.
Ultra-low cost airlines are also challenged by larger rivals like United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines that have rolled out their own no-frills basic economy tickets but also offer customers bigger choices of destinations and other perks on board like snacks and beverages.

Stock prices of rival airlines surged after Spirit’s warning earlier this month.
Biffle said the carrier wants to become the country’s largest budget airline and has rolled out loyalty matching programs to grab more customers. Frontier’s capacity was slightly smaller than Spirit’s in the second quarter, through the latter had slashed its flying by nearly 24% from a year earlier, while Frontier was down only 2%.
Spirit last week said it drew down the entire $275 million of its revolver and while it reached a two-year extension on its credit card processing agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, it agreed that it would hold back up to $3 million a day from the carrier.
The airline lost $245.8 million in the second quarter. Frontier lost $70 million.
Spirit has been looking for ways to slash costs, including furloughing and demoting hundreds more pilots and cutting unprofitable routes. Hundreds of flight attendants are on unpaid leaves of absence.
Spirit CEO Dave Davis said in an Aug. 12 staff memo after its “going concern” warning that “the team and I are confident that we can build a Spirit that will continue to provide consumers the unmatched value that they have come to expect for many years to come.”
The carrier reached a deal with bondholders who agreed to convert debt to equity in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but it didn’t cut other costs like renegotiating aircraft leases. Leasing firms have been reaching out to rivals in recent weeks to gauge whether competitors would take any of the Airbus planes that are in Spirit’s hands, according to people familiar with the matter.
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report. More

Eli Lilly on Tuesday said its daily obesity pill succeeded in another late-stage trial, helping patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes lose weight and lower their blood sugar levels.
The company now has the full clinical trial data required to start filing for approvals of the drug for chronic weight management with global regulators.
The rate of side effects and treatment discontinuations in the study, called ATTAIN-2, appeared to be generally consistent with two recent phase three trials on the pill, called orforglipron.

Eli Lilly Biotechnology Center is shown in San Diego, California, U.S. March 1, 2023.
Mike Blake | Reuters

Eli Lilly on Tuesday said its daily weight loss pill helped patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes shed weight in a late-stage trial, meeting the study’s main goal and clearing the way for the company to file for approval of the drug globally. 
The treatment is inching closer to becoming a new, needle-free alternative in the highly lucrative market for weight loss and diabetes drugs called GLP-1s. More convenient pills could boost supply for the treatments and make them easier to access than the pricey weekly injections currently dominating the space. The Eli Lilly pill also would not come with dietary restrictions, in contrast to a similar oral treatment from chief rival Novo Nordisk.

Eli Lilly shares climbed about 3% in premarket trading Tuesday.
The highest dose of the pill, orforglipron, helped patients lose 10.5% of their weight, or 22.9 pounds, on average at 72 weeks, compared to 2.2% weight loss among those who took a placebo. The drug’s weight loss in the study was 9.6% when analyzing all patients regardless of discontinuations.     
Eli Lilly’s pill met the trial’s other goals of helping patients lower their hemoglobin A1c, a measure of blood sugar levels. By the end of the study, most patients no longer met the criteria for Type 2 diabetes based on that metric. The rate of side effects and treatment discontinuations in the study, called ATTAIN-2, appeared to be generally consistent with two recent phase three trials on Eli Lilly’s drug.
Eli Lilly said it now has the full clinical trial data package required to file for approvals of the drug for chronic weight management with global regulators. The pharmaceutical giant expects to launch the pill around the world “this time next year,” CEO David Ricks told CNBC in early August. 
In an interview, Eli Lilly’s Chief Scientific Officer Daniel Skovronsky, said the pill had “unprecedented efficacy” in patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, who typically have a more difficult time losing weight compared to those without diabetes. Skovronsky said he hopes that diabetes patients will be able to use the pill earlier in their disease to slow down its progression. 

Existing GLP-1 injections have shown greater weight loss than Eli Lilly’s pill, but having an oral option that offers more than 10% for patients with both obesity and Type 2 diabetes is “actually very good, so that’s positive,” said Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
But she called it “concerning” that more patients – 10.6% of those on the highest dose – stopped taking the pill due to side effects compared with what has been seen in separate studies on the existing injections, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Apovian said patients and their prescribers will have to weigh the risks and benefits of the pill and the injections when deciding which to take, including convenience, side effects and efficacy. 
The side effects of Eli Lilly’s pill were mainly gastrointestinal, such as nausea and vomiting, and were mild to moderate in severity. An estimated 23.1% of those who took the highest dose experienced vomiting, while 36.4% and 27.4% had nausea and diarrhea, respectively.
Around 20% of patients stopped taking the pill for any reason, which is roughly the same rate as the placebo group. Skovronsky said that reflects a combination of reasons apart from side effects. Those can include patients who wanted to stop participating in a trial because they were able to access another obesity medication, or those who didn’t lose enough weight because they were taking a lower dose of the drug.
But he said most patients stay on the drug, and said “the most important thing here is the scale of the opportunity,” referring to the number of people around the world could benefit from orforglipron. More than 100 million adults in the U.S. alone have obesity, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Apovian said she’s most excited about an oral option entering the market not because of how much weight loss it can promote, but rather its potential to expand access to obesity treatments, especially since a pill is much easier to manufacture than an injection. Apovian hopes Eli Lilly’s pill will be priced lower than injections — which cost roughly $1,000 per month before insurance — and receive broader insurance coverage.
Tuesday’s results are the third set of late-stage data the company has released on orforglipron this year. In April, the pill succeeded in a shorter phase three trial on diabetes patients without obesity.
Earlier this month, the drug also met the goals of a separate study on patients with obesity and not diabetes, but fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. The pill’s weight loss was higher in that trial compared to Tuesday’s data, but “that’s expected,” given the differences in patient populations, said Dr. Jaime Almandoz, medical director of the Weight Wellness Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center. 
Overall, some doctors have touted the pill’s weight loss in the trials, and some analysts say it will still be a viable competitor in the space due to factors such as its easier manufacturing and lack of dietary restrictions. 
“The convenience and specifically the lack of fasting requirements and water restrictions with orforglipron is likely one of the main differentiators when people think about other oral agents with similar effectiveness for weight change and A1C levels,” said Almandoz.
He said a pill creates additional opportunities for individualized patient care “where there’s more autonomy.” For example, some people may be hesitant to take injections for weight loss.

Detailed trial data

The trial followed more than 1,600 people, who were randomized to receive three different target doses of Eli Lilly’s pill or a placebo. Patients started at a lower dose of the drug and gradually increased it at four-week intervals to reach their final target dose. 
More than 50% of patients on the highest dose of Eli Lilly’s treatment lost at least 10% of their weight in the trial, while 28.4% of those participants lost at least 15%. Across the different groups, the company did not disclose how many patients lost at least 5% of their weight. 
Orforglipron “may not be the answer” for patients who are morbidly overweight, said Howard Weintraub, clinical director of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Heart. But he said, “for a lot of people who need to lose a fair amount of weight, losing 10% can make a big diference.”
Orforglipron lowered A1C by an average of 1.3% to 1.8% across different doses at 72 weeks, from a starting level of 8.1%. Around 75% of participants taking the highest dose achieved an A1C of 6.5% or less, which is at or below what the American Diabetes Association defines as diabetes. 
Eli Lilly’s pill also improved key cardiovascular risk factors.
“We now have study after study with GLP-1 agonists showing that they reduce very important outcomes, which is what I do every day as a preventive cardiologist,” Weintraub said. “I try my very best to prevent them from having heart attack, stroke and death.”
Eli Lilly’s pill works in a similar way to Wegovy, Ozempic and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes pill Rybelsus, targeting a gut hormone called GLP-1 to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar. Novo Nordisk is also seeking approval of an oral version of Wegovy, which could come by year-end.
But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication. That means it is absorbed more easily by the body and does not require dietary restrictions like Rybelsus or oral Wegovy does. More

Billie Jean King made history with her work to advance women’s rights, and she still sees opportunities to continue that in sports and beyond.
The tennis legend sat down with CNBC’s Alex Sherman for a wide-ranging interview on the state of women’s sports, uniting tennis across men’s and women’s leagues and her perspective on aging gracefully.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King has been a fearless advocate for women’s rights and women in sports since early in her career, but she said there’s still work to do.
King made history in 1973 when she defeated top tennis player Bobby Riggs in the famous “Battle of the Sexes” match. Over 90 million people worldwide tuned into the match, according to BJK’s official website. It is the basis for the 2017 movie of the same name starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell.

Building on her strides for women in sports, King helped found the Women’s Tennis Association and became its first president. She also lobbied for equal prize money for men and women at the U.S. Open, making it the first major tournament to offer equal prize money across sexes.
As the 2025 U.S. Open descends on New York City, King sat down with CNBC’s Alex Sherman for a wide-ranging interview on the state of women’s sports, uniting tennis across men’s and women’s leagues and her perspective on aging gracefully.

Leveling the playing field

Growing up, King said her father believed in her just as much as he did in her younger brother. She said the way that men use their power is a key part of the fight for women’s rights.
“We’re taught not to ask for what we want and need. We are totally taught not to do that,” she said.
But King recounted examples of how women have brought about real, tangible changes in the industry when they speak up.

When David Stern was commissioner of the NBA, King had been sitting with him in the president’s box at the U.S. Open. After working up the courage, she said she asked Stern to promise he wouldn’t let the WNBA fail. He agreed and secured the financial backing to get the league on solid footing.
Similarly, King said hockey legend Kendall Coyne Schofield came to her and her wife, Ilana Kloss, to recruit their help in starting the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which had its first game in 2024.
“I looked at her, I said, ‘You have no idea how brave you are, because most girls don’t have the guts to even ask.’ But now we have a league because she asked. Kendall asked the question,” King said.
King said the male and female tennis players have been working together more and more over the years. But her goal to unite the two leagues — the ATP and the WTA — is still a work in progress.
“That’s my prayer for the future,” she said.

Aging gracefully

To King, aging just means more opportunity.
She said she and her wife try to play tennis together three times per week.
“I’ve read research, you can live almost — especially with tennis, it’s the healthiest sport in the world — that I can live almost 10 years extra, and that’s what I want,” she said.
And while pickleball has seen a huge boost in popularity over the past few years, especially among older populations, King said she’s sticking with tennis.
“I’ve played it a couple of times, but I don’t love the sound,” she said. “As long as I can play tennis, that’s where the magic is for me, when the ball hits the strings.” More