After nearly two months of electric postseason play, the Stanley Cup Final has arrived with the Eastern Conference champ Florida Panthers battling the Western Conference–winning Edmonton Oilers in pursuit of Lord Stanley.

Sponsorship insight platform SponsorPulse recently published its Sport Team Sponsorship Value Guide, which estimates and ranks the value of NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and WNBA teams’ brand partnerships. While no WNBA team cracks the top 50, the report contains key insights about the league’s potential value.

Everything is bigger in Texas…even pickleball. This weekend, Dallas hosted the CIBC Texas Open, which included both amateurs and Professional Pickleball Association Tour pro players. Last Tuesday, The GIST spoke with Twisted Pickle — a Dallas-based pickleball marketing agency co-owned by Ashlee Erickson Blakley and Suzanne Greever — about the sport’s explosive growth.

We’re using the summer break to dive deeper into some of college sports’ most complex topics.

To celebrate the first Sunday of June, today’s scroll is all about the LGBTQIA+ sports community — from the trailblazers who bravely paved the way to the progress made so far. Plenty to celebrate, but lots of work still to be done.

Last week, Nike hosted its first-ever Coach The Dream event at its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The goal was to highlight the impact of coaching on the next generation of athletes and discuss how the sports ecosystem can evolve to keep kids in the game through conscientious coaching, which could lessen the gender gap in youth sports.

Yesterday, the NCAA Board of Governors and the Power Five conferences voted to settlement terms in House v. NCAA, the lawsuit claiming the NCAA’s pre–NIL ban on student-athlete compensation violated antitrust regulations. The settlement, if approved by the judge, will change college sports’ business model, creating industry-altering shockwaves.

Only four teams are left skating for the title of Stanley Cup champions: the NY Rangers and Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference and the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference. Let’s break it all down.

By tomorrow evening, the NCAA and the Power Four conferences will vote on whether to settle House v. NCAA, the ongoing lawsuit claiming the NCAA’s pre–NIL ban on student-athlete compensation violated antitrust regulations. A settlement would permanently change college sports’ business model, creating industry-altering shockwaves.

Last Thursday, Parity — a sponsorship platform that connects brands with women athletes — released a study in partnership with SurveyMonkey. The results contain the “most robust” data on women’s sports fans globally, Parity CEO Leela Srinivasan told The GIST.

Start searching for the broom because two teams are up 2-0 and on the brink of sweeping their best-of-five semis series.

Sorry to the aurora borealis, but the show stopping northern lights had nothing on the semis this weekend, with stunner after stunner in the East and West. Shine bright, shine far.