There are at least three other Canadian cities Khan is considering for live events: Winnipeg, the home of former AEW world champions Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega; the promoter also organizes the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, making Calgary a natural choice; and Vancouver, where tag-team specialist Kyle O’Reilly is billed from.
“We have a lot of great Canadian wrestlers and I’m excited about the possibility of our live events here because we’ve had great success on TV here,” said Khan, who was an invited speaker at Collision, a tech conference in downtown Toronto that runs until Thursday.
Khan acknowledged that Canada, with its plethora of hockey arenas, is well suited to hosting pro wrestling events. Choosing those specific venues would come down to a handful of key factors.
“Most important thing is quality of the arena for the fans and the wrestlers and the staff, and then followed by the size for the opportunity to create revenue,” said Khan, adding that the logistics of shooting live television would also affect his decision.
All Elite Wrestling was founded in 2019 by Khan and his father Shahid Khan, who are also co-owners of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC of the English Premier League. AEW produces two weekly television programs for Turner networks in the United States, with Dynamite — its flagship show — available in Canada on TSN.
Digital media is at the heart of AEW’s business model, with two shows exclusively on YouTube. Khan said that those properties are helpful for expanding beyond the United States, since YouTube, podcasts, and wrestler vlogs can be accessed worldwide.
“It’s been a huge part of our growth. I don’t think it was possible to launch AEW without the TV deal being originally in place at the time and that wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t had the online experience,” said Khan, who noted he had been involved in online wrestling communities since the mid-1990s.
“The more ways you can make your shows and wrestlers available to fans and create awareness of the product, that’s a good thing. For the hardcore fans, there’s tons of demand for more content than even what we already provide, which is a lot.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2022.
Fina, swimming’s world governing body, has voted to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.
The new policy requires transgender competitors to have completed their transition by the age of 12 in order to be able to compete in women’s competitions.
Fina will also aim to establish an ‘open’ category at competitions for swimmers whose gender identity is different than their birth sex.
The new policy, which was passed with 71% of the vote from 152 Fina members, was described as “only a first step towards full inclusion” for transgender athletes.
The decision was made during an extraordinary general congress at the ongoing World Championships in Budapest.
Earlier Fina members heard a report from a transgender task force made up of leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport.
“Fina’s approach in drafting this policy was comprehensive, science-based and inclusive, and, importantly, Fina’s approach emphasised competitive fairness,” said Brent Nowicki, the governing body’s executive director.
Fina president Husain Al-Musallam said the organisation was trying to “protect the rights of our athletes to compete” but also “protect competitive fairness”.
He said: “Fina will always welcome every athlete. The creation of an open category will mean that everybody has the opportunity to compete at an elite level. This has not been done before, so Fina will need to lead the way. I want all athletes to feel included in being able to develop ideas during this process.”
Former Great Britain swimmer Sharron Davies, who has argued against transgender participation in women’s elite swimming, said she was “proud” of her sport and Fina.
She thanked Fina “for doing the science, asking the athletes/coaches and standing up for fair sport for females”. She added: “Swimming will always welcome everyone no matter how you identify but fairness is the cornerstone of sport.”
However, ‘Athlete Ally’ – an LGBT advocacy group which organised a letter of support for transgender American swimmer Lia Thomas in February, called the new policy “discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles”.
“If we truly want to protect women’s sports, we must include all women,”the group’s tweet said.
Swimming follows cycling in rule change
Fina’s decision follows a move on Thursday by the UCI, cycling’s governing body, to double the period of time before a rider transitioning from male to female can compete in women’s races.
The issue in swimming has been catapulted into the spotlight by the experiences of American Thomas.
In March, Thomas became the first known transgender swimmer to win the highest US national college title with victory in the women’s 500-yard freestyle.
Thomas swam for the Pennsylvanian men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in spring 2019.
She has since broken records for her university swimming team.
More than 300 college, Team USA and Olympic swimmers signed an open letter in support of Thomas and all transgender and non-binary swimmers, but other athletes and organisations have raised concerns about trans inclusion.
Some of Thomas’ team-mates and their parents wrote anonymous letters supporting her right to transition, but added it was unfair for her to compete as a woman.
USA Swimming updated its policy for elite swimmers in February to allow transgender athletes to swim in elite events, alongside criteria that aim to reduce any unfair advantage, including testosterone tests for 36 months before competitions.
Last year, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand became the the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in a different sex category to that in which they were born.
What did the panel of experts say?
Dr Michael Joyner, a physiologist and leading expert in human performance
“Testosterone in male puberty alters the physiological determinants of human performance and explains the sex-based differences in human performance, considered clearly evident by age 12.
“Even if testosterone is suppressed, its performance enhancing effects will be retained.”
Dr Adrian Jjuuko, an activist, researcher and lawyer
“The policy emphasises that no athlete is excluded from Fina competition or setting Fina records based on their legal gender, gender identity or gender expression.
“[The proposed open category] should not become a category that adds to the already existing levels of discrimination and marginalisation against these groups.
“I see this policy as only the first step towards full inclusion and support for the participation of transgender and gender-diverse athletes in aquatic sports, and there is a lot more to be done.”
Dr Sandra Hunter, an exercise physiologist specialising in sex and age differences in athletic performance
“By 14 years or older, the difference between boys and girls is substantial. That’s due to the advantages experienced due to the physiological adaptations in testosterone and the possession of the Y chromosome.
“Some of these physical advantages are structural in origin such as height, limb length, heart size, lung size and they will be retained, even with the suppression or reduction of testosterone that occurs in the transition from male to female.”
Summer Sanders, former Olympic and world champion in swimming
“This is not easy. There must be categories – women’s, men’s and of course a category for trans women and trans men.
“Fair competition is a stronghold and staple of our community – this approach safeguards the integrity of the existing sports process in which millions of girls and women participate annually.”
One of sport’s biggest debates
The conversation around the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sport has divided opinion both inside and outside the sporting sphere.
Many argue transgender women should not compete in women’s sport because of any advantages they may retain – but others argue sport should be more inclusive.
World Athletics president Lord Coe has said the “integrity” and “future” of women’s sport would be “very fragile” if sporting organisations get regulations for transgender athletes wrong.
The heart of the debate on whether transgender women athletes should compete in women’s sport involves the complex balance of inclusion, sporting fairness and safety – essentially, whether trans women can compete in female categories without giving them an unfair advantage or presenting a threat of injury to competitors.
Trans women have to adhere to a number of rules to compete in specific sports, including in many cases lowering their testosterone levels to a certain amount, for a set period of time, before competing.
There are concerns, however, as highlighted in Fina’s decision, that athletes retain an advantage from going through male puberty that is not addressed by lowering testosterone.
Trans women are no longer able to compete in elite female events run by British Cycling after the organisation performed a significant U-turn and suspended its transgender policy.
The Guardian understands that the decision was taken by British Cycling’s board of directors after numerous members – and voices within the sport – raised concerns that trans women such as Emily Bridges, who broke the national junior 25-mile record as a male before transitioning, would have an unfair advantage in the female category.
British Cycling also acknowledged there were “concerns” that its transgender policy – which was only ratified in January – did not match the guidance from the Sports Council Equality Group (SCEG), which was based on an 18-month review of the science.
However Bridges’s mother, Sandy Sullivan, quickly expressed her frustration, tweeting: “Dumped by email. We’ve just received this in our inbox. We will be making a statement at some point during the next 24 hrs.” Under British Cycling’s previous policy, trans women were allowed to compete if they reduced their testosterone levels below 5 nmol/L for a 12-month period.
However, the emergence of Bridges, who began hormone therapy last year as part of her gender dysphoria treatment, and raced in men’s events until February, has led to a hasty rethink.
The 21-year-old was due to compete in her first race in the female category at the British National Omnium Championships last Saturday, before cycling’s governing body, the UCI, blocked her as she was still registered as a male athlete for international competitions.
Emily Bridges had been due to take part in her first race in the female category at a national omnium event last Saturday, but the UCI blocked her from competing. Photograph: Andy Jones
The UCI’s decision came as some riders in the event considered a boycott in protest at Bridges’s advantages. However until Friday she was still able to compete in domestic events, before British Cycling suspended its transgender policy, pending a review.
In a statement, the governing body said: “Due to the difference in the policies held by British Cycling and the UCI relating to the licensing process, it is currently possible for trans-female athletes to gain eligibility to race domestically while their cases remain pending with the UCI (or indeed in situations where they are deemed ineligible).
“This in turn allows those riders to accrue domestic ranking points which impact selection decisions for National Championship races, which is not only unprecedented in our sport, but is also unfair on all women riders and poses a challenge to the integrity of racing. We also understand that there are concerns regarding the extent to which our current policy appropriately reflects the Sports Council Equality Group guidance, published in September 2021.”
That SCEG guidance concluded that “testosterone suppression is unlikely to guarantee fairness between transgender women and natal females in gender-affected sports”.
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It also states that there are “retained differences in strength, stamina and physique between the average woman compared with the average transgender woman or non-binary person registered male at birth”. Earlier this week British Cycling’s head of Olympic programmes, Sara Symington, co-signed a letter to the UCI criticising its current policy on transgender inclusion. The letter signatories claimed the UCI’s current rules do not guarantee female athletes fair and meaningful competition.
The prime minister Boris Johnson also intervened in the debate, saying that he didn’t believe “biological men should be competing in female sport events”.
In a statement British Cycling said it would conduct a full review of its policy “in the coming weeks”. It confirmed that transgender and non-binary athletes could still take part in non-competitive activities.
Fort Worth, a city with a historic reputation for horses and equestrian pursuits, is on a quest to secure one of the world’s leading equestrian events.
The City Council on March 29 authorized execution of an agreement with the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau (doing business as Visit Fort Worth) and the Split Rock Jumping Tour, LLC (SRJ) to pursue hosting the 2026 Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Cup Finals for Jumping and Dressage at Dickies Arena.
The official announcement of the host site won’t be made until June 1, said an optimistic Fort Worth Sports Commission Executive Director Jason Sands. With the exception of one year, the event has been hosted by a city in the United States or Europe every year since it began in 1979. It will also be outside those nations in 2024 when it goes to Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. last hosted in 2017 in Omaha, Nebraska, which is also hosting in 2023. Las Vegas was a recent host with one of the highest total attendances for the event, drawing 86,000 in 2007.
Fort Worth was encouraged by the FEI to make a bid to host following the success of the FEI World Cup Qualifier at Will Rogers Memorial Center in December.
“Booking this prestigious, international equestrian event would be a huge win for the city. We take great pride in our western culture and our great history of hosting equestrian events and being able to secure an event of this magnitude would be further proof that Fort Worth is a world class sports destination,” Sands said.
Sands noted that the city has hosted and is scheduled to host a wide range of high profile events, and he credits that to the city’s vision to build Dickies Arena. These events include music legend Paul McCartney coming to town in May for his first concert in Fort Worth since 1976; the recent first and second rounds of the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament; and many more.
“We’ve always known Fort Worth was a fantastic city, but we now have a spectacular venue that can host a variety of different events, and we are leveraging this new asset to bring in major events,” Sands said. “These events are driving millions of visitors’ dollars into our local economy and our city is thriving as a result.”
The 2019 event, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, was broadcast in 130 countries and generated 887 million impressions across all media platforms, according to a report from city staff. The estimated attendance and economic impact for the event, if held in Fort Worth, is 60,000 attendance and an estimated $21 million in direct spending.
The cost of hosting the event is currently estimated at $8.1 million, said Fort Worth Public Events Director Mike Crum.
“The host organization (SJR/Visit Fort Worth/City of Fort Worth) plans to recover that investment through a combination of revenues that include ticket sales, hospitality sales, and sponsorships,” he said.
City staff is forecasting $11.3 million in revenue and said the event must generate 72% of forecasted revenue to financially break even.
The city’s public events department provided the council with a financial breakdown:
The city will cover the initial host fee of $110,000, along with promotion/production expenses estimated at $900,000. This includes marketing, equine transport, stall setup, venue rent, etc.
Visit Fort Worth will cover additional expenses associated with promotion/production estimated at $500,000.
The city and Visit Fort Worth will be repaid from the Event Trust Fund, currently estimated at $1.6 million.
SJR will cover remaining event expenses.
The parties agreed to a three-way split of profit or loss, with the city’s share capped at $1 million profit or loss and Visit Fort Worth’s share capped at $500,000.
Mayor Mattie Parker said the invitation to bid is yet another exciting example of how Fort Worth is gaining international recognition.
“World-class events like the FEI showcase our outstanding Cultural District and its premier event venues, especially the state-of-the-art Dickies Arena, as well as Fort Worth’s strong reputation as a leading destination for equestrian events,” Parker said. “The FEI opportunity and the many other significant sporting events landing in Fort Worth are all examples of how our Fort Worth Sports Commission is propelling the sports tourism industry in this city.”
