By Red Line Project
@redlineproject
The Chicago Stars FC Home Attendance Plummeted Despite Record-Breaking Year
The Chicago Stars FC regular-season home attendance dropped 31.6% in the past year, averaging 5,574 fans for the 2025 season, despite breaking the NWSL single-match attendance record.
This decline has shrank the Stars’ average regular season home attendance from 11th to 13th place, just slightly above Racing Louisville FC: a team founded in 2019.
The 2025 decline has also impacted the most of the league. The NWSL teams averaged 10,669 over 182 games, in 2025; a 5% drop from the previous record-breaking year. Yet, this issue has not impacted the top teams in the league, such as the Washington Spirit and San Diego Wave FC.
In an effort to combat the issue Chicago has decided to move from SeatGeek Stadium in the suburbs, to Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium, located on the shore of Lake Michigan, for the NWSL 2026 season. The Chicago Stars FC hope that this change will allow fans to attend home matches due to the easy access to public transportation that floods the stadium’s surroundings. Team officials say they are committed to marking a new era with a new stadium and the hiring of new international head coach, Martin Sjogren.
Prior to the relocation, the Stars had set a new NWSL single match attendance record on June 8, 2024 during their “Red Stars Take Over Wrigley Field” match against Bay FC. The match produced a total of 35,038 fans at Wrigley. The record was recently broken by a matchup between Bay FC and the Washington Spirit at Oracle Park, with 40,091 fans.
Unlike SeatGeek stadium, Wrigley is easy to access through public transportation. By relocating to the Evanston Northwestern Stadium for the 2026 season, the Stars hope to regain fans from the city and boost attendance. — Lizette Salto
LeBron James and the Race to 43,000: How the King Rewrote the NBA Scoring Record
For nearly 39 years, one number stood as the gold standard of NBA greatness: 38,387. That was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career points total, a record set in April 1984 and was considered by many to be untouchable.
On Feb. 7, 2023, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers proved them wrong. As of Feb. 26, 2026, James has 43,029 career points, putting him more than 4,600 ahead of Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time mark. The moment was witnessed by Abdul-Jabbar himself, who was sitting courtside at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The bar chart race above shows how the race among the NBA’s top eight all-time scorers has unfolded season by season since 1960. James passed Karl Malone (36,928 points) in March 2022 and Kobe Bryant (33,643 points) in January 2020 before setting his sights on Abdul-Jabbar. Since breaking the record, James has extended his lead by more than 12 percentage points. Michael Jordan, widely considered the greatest scorer at 30.1 points per game, finished his career with 32,292 points, more than 10,000 behind James.
What separates James is not just his scoring but his longevity. Abdul-Jabbar played 20 seasons and James is in his 23rd. James has averaged at least 27 points per game in the 2025–26 season, showing no signs of decline at 41. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant, the only other active player in the top 10, sits at 31,966 points and would need to play at a high level for several more seasons to even come close to James.
The question of who could surpass James may never have a realistic answer. At his current pace, Durant would have to score 11,000 more points over seven full seasons to match James’s steadily rising total. Unlike Abdul-Jabbar’s record, James’s blend of volume, durability, and consistency has created a record that could last for generations. Chamberlain, who set the single-game scoring record with 100 points in 1962, remains the only player in NBA history to average 50 points per game in a season. — Amar Ahmad
From Paint to Perimeter: How Stretching the Court Has Shaped the NBA
The NBA has shifted dramatically toward perimeter-focused offense. Today, teams depend on three-point shooting far more than they did in the late 1990s, using spacing and outside shooting to create more scoring opportunities.
As seen in the chart below, the percentage of field-goal attempts taken from beyond the three-point line has increased across the league over time.
The NBA has seen a notable shift in its approach to offense over the last few decades. Though historically designed primarily as a situational scoring option, three-point shooting is now a staple of the modern game.
As of the 2025–2026 season, the Chicago Bulls have a three-point attempt rate of .253, meaning 25.3 percent of their shot attempts are at three-point range. For the NBA three-point attempt rate, this places the Bulls around 20th out of 30 teams this season.
While they seemingly rely less on perimeter shooting, their overall use of the shot is still higher than it was in previous seasons.
The percentage of field goals attempted at the three-point range has steadily increased over time, as the past two decades in particular demonstrate, showing a slow shift toward perimeter-oriented offenses:
- In the 1997–98 NBA season, only 17.6 percent of all shots across the league were three-pointers. At that time, more and more teams placed an emphasis on “inside-in-the-paint” scoring and mid-range jumpers. Long-range shooting was not prioritized.
- In the 1994–95 season through the 1996–97 seasons of the NBA, the line for the three-point shot was shortened to try and increase scoring in the league and speed game pace. As a result, teams’ three-point attempts increased.
- In the 1997–98 season, the NBA moved the line back to its original length, and fewer attempts were made before increasing again as teams experimented with long-distance offense. The move toward three-point shooting grew even more widespread in the mid-2010s, with the Golden State Warriors.
Their style of play was focused on ball movement, spacing and high-volume three-point shooting. Much of this was the result of the backcourt pair of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson: the “Splash Brothers.”
Their steady scoring from long-range demonstrated the value of perimeter shooting, which influenced strategies throughout the league.
Three-point attempts represent about 24.6 percent of all field-goal attempts during the 2025–26 season. A concept originally considered a minor element of offensive strategy has now become one of the defining elements of modern NBA offense.
This reflects how teams increasingly stretch the court, relying on perimeter scoring to create advantages. — Evalyse Tereul
Manchester derby Returning to Even Ground Again as City and United Reset
The Manchester derby between Manchester United and Manchester City began as a neighborhood rivalry long before it became a global event. Manchester City traces its first meeting back to 1881, when St Mark’s (West Gorton) played Newton Heath. By 2026, the rivalry is going well over 130 years and has more than 200 competitive matches, depending on which early games are counted.
In modern times, from the Premier League’s 2014–15 season to 2024–25, the Manchester derby has increasingly been framed by City dominance and a widening gap in league finishes.
Manchester United finished 15th in 2024–25, its lowest position in the last decade. City’s dominant run included six titles in seven seasons from its Centurion 2017–18 through 2023–24. United’s best finishes were second in 2017–18 and 2020–21. As of Feb. 26, both teams appear to be bouncing back after a decline in the 24–25 season with 11 games left to go, sitting at 2nd and 4th.
Arguably, United’s unpredictability in the league is largely due to its high managerial turnover in the last 11 seasons. The club announced Louis van Gaal in May 2014, appointed Jose Mourinho in May 2016, then turned to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as caretaker in December 2018 before naming him full-time in March 2019.
After Michael Carrick’s brief caretaker stint, United installed Ralf Rangnick as interim manager in November 2021, hired Erik ten Hag in 2022, and appointed Ruben Amorim as head coach in November 2024. Even as of January 2026, after Ruben Amorim’s got sacked in 2025. Michael Carrick is caretaker yet again in 2026.
Manchester City however, have long enjoyed their managerial stability after Manuel Pellegrini’s departure in 2016, with Pep Guardiola replacing him and still at the helm, going on well over a decade now. This sharp contrast leads fans, critics and journalists alike to believe that this stability is exactly what has separated the two teams over the last 10 years. What hasn’t changed however is the stadiums.
In the modern age, the derby has been static in venues with the two stadiums only a few miles apart in Manchester. Manchester United plays at their iconic Old Trafford, which opened in 1910 after being designed by architect Archibald Leitch. The current capacity sits around 76,000 and the club has said it is exploring a new, 100,000-capacity stadium on the Old Trafford site.
City plays at the Etihad Stadium on the Etihad Campus, after their move in August 2003 after an 80-year stay at Maine Road. The Etihad has a capacity of around 55,000, and the club recently outlined work to expand the stadium to over 60,000.
With over 11 games yet to be played this season, and United only within 8 points of City as of Match Week 28, there is always the possibility of United recording a higher league finish than City for the first time since United’s title winning 2012–2013 season. — Adam Musaev