Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly email about everyone in the owner’s box… and all the people who wish they were there, too. Happy Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 to all who celebrate.

📺 Programming note: I was on CNBC’s Last Call on Friday to discuss my story about Stephen A. Smith’s $90 million offer from ESPN. Check it out here. The Stephen A. saga is one of the most fascinating subplots in sports right now, and it’s perfectly timed to play out during the summer doldrums—after the NBA Finals and before NFL training camp. (Yes, yes, I know Copa, the Euros, and the Stanley Cup finals are on.) I’ll have much more on the Stephen A. stakes below.

Meanwhile, don’t miss my Puck partner Bill Cohan’s fascinating tale of NIMBYism on Nantucket, starring Charles Johnson, part-owner of the San Francisco Giants (with a cameo from Red Sox owner John Henry). In a nutshell, Johnson did not want a modest clam shack to open near one of his several homes on the island. After amassing a ton of legal fees and reams of bad press over more than a year, Johnson resolved the dispute at a picnic table summit with a few of his fellow billionaires. Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us, too.

Remember: No forwarding this private email to anyone who can afford it (and you all can afford it) or you will be subjected to Marchand’s interpretive reading of Emily Dickinson poems. We mean it this time! Don’t grinfuck me!

Okay, let’s get to it…

1. Game 7 expectations: The last time the Stanley Cup Finals went to a decisive Game 7 was back in 2019, when the Blues beat the Bruins 4-1. NBC scored 8.91 million viewers for the contest, the NHL’s largest audience to date. It was a slightly better outcome than...