February 1, 2024

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The PGA Tour gets not only new money but a big jolt of pro sports experience. … Taylor Swift’s presence in the NFL orbit offers a bonus of sorts to Super Bowl advertisers. … Organized crime related to Nike shoes remains a thorny issue. … The ABA’s legacy exists to this day. … And: Jim Harbaugh’s hire by the San Diego Chargers involved big dollars.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

PGA Tour Taps Into Deep Base of Team Owners With SSG Deal [[link removed]]

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Call it the new Jay Monahan brain trust.

After weeks of anticipation [[link removed]], the PGA Tour has at last completed [[link removed]] an investment deal of up to $3 billion with Strategic Sports Group to form a new for-profit commercial entity, PGA Tour Enterprises, that includes equity participation by players.

The deal, valuing PGA Tour Enterprises at about $12 billion, undoubtedly represents a major financial jolt for men’s pro golf. Though a separate pact between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf remains incomplete [[link removed]], the new group carries a combined net worth of about $50 billion. But what’s potentially just as impactful for PGA Tour commissioner Monahan, and maybe more so, is the deep well of operational experience within the new investor group, involving nearly every U.S. major sports property, as well as the Premier League.

The Fenway Sports Group-led SSG includes:

FSG’s John Henry (above), Tom Werner, Mike Gordon, and Sam Kennedy, whose group oversees the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool FC, and New England Sports Network Linda Henry, John’s wife and an investor in the WNBA and League One Volleyball New York Mets owner Steve Cohen Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck Former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry Former Cleveland Browns president Alec Scheiner

Collectively, the group has more than 200 years of sports team leadership, and FSG will serve as the commercial advisor to PGA Tour Enterprises. Monahan will also be CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises.

“There are all kinds of things happening across the business. There are big changes unfolding in the TV model, how you engage with fans. And [SSG] has been in the businesses you need to be in,” LeslieAnne Wade, founder of White Tee Partners and a former CBS Sports executive, tells Front Office Sports.

There is also an extensive base of existing relationships as FSG, Henry, Werner, Blank, and Scheiner are all investors in TMRW Sports, which operates TGL [[link removed]], the new high-tech golf league operating in partnership with the PGA Tour, while Cohen also has TGL’s New York team and Lasry owns the one in San Francisco.

Taylor Swift Effect? Super Bowl To See Three Health and Beauty Brand Ads [[link removed]]

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

A trio of health and beauty brands are buying pricy commercial time for CBS Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LVIII. Two of them are new to the Big Game, the third is returning from a long hiatus, and more brands could still enter the mix by Feb. 11, since some advertisers like to keep their plans a surprise. (Notably: There were zero national-in game ads for health and beauty brands last year.) And while those additions can’t be tied directly to Taylor Swift’s relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, or to her influence [[link removed]] on the NFL and its female viewership, each of the ad spots targets female consumers or prominently features women:

L’Oreal’s NYX Professional Makeup will make its Super Bowl debut with a new 30-second commercial celebrating the “power of women” in the “traditionally male-dominated” football industry, according to Campaign [[link removed]]. e.l.f. Cosmetics will air its first national Super Bowl commercial and is planning a star-studded spot featuring singer Meghan Trainor, actor Gina Torres, and others, according to Adweek [[link removed]]. And Dove will advertise in the Big Game for the first time in 18 years. The new #KeepHerConfident commercial will promote body confidence in girls “to keep them playing the sports they love,” according to the personal care brand.

Some industry experts believe the connection to Swift is undeniable. “It has become one Swift world,” global trend spotter Marian Salzman tells Front Office Sports. “Honestly I think she is the best bridge [advertisers] have to women of all ages–and the men who shop with them.”

It’s difficult to pinpoint whether advertisers bought their commercial time before or after the romance became public in October (or the Chiefs’s winning the AFC Championship Game). But it stands to reason that Swift has had some influence in spurring advertisers to fork over an estimated $7 million for 30 seconds. (Although CBS has said its Super Bowl commercial inventory has been virtually sold out since November, savvy networks always keep a couple spots available to sell at a premium.)

Marketing consultant Ernest Lupinacci, a former creative director on Nike and ESPN campaigns, believes some beauty advertisers simply gambled early on Kelce’s Chiefs reaching their fourth Super Bowl in the last five seasons. “My theory,” he says, “is that some smart people said, ‘You know what? Let’s buy some ad time. It’s a big enough audience anyway. And if Kansas City makes it in there, we are golden.’ ”

Super Bowl Sunday is the one day where it’s a guarantee that viewers will be watching the commercials, and the game annually generates the biggest TV audience of the year: Last February, a record 115.1 million viewers tuned in for Fox Sports’ telecast of Super Bowl LVII. Throw in the Swifties, and this year’s number could set a new benchmark.

SPONSORED BY LIVEPASS

One Membership for All Things Live

seasonshare [[link removed]], the leading customizable ticketing technology platform in the sports and entertainment industry, announces the launch of LivePass [[link removed]], a subscription-based marketplace connecting fans to unsold inventory across a variety of entertainment experiences.

LivePass subscribers pay a monthly fee in exchange for points that can be put towards tickets for various sporting events, concerts, comedy shows, and other live events across the country.

LivePass allows event operators to enter a broader marketplace where they can set point requirements and inventory for each event without degrading the value of their other ticket offerings. Through LivePass, teams and venues are able to foster a direct relationship with a new generation of consumers who crave affordability, flexibility, and a digital-first experience.

Learn more [[link removed]] about how LivePass is driving the future of live event attendance.

Nike Supply Chain Woes: Police Recover $5M in Stolen Merchandise [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Police Department made an arrest on Saturday that captures a trend in recent years: the mass pilfering of Nike shoes.

Nike’s supply chain has been under attack at each stage and Saturday’s was the latest instance in Southern California, which has been a hot spot [[link removed]]for shoe thievery.

LAPD officers arrested 37-year-old Roy Lee Harvey Jr. after he was found to be delivering stolen Nike products to a warehouse in Hawthorne, Calif. There, detectives working with Nike’s global security director found over $5 million in merch, including shoes, accessories, clothing, and “unique prototypes.”

But that’s hardly the first time in recent memory that the LAPD has unearthed such a haul: In June 2023, local authorities discovered several million dollars worth of stolen Nike products at a warehouse in Torrance, Calif., which were found to be linked to stolen cargo trucks at the Port of Los Angeles.

Several weeks earlier, L.A. County sheriffs arrested a dozen people whom they alleged were part of a crime ring that stole roughly $750,000 in merchandise from a Nike store over the course of a year.

Chicago and Memphis, too, have dealt with Nike-related crime of late [[link removed]]. In early 2023, Nike closed its flagship store in downtown Portland, Ore., because of alleged theft.

And Memphis, home to one of the company’s largest distribution centers, has suffered multiple recent large-scale thefts: $800,000 worth of product was stolen from a secured container drop yard in September 2022, and this past October another $200,000 was stolen from a Nike store.

ONE BIG FIG Bolts Break the Bank

USA TODAY

$80 million

Amount new Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh will reportedly make in his new five-year deal, if it’s guaranteed, according to Pro Football Talk [[link removed]]. The former Michigan coach is expected to pull in $16 million per season. The deal would make Harbaugh the NFL’s second-highest-paid coach behind [[link removed]] the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton, who makes $18 million a season.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY They Said What?

“David Rubenstein is not just a very rich man … he is a student of leadership. … It’s much more likely that he’s going to take a deeply-researched approach on running a team than he’s going to start just throwing money at the wall in hopes of bringing a championship to Baltimore.”

—Sam Dingman, host of Sports Explains the World, on why he’s optimistic about Rubenstein’s acquisition of the Baltimore Orioles. To hear more about the sale, check out the latest episode of Front Office Sports Today.

🎧 Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], and Spotify [[link removed]].

TIME CAPSULE Feb. 1, 1967: A Different Ballgame

Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

On this day 57 years ago: The American Basketball Association is born. At first existing as just one of many upstart sports leagues to form in the 1960s and ’70s, the ABA quickly rises above the pack on multiple fronts. Thanks in part to its use of a three-point line—13 years before the NBA adopted it—a flashier style of play, multicolored balls, and stars such as Julius Erving (above), George Gervin, and Artis Gilmore, the ABA soon presents a meaningful competitor to its older counterpart. The ABA also originates the Slam Dunk Contest, furthering a legacy that exists to this day.

Financial issues, frequent franchise moves, and the lack of a national TV contract ultimately catch up with the ABA. But rather than fold, the league merges with the NBA in 1976, hoping to match the survival and success of football’s AFL-NFL union, in 1970. Ultimately, four ABA franchises survive the merger: the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York (later New Jersey, and then Brooklyn) Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. The Spirits of St. Louis are among those to fold, but owners strike a deal to receive a portion of the four surviving teams’ national television revenues, a pot that will reach [[link removed]] $800 million by the time of a final settlement, in 2014.

Conversation Starters The Super Bowl is in Las Vegas, but the NFL is doing its best to keep the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs away from its famous Strip. See [[link removed]] where the league assigned their headquarters. Taylor Swift will be in Tokyo for a concert a day before the Super Bowl and is expected to cheer on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, in Las Vegas. See [[link removed]] the journey Swift would have to take. The NBA’s 2024-25 salary cap is projected [[link removed]] to be around $141 million—roughly a million dollars lower than the previous cap projection. Editor’s Picks How An Anonymous Fan’s Homemade Documentary Sparked a Big East Basketball Firestorm [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]X user 'Blue Demon Degenerate' drew the interest—and ire—of many. Tennessee, Virginia AGs Are Suing the NCAA Over NIL Restrictions [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]The attorneys general specifically target the NCAA’s enforcement of its restriction on using NIL as a recruiting inducement. PGA Tour Scores Investment Worth Up to $3 Billion and Gives Players Equity [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Players collectively get $1.5 billion in equity shares based on performance. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], Michael McCarthy [[link removed]], Alex Schiffer [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Adam Duerson [[link removed]]

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