August 10, 2024

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Good morning! It’s your newly minted FOS EIC here, reflecting on our inaugural Huddle in the Hamptons event last Friday. What we heard from our athlete speakers got me thinking. So grab your coffee, take a seat, and I’ll tell you about it. Let me know what you think via email or on X/Twitter; I love hearing from readers. Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletters to hear from me directly in your inbox. And enjoy your weekend.

— Dan Roberts [[link removed]]

Is Sports Investment ‘Bulletproof’?

From left: Daniel Roberts, Adewale Ogunleye, Midge Purce, Marques Colston / Front Office Sports

Common wisdom dictates there’s no such thing as a sure investment.

So I was surprised to hear Adewale Ogunleye, who played 10 seasons in the NFL and now leads the sports and entertainment division at UBS, say onstage last week at our Huddle in the Hamptons event, “Sports and entertainment is almost a bulletproof industry. No matter the time, the date, the structure, athletes and sports and entertainment will be needed.”

Ogunleye was onstage with me and two other athletes: NFL veteran Marques Colston, who played 10 seasons with the Saints and won a Super Bowl, and Midge Purce, who plays for the 2023 NWSL champion NJ/NY Gotham FC.

All three of them exemplify the latest version of what I call the athlete investor playbook.

The rates at which pro athletes go broke [[link removed]] have been well documented [[link removed]] and still shock fans. At UBS, Ogunleye advises athletes on how to avoid this fate. He told me he’s noticed clients asking questions far earlier in their playing careers than ever before, about serious financial safeguards like estate planning and Roth IRAs. And they’re getting more sophisticated with what they expect of the deals they enter. “Athletes are realizing that they’re more than just athletes,” he said. “I think athletes are understanding that they’re brands, they’re businesses.”

Purce, a member of the USWNT (if she hadn’t torn her ACL in March she would have been in Paris), executive-produced a docuseries about the NWSL in partnership with Alexis Ohanian. She has described The Offseason as “Vanderpump Rules meets Drive to Survive.” [[link removed]] When it premieres later this year, it will debut on X/Twitter before it hits any streamer. Her aim with the show is loftier than just the obvious one of bringing eyeballs to her league: “Reform the way in which women and sport are marketed and consumed,” she said on our panel, because “I’ve always felt that the NWSL, as well as the way that women’s sports in general is marketed, has been really derivative of men’s sports [[link removed]].”

Colston launched an athlete-focused VC fund in February and is currently staffing up. His investment thesis might not be what you’d assume. “When we typically hear about sports investment, it’s at the Big Five leagues,” he said onstage. “But we know that there are a ton of opportunities that make up the value chain, make up all the companies that make sports what it is, from sports medicine to payment processing to technologies that are fueling performance.”

During lunch at our event, I caught up with Brandon Wimbush and Christian Ponder. Wimbush, a former starting quarterback at Notre Dame and UCF, missed the opening of the NIL (name, image, and likeness) floodgates by one year. He made our Front Office Sports Rising 25 in 2022 [[link removed]] for his work as a cofounder of MOGL, a platform that connects college athletes with brands for sponsorships. Ponder, who played four seasons with the Vikings, is focused on The Post, his membership club for former athletes that hosts networking events and business speakers.

These are the kinds of post-career ventures that pique my interest more than when megastars rack up another endorsement deal. Most athletes aren’t like Shaq, Magic, LeBron, Serena, Gronk, or Mahomes, who can appear in a dozen different ads. Most of them have no guarantee of continued income and success after playing.

Seven years ago, I wrote a story at Yahoo Finance [[link removed]] about the new playbook for athlete investors. In the old days, athletes put their money into fast food franchises or car dealerships. Then the puck moved to tech investing. I think we’ve reached a new chapter again since then: Athletes are putting their money in media, content, and a range of other sectors. When they put their money in, they’re getting equity, or a board seat, or cofounder status, or a coproducer credit—and they’re making these moves far earlier than ever before.

Purce, on a phone chat with me before the Hamptons event, suggested that most athletes now expect their brand partners to engage in content creation and storytelling with them beyond traditional marketing campaigns.

Ogunleye has noted the same progression. “For us as athletes, it’s not just our local community, our local ecosystem, like it was in the past, like your mom may have wanted you to open up a salon or an uncle wanted you to open up a gas station or a laundromat,” he said. “Now you’re seeing these corporations and these funds coming at these athletes because they see the capital. … These corporations look at these athletes as guaranteed money that’s going to continue to flow.”

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Beyond the Fairway With Collin Morikawa

Behind every great athlete is a dedicated team that turns personal aspirations into collective triumphs. From coaches and mentors to family and friends, this support system plays a crucial role in an athlete’s success. That’s the power of us [[link removed]].

Collin Morikawa began his PGA Tour career with 22 consecutive made-cuts—second only to Tiger Woods’s 25 cut streak. He is also a two-time major champion and two-time Olympian. Behind his success, he has a team committed to building his legacy and perfecting his game.

Learn how JJ, Kip, and Rian are dedicated players on Collin’s Untold Team [[link removed]].

Good Week / Bad Week Track Stars Getting Paid, Cable Getting Cut

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Good week for:

Track medalists ⬆ Slowly but surely, Olympic track standouts are going mainstream. Noah Lyles asked for a signature shoe [[link removed]] before catching COVID-19 and losing his chance at the 200-meter gold and history. Gabby Thomas [[link removed]] (above) and Sha’Carri Richardson have seized the spotlight. Beyond the running world, pole vaulter Armand Duplantis showed off as perhaps the most dominant performer in Paris, setting his ninth record— he’s awarded with a bonus [[link removed]] every time he does so.

Under Armour ⬆ The Baltimore apparel brand, where founder Kevin Plank returned to the CEO helm in March, reported earnings that at first blush looked pretty negative: Almost every category had declined year over year. That included a 10% decline [[link removed]] in sales and a $305 million loss. But the numbers included a $434 million securities settlement, and results were not as bad as expected. On Wall Street, it’s all about expectations. The stock ended the week up 20%

ESPN ⬆ Disney boasted its first quarterly streaming profit. It’s due not to Star Wars or Spider-Man, but sports. ESPN+ made $66 million in profit [[link removed]] for the quarter, making up for losses from Disney+ and Hulu. It doesn’t make up for lost cable revenues, but Disney said the streaming profit came ahead of its own projections. Speaking of cable …

Bad week for:

Cable companies ⬇ Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery wrote down their own cable businesses by $6 billion and $9 billion, respectively— a combined $15 billion drop [[link removed]]. Paramount also announced it would eliminate 2,000 jobs. CBS Sports is among the companies that could be affected.

In addition to that, the Pelicans announced they’d air their games free over local channels for the coming season. That’s because they are one of five NBA teams at risk of Diamond Sports Group terminating [[link removed]] their media-rights agreement amid DSG’s financial struggles.

In response to a question in our Friday A.M. newsletter, 47% of readers who responded said they had canceled their cable subscription.

You Might Have Missed Track Minus Field, Chuck Minus NBA

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Are track and field headed for a divorce? We’ve seen runners find new fame and fortune, but throwers and jumpers are being left behind. Andrew Greif [[link removed]] looks at the future of these ancient Olympic sports [[link removed]] and whether a split is on the horizon. What does Inside the NBA look like … without the NBA? TNT Sports says it will keep Charles Barkley & Co. together even if it means covering other sports. Michael McCarthy [[link removed]] asks: Is that realistic? [[link removed]] The most important step the NCAA could take toward gender equity is a unit system. And it might be coming for women’s March Madness this season. Amanda Christovich [[link removed]] tells you what it is and why it matters. [[link removed]] Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Daniel Roberts [[link removed]] Edited by Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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