It took him 45 years, seven Super Bowl wins, and a brief retirement, but Tom Brady is finally the NFL’s highest-paid player.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ superstar quarterback will earn $75 million this year, including $45 million from off-field endeavors, per Forbes.

In addition to his $30 million salary, Brady has endorsement deals with seven companies, including Hertz and FTX. He has also co-founded two media companies, an NFT company, a clothing line, and a training and nutrition brand.

• Matthew Stafford ($65.5 million), Aaron Rodgers ($53 million), and Patrick Mahomes ($51.5 million) followed Brady on the list.
• All top 10 NFL earners were quarterbacks.
• Collectively, the top 10 will earn $370 million, just missing the $373 million record set in 2018.

The NFL’s salary cap rose $25.7 million from 2021 to 2022, reaching $208.2 million. Last year was the first time the cap fell in a decade, due to pandemic-related revenue losses.

Media Money Incoming

The NFL will be flush with cash for some time thanks to its latest round of media deals, which kick in next year — though Amazon’s exclusive pact for “Thursday Night Football” begins this season.

The league secured more than $110 billion over 11 years from CBS, NBC, Disney, Fox, and Amazon — and that’s before factoring in a future deal for NFL Sunday Ticket that could reach $2.5 billion per season and revenue from the league’s new streaming service, NFL+.

As La Liga kicks off its 92nd season with Friday’s match between Osasuna and Sevilla, the league is seeing its North American plan take shape.

In 2018, the league launched La Liga North America, a 50-50 partnership with Relevent Sports Group, to grow the top-flight Spanish league’s fan base across the Atlantic.

“When you look at most of the leagues, they’re reaching a ceiling in their growth at the domestic level, on the revenue side, and definitely on the TV rights side,” La Liga North America CEO Boris Gartner told Front Office Sports.

• The league took proposals from CAA, Wasserman, Endeavor, and others before settling on Relevent, according to Gartner.
• In 2021, La Liga North America secured the league’s two largest broadcast deals outside Spain: an eight-year pact with ESPN for U.S. rights worth $1.4 billion, and one with Televisa’s Sky Sports for Mexican and Central American rights worth $560 million.

“It’s one of the foremost leagues in the world,” Tim Bunnell, ESPN’s senior VP of programming and acquisitions, told FOS. “The Clasico [Real Madrid vs. Barcelona matchup] is a tentpole event for us as a company.”

Stream Building

La Liga is a key part of the Worldwide Leader’s offerings on ESPN+.

“The reason we pursued La Liga is to grow our direct-to-consumer business,” said Bunnell. He added that the team up is “a combination of building the partnership and building this platform that we all know is the future.”

ESPN+ had 22.8 million subscribers as of July 2.

Endeavor Group generated $1.3 billion in revenue in Q2 2022, driven by the return of capacity crowds at live sporting events.

The entertainment conglomerate — which owns mixed martial arts promotion UFC and talent agency WME — saw its Events, Experiences, & Rights segment post $627.9 million in revenue — up from $99.2 million for the same period last year.

• The company’s Owned Sports Properties segment saw revenue reach $331.9 million in Q2 2022, up 28% year-over-year.
• Its Representation segment posted $358 million in revenue, up $29.7 million compared to Q2 2021.
• Full-year revenue is projected to range between $5.2 billion and $5.5 billion in FY2022. 

Endeavor announced plans to repay $250 million of debt by the end of Q3 2022. As of June 30, 2022, the company has a total debt of $5.6 billion. 

Gains and Losses 

Last year, Endeavor entered an agreement to acquire sports betting company OpenBet for $1.2 billion, but that number fell to $800 million last month, according to an SEC filing. 

The acquisition has been revised so that OpenBet owner Light & Wonder will now receive $750 million in cash and $50 million in stock. 

On Wednesday, Endeavor agreed to sell its Diamond Baseball Holdings subsidiary — which owns 10 minor league baseball teams — to Silver Lake in a deal valued at $280 million.

DBH owns teams affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and New York Yankees.

Life Time reported second-quarter revenue of $461.3 million, a 42.7% year-over-year increase.

The company posted a 10.2% increase in center memberships to 724,778 on June 30, 2022 — up from 657,737 in 2021 — and recorded a $2.3 million net loss. In Q2FY2021, Life Time posted a $76.4 million net loss.

Life Time is looking to rebound from losses sustained during the height of the pandemic.

• In 2020, Life Time’s full-year revenue fell to $948 million — roughly half of what it reported in 2019.
• Revenue bounced back to $1.32 billion in 2021, and Life Time expects FY2022 revenue to reach between $1.8 billion to $1.85 billion. 

“We are happy to report that Life Time is growing back steadily,” founder, chairman, and CEO Bahram Akradi said. “Our net athletic country club pipeline remains strong, with 12 planned openings this year and 11 or more in 2023.” 

Life Time, known for its country club culture, currently operates 153 centers.

Bouncing Back

In Q2, Life Time completed two sale-leaseback transactions for $95 million in proceeds, and in August, the company entered an agreement for the sale-leaseback of five properties for roughly $200 million in gross proceeds. 

More discussions for sale-leaseback transactions are being held, which would bring the total proceeds for the year to $675 million. 

Life Time expects to use the money to pay down debt and “maintain cash on the balance sheet to fund future growth.”