October 14, 2022

Read in Browser [[link removed]]

POWERED BY

Today’s Leadoff puts numbers on the board: MLS nets a record-breaking regular season, Chelsea’s owners think the club could be the top-earning soccer team in the world, Vuori continues to expand, and NFL owners face off over the fallout from the Rams’ relocation. Click here to listen [[link removed]].

Drake’s Owl Lands on Barca’s Kit for El Clásico [[link removed]]

Spotify

Drake’s sports portfolio is becoming as impressive as his discography.

At Sunday’s El Clásico against Real Madrid, FC Barcelona will sport the OVO owl — Drake’s logo — on its jerseys in place of Spotify’s logo, celebrating [[link removed]] Drake’s milestone as the first artist to reach 50 billion collective streams on the platform.

Spotify has a reported [[link removed]] $306 million deal with the club, which includes front-of-shirt branding for both the men’s and women’s teams.

When the deal was announced, the pair revealed that similar logo exchanges are slated throughout the season to help reach new audiences.The platform also has naming rights to Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium.

The club’s warmup jersey will also feature No. 50 on the back and Spotify’s logo on the front.

OVOpportunities

Drake is the first artist to appear on FC Barcelona’s jersey, but it’s not the artist’s first foray into sports.

Earlier this year, Main Street Capital — which counts Drake and LeBron James as investors — and the New York Yankees joined RedBird Capital Partners’ reported [[link removed]] $1.2 billion purchase of AC Milan.

Last year, sports media company Overtime raised [[link removed]] $80 million in a Series C round that included Drake, Jeff Bezos, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as investors.

The Canadian rapper has also invested [[link removed]] in sports technology company StatusPro with LeBron James and Naomi Osaka.

Skydance Media Raises $400M to Build Sports Content [[link removed]]

Shutterstock

Skydance Media has completed a $400 million strategic investment round led by private equity firm KKR & Co. to accelerate the growth of its sports and entertainment divisions.

The round, which values [[link removed]] Skydance at more than $4 billion, included existing investors RedBird Capital Partners, Tencent, and the company’s majority shareholders, the Ellison family.

In September 2021, Skydance launched its sports division.Skydance Sports produces content, including films and series, both scripted and unscripted.Tencent and RedBird will help Skydance drive growth in its sports strategy.

In January, Skydance Sports agreed [[link removed]] to a co-production deal with Meadowlark Media — led by former ESPN president John Skipper — to deliver unscripted sports content.

The two companies will collaborate on a docuseries on the U.S. and Mexican men’s national soccer teams, as well as a project featuring hoops legend Diana Taurasi.

Skydance Sports teamed [[link removed]] up with Religion of Sports in March to develop, finance, and produce sports content for multiple platforms including television and audio.

Earlier this month, Skydance Sports secured [[link removed]] a multiyear first-look deal with international soccer star Kylian Mbappé and his production banner, Zebra Valley. As part of the deal, Zebra Valley will deliver its content through all of Skydance’s divisions.

Red-Hot RedBird

In May, RedBird finalized [[link removed]] a deal to purchase AC Milan valuing the Italian soccer club at $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg.

[[link removed]] Deals [[link removed]] | by Justin Byers [[link removed]] RedBird Capital Agrees to Buy AC Milan, Valued at $1.3B [[link removed]] RedBird Capital Partners has reportedly finalized a deal to purchase AC Milan,… May 31, 2022

RedBird, which has $6 billion in assets [[link removed]] under management, won its bid over Investcorp — the Middle East’s largest alternative assets manager.

SPONSORED BY ATHLETIC BREWING

Beer, Fit For All Times™

What do J.J. Watt, CJ Stroud, Caleb Williams, and Bijan Robinson all have in common?

Athletic Brewing Company [[link removed]] makes their favorite craft brew.

Athletic is America’s leading non-alcoholic craft beer producer, and they’re on a mission to positively impact the world – one can at a time.

Whether you’re eliminating alcohol for a night or for life, Athletic Brewing’s award-winning brews are Fit For All Times™, so you can drink them all night long without feeling hungover the next morning.

For a limited time, new Athletic customers will receive 20% OFF their first order [[link removed]] of two 6-packs or more when they use the code FOS20 by December 31, 2022.

Plus, if you enter their Grand Adventure Giveaway [[link removed]] before November 15, 2022, you have a chance to win $45,000 in epic prizes.

Saban Leads Pack of Highest-Paid College Football Coaches [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Nick Saban remains college football’s highest-paid coach for the third consecutive year.

According to USA Today, pay for college football head coaches experienced [[link removed]] its greatest one-year spike in 2022 — an average increase of 15.3% since 2021.

Saban is set to make [[link removed]] $10.95 million in 2022, up from $9.75 million in 2021 — when his Alabama Crimson Tide finished as the College Football Playoff runner-up.

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is the second-highest-paid coach at $10.54 million.Kirby Smart — who led Georgia to a national title in 2021 – will pocket $10.25 million.LSU’s Brian Kelly rounds out the top four at $9.81 million after leaving Notre Dame in 2021.

Outside of the top four are Big Ten coaches, led [[link removed]] by Mel Tucker at Michigan State who will make $9.56 million this year as the conference’s coaches average [[link removed]] $9.5 million for 2022.

On the Rise

The lucrative contracts of college football’s top coaches continue to rise due to the flurry of coaching changes throughout the sport, expensive media deals, and winning-based incentives.

Saban’s salary for 2022 includes $825,000 in bonuses [[link removed]], while Smart will take home $850,000 after bringing the Georgia football program its first national championship since 1980.

In August, the Big Ten finalized [[link removed]] a media rights deal worth at least $7 billion, sources confirmed to Front Office Sports — the largest media rights pact in all of college sports. As part of the agreement — which runs from 2023 to 2030 — FOX, CBS, and NBC will share rights.

[[link removed]] Media [[link removed]] | by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]] Big Ten Finalizes Landmark Media Rights Deal Worth At Least $7B [[link removed]] The deal is the largest in college sports history. August 18, 2022

The Pac-12 is reportedly [[link removed]] taking bids for its next media rights deal and is considering Amazon.

Conversation Starters Apple is all in on sports with major deals for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, MLS and MLB broadcasting rights, and a bid for NFL Sunday Ticket. On the latest episode of The Newsroom, the Front Office Sports team breaks down what Apple is up to, and how sports fit into the tech giant’s overall strategy. Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Spotify [[link removed]], and YouTube [[link removed]]. Carlos Correa will invoke the opt-out clause [[link removed]] in his contract — making him a free agent this upcoming offseason — after signing a three-year, $105.3 million contract in March with the Minnesota Twins. The NFL has been using a new pre-snap camera [[link removed]] angle that was featured in the New York Giants’ 27-22 win over the Green Bay Packers in London last Sunday.

SPONSORED BY LALIGA

Don’t Miss ElClásico This Weekend

This Sunday at 10:15 a.m. ET, Real Madrid CF vs. FC Barcelona will face off in LaLiga’s first ElClásico [[link removed]] of the season!

The historic rivalry will broadcast live from Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Spain. Live coverage begins one hour and 15 minutes ahead of kick off on ESPN+ [[link removed]].

Also be sure to check out ESPN’s España Week – ten days of top-tier matches combined with extensive LaLiga coverage produced and aired from Spain, from Thursday, October 13 to Sunday, October 23 on ESPN+.

Sign up [[link removed]] to tune in.

Market Movers

U.S. stocks experienced declines across all three major indexes on Friday. Here’s a look at how some sports-related stocks performed:

MSGS [[link removed]]

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp

[[link removed]]

$148.16

[[link removed]]

-0.90%

[[link removed]] T [[link removed]]

AT&T, Inc.

[[link removed]]

$14.99

[[link removed]]

-1.19%

[[link removed]] GOLF [[link removed]]

Acushnet Holdings Corp

[[link removed]]

$45.32

[[link removed]]

-1.67%

[[link removed]] VFC [[link removed]]

VF Corp.

[[link removed]]

$28.95

[[link removed]]

-2.43%

[[link removed]] BYD [[link removed]]

Boyd Gaming Corp.

[[link removed]]

$50.59

[[link removed]]

-3.62%

[[link removed]] (Note: All as of market close on 10/14/22) What to Watch

The Los Angeles Dodgers face the San Diego Padres on Friday night at Petco Park in Game 3 of the NLDS. The series is tied 1-1.

How to Watch: 8:37 p.m. ET on FS1

Betting Odds: Dodgers -1.5 || ML -120 || O/U 7.5

Pick: Expect the Padres to maintain their momentum. Take San Diego to cover.

Refer Friends, Win Merch

Ready to rep your favorite newsletter? Refer your friends and colleagues to Front Office Sports and you could win FOS merchandise.

It’s easy to spread the word. Copy and paste your unique link below and share it in an email or on your timeline.

Your custom referral link:

[link removed] [[link removed]]

Or use these one-tap sharing methods:

Email [[link removed]] Twitter [[link removed]] Facebook [[link removed]]

Your referral count: 0

If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here [[link removed]].

Written by Abigail Gentrup [[link removed]], Justin Byers [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Brian Krikorian [[link removed]]

MORE FROM FRONT OFFICE SPORTS:

The Leadoff [[link removed]] - Daily business of sports podcast

Front Office Sports Pro [[link removed]] - The most promising opportunities where sports meets industry

Front Office Sports Learning [[link removed]] - Professional education at the speed of culture

Copyright © 2022 Front Office Sports. All rights reserved.

80 Pine Street Suite 3202 New York, NY 10005

Advertise [[link removed]] / Update your preferences [link removed] / Unsubscribe [link removed]