Field Notes: 4 People Moves, 3 Announcements, 2 Things Worth Your Time, and 1 Stat That Matters in the Sports Economy.
Curated and delivered every other Thursday.
4 People Moves
Daniel Lewis: After a five-plus year run at Arctos — joining in the early days and riding it all the way to a $1.4B KKR acquisition — looks like Lewis is betting on the founding team magic once more, this time at Layer Global.
Emily Sisson: A boomerang with a promotion. Sisson left Octagon as SVP, spent 18 months at OneTeam building fluency in the fastest-growing sponsorship category in the market, and came back as EVP.
Spencer Wolf: Wolf moves from Playfly Creates to VP of Sales Operations at Excel Sports Management, bringing senior commercial experience from one of the more active platforms in sports.
Kristin Lamb: The second Oura leader we’ve tracked landing at Eight Sleep (four weeks ago we noted another making the same move), with Lamb arriving right as the company pushes toward FDA approval for sleep apnea detection. The timing says everything about what they’re building.
Tracking the starting lineups and MVPs at every company worth watching in sports, media and entertainment.
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3 Announcements
Former Blackstone Colleagues Isaac Harrouche and Mike Berlin Partner with David Blitzer and Announce Final Close of $400 Million Debut Fund | BusinessWire
Two ex-Blackstone Tac Opps investors with about as clean a pedigree as you can draw up just closed a $400 million debut fund at its hard cap, backed by David Blitzer, who took the third investment committee seat. The middle-market focus is what makes it interesting: they're targeting the essential services, venue operations, and proprietary content that power in-person experiences, the operating layer beneath the franchises.
Source Media Group Launches Source Golf, a Creator-Driven YouTube Network Targeting Next-Gen Fans | SVG
The insight isn’t the creator names, it’s the packaging. Individual golf creators have built massive audiences on YouTube, but advertisers have had to buy them one by one. Source Golf builds a network layer on top of fragmented inventory, making it a single buy for brands the way linear TV used to be.
The Sports Broadcasting Act has shielded the NFL’s collective TV negotiating rights since 1961. Now, the DOJ is asking whether that protection has become a shield for consumer harm. The hook is the ~$1,000 it cost fans to watch every game last season across cable and streaming. The NFL’s counter is that 87% of games are on local TV, but that’s a geographic argument, not a cost one.
2 Things Worth Your Time
Wright Thompson is among the greatest living sports writers — his book The Cost of These Dreams is as good as it gets. This conversation with David Perell pulls back the curtain on his process, and his answer for why he loves sports will stick with you.
Augusta doesn’t need a hype reel, but last year’s Masters Official Film is stunning. Cinematic, inspiring, and the perfect way to get locked in before one of the most iconic weekends in sports. Nothing quite like it.
Bonus: Check out the Masters Vault — a searchable archive of shots from every final round dating back to 1968…GREAT use of AI.
1 Stat That Matters
54% — The share of Americans who drink alcohol, the lowest level in nearly 90 years. Meanwhile, alcohol sponsorship spend across the five major U.S. pro sports is up 18% to ~$700M over the past four years. (SBJ)
Consumption is down but spend is up — sports is where alcohol brands still have permission to exist. Maybe I’m biased, but the ballgame beer isn’t just resilient; it’s embedded.
Pull of the Week
Before DK Metcalf’s iconic chase-down of Budda Baker, there was Ben Watson catching Champ Bailey. Effort is everything.
ICYMI: This week’s episode with Ryan Girardot, Co-Founder & CEO of Cerebro Sports ⬇️
I’ll be publishing Field Notes every other Thursday.
Share this with someone who should be paying attention to where the Sports Economy is headed.
If you’re building, investing, or advising within this ecosystem — please reach out!
Email: [email protected].
– Brent
