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 Wednesday.
🔔 Job alert: I’m helping a Chicago-based Series A company in the Sports Economy find cracked full-stack engineers.
They’re hiring for two roles:
Senior SWE (3+ years of experience, up to $170K + equity)
Staff SWE (6+ years of experience, up to $220K + equity).
If this is you or someone you know, hit me at [email protected].
4 People Moves
Andrew Morelock: After 12+ years at Nike, Andrew took off to join the C-Suite of KKR-backed Bond, “The first premium fractional aviation company.” The business is set to launch early next year–if you’re in the market for a slice of a Bombardier Global 7500, these might be your people.
Saurabh Tejwani: When your platform just did $1B in Super Bowl volume and regulators are watching closely, you don’t hire a CFO for maintenance, you hire one to fortify the company’s financial infrastructure.
Kathy Tran: Kathy’s resume is a run through legacy heavyweights — Estée Lauder, Unilever Prestige, Columbia — with 30+ country launches under her belt. Bringing that kind of global infrastructure experience to an ever-growing player like Fabletics says they’re ready to scale like the big boys.
Tara Shick: On ($ONON) is roughly one-sixth Nike’s size, but it’s recruiting like a company that doesn’t plan to stay there long. Hiring proven product leaders is how you close that gap.
People moves data via Workforce.ai by Live Data Technologies
3 Announcements
$1B in Super Bowl volume — up 2,700% YoY — with >$100 million in bets placed on Bad Bunny’s first song. Our guy Saurabh (see above) has his work cut out for him.
The Super Bowl IRL wave — Rao’s pop-ups, Cîroc vineyard activations, Pepsi restaurant pairings — reinforces a trend we’ve been tracking: the highest-value marketing moments are shifting from screens to spaces. The brands winning the Super Bowl aren’t just buying airtime, they’re building rooms worth being in. Keep an eye on what Gary Spitalnik & co. are building with REAL SLX…I’m bullish.
D1 seeking a buyer is the latest signal that youth sports’ consolidation era is here. Capital is flowing toward anything that touches where kids train and compete. A $62B market heading toward $155B by 2032 with emotionally-driven, recurring demand? PE’s dream.
2 Things Worth Your Time
914 acres, a Tiger-designed course, an equestrian center, and 550 homes max. Bluejack Ranch isn’t a country club — it’s a full-blown ecosystem. North Texas’ massive growth as a golf hub continues apace.
NCAA front offices are speedrunning 50 years of pro sports infrastructure with Front Office 360, a tool for player evaluation and cap strategy. Cliff Stein managed the Bears’ salary cap for two decades, and now he’s selling that playbook to Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Clemson.
1 Stat That Matters
~7.7x — The increase in the Seahawks franchise value since their last Super Bowl win.
The team was valued at ~$1.3 billion back in 2014, and it’s expected that it’ll sell for between $9-11 billion this time around.
Pull of the Week
Sam Darnold’s first career NFL pass was a pick-six. His draft file flagged one trait above the rest: “Not affected by failure.” Eight years later—after the Jets train wreck, bench time in Carolina and San Francisco, and the Minnesota rise that nobody saw coming—that’s the only line that mattered.
ICYMI: Last week’s episode with CiCi Bellis, Founder of Cartan Capital ⬇️
I’ll be publishing Field Notes every other Wednesday.
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
