🎙️ Each week, Brent Peus Jr., Dominyck Bullard, and I connect the dots across the deals, trends, and players shaping sports, media & entertainment.

Does anyone remember the iconic “Pants on the Ground” performance by one Atlanta native, General Larry Platt, in Season 9 of FOX’s American Idol?

In 2010, this became as close to a viral meme as something could get. If I do say so myself, Platt’s performance certainly had a bit of that “special something.”

And when are we going to recognize that American Idol inspired an entire genre of reality TV that stretched the better part of 20 years?

What a run. THIS was true reality TV, and in my humble opinion, it runs circles around the modern-day reality TV dating shows.

Speaking of “The X Factor,” is that not what each of these singers was claiming to have, and in turn, what FOX was trying to manufacture?

This “X Factor” is that “special something,” that intangible thing that someone or something has that makes whatever it is cool.

It’s gone by different names: “moxie,” “cachet,” “swag,” or most recently “aura.”

But this aura is better known as cultural relevance, and cultural relevance is what happens when something (like our good friend Mr. Platt here) breaks into the cultural zeitgeist.

And when you apply this idea to IP within the context of sports, media, and entertainment, you get what my business partner Rick Hess and I often call . . .

Cultural capital.

Cultural capital is the economic engine that governs how people spend their time, attention, and money, because at the end of the day, it has that X Factor.

And cultural capital has emerged as one of the most valuable commodities in the modern economy, commanding disproportionate economic interest and functioning as the “soft power” centers of our generation.

But this cultural capital is more than just collecting cool points. Indeed, it translates to sustainable commercial value by unlocking a self-reinforcing economic flywheel:

(1) Cultural relevance creates attention.

When an asset breaks into the cultural zeitgeist through virality, storytelling, distribution, celebrity engagement, or socially resonant moments, it captures disproportionate awareness and mindshare of the populace.

(2) Attention creates monetization.

Concentrated attention creates more surface area for the asset to unlock new revenue opportunities: media, sponsorship, live, hospitality, licensing, etc.

(3) Monetization creates reinforcement.

The money that you were spending on marketing and CAC can now go towards building additional revenue-generating lines of business (premium content, experiences, etc.), which further expands your cultural touch points and strengthens the asset’s position within culture.

(4) Reinforcement creates more cultural relevance.

Improved visibility, prestige, and reach embed the asset deeper into the social fabric, restarting the cycle at a higher level.

To see this cultural capital flywheel turn, let us examine the asset that everyone always points to.

Formula One.

Formula One began in 1950 and was largely a European product. For years, it had been trying to gain mass appeal and break into the cultural fabric of the world’s richest market, the United States.

Cultural Relevance (2019 → 2021):

Drive to Survive landed perfectly with COVID, and insider access to a foreign world never before seen by the average American broke Formula One into the cultural zeitgeist.

Attention (2022 → 2023):

After breaking through, Formula One renegotiated its media rights deal with ESPN ($5M → $90M/yr), leaned into social media, and converted watchers to real followers.

Monetization (2023 → 2025):

Now that Formula One had achieved mass adoption, Liberty Media had no qualms about investing $500M+ to build the Las Vegas Grand Prix from zero and doubling down on Miami with Stephen Ross.

Reinforcement (2025+):

Apple put Brad Pitt in a race car, created the summer blockbuster of the year, and then swiped the media rights from ESPN for a healthy $140M/yr.

The cultural capital flywheel in action.

This flywheel applies to Formula One just as much as it applies to:

Rick will often reminisce on when he was involved with the financing of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction back when he was a film finance executive.

Pulp Fiction broke into the cultural zeitgeist and took off in a way that not even the studio expected. And that, my friends, was cultural capital working in real time.

So the real question is . . .

Can you manufacture cultural capital?

Yes, but it’s very difficult and rarely repeatable on demand. Full Swing and Break Point struggled to break through, but Welcome to Wrexham was a success.

What is repeatable is everything that happens after the spark.

Go back to our boy General Platt. He had the X Factor and a viral moment, but of course there was no commercial model behind him.

Cultural relevance is just a moment until someone builds the structure to monetize it, and then it becomes an asset.

By creating the commercial trellis that allows the cultural capital vine to grow, operators can fully capture the commercial value of lightning in a bottle.

Every piece of IP wants to become the next thing.

But how you get there, and what you do with it if you’re lucky enough to become it, depends on your ability to execute the cultural capital flywheel and convert the attention of the moment into an enduring asset.

I publish a Field Notes every other Friday.

Stay tuned and share this with someone who should be paying attention to where the Sports Economy is headed.

 If you’re building, investing, or advising within the Sports Economy — please reach out!

Email: [email protected]

– Matthew