You Won't Remember The Extra $400 Million

Pro Shop has assembled Skratch, GolfWRX and Dan On Golf, revived the Skins Game on Prime, and added production credits on Full Swing and Happy Gilmore 2, all since its founding in 2023. Arthur Blank's sports and entertainment group leads the $24 million Series B alongside Ares and Causeway, funding talent, programming and an events lead to bring its franchises into the real world. The opportunity is to compound the fan relationship – Pro Shop's media earns the attention, and IRL experiences give that audience another reason to spend.

Authentic Brands bought Sports Illustrated's brand and IP for $110 million in 2019. Nashville is now welcoming guests at the first fully branded SI Resort, and there are three more underway in Chicago, Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa. Its new partner Wyndham knows scale, with roughly 8,400 hotels and 126 million loyalty members under its umbrella. This echoes the ALUM thesis in Alma Mater, Inc: in college towns the game anchors a much larger hospitality opportunity, and the test is whether that affinity fills rooms beyond game weekends.

Paramount closed its $110 billion WBD acquisition on Tuesday, almost a year after the business put itself up for sale. The combined company holds rights across every major U.S. league except the NBA, and carries roughly $80 billion in debt. In 5 Charts That Capture How the Sports Economy Is Changing, I highlighted that YouTube draws more attention among people 13 to 54 than five legacy media groups combined, so the job now is turning that rights portfolio into viewing habits that survive outside the bundle. It also has to deliver the synergies its debt depends on, and Fitch recently downgraded that debt to BB.

This episode is full of passionate, fiery energy. Ari walks through how the $4.2 billion UFC bet nearly broke him, until ESPN agreed via WhatsApp to a seven-year rights deal (worth almost the purchase price) while he was in the middle of pitching Viacom. Egon Durban told him during the IMG bid that nobody remembers the extra $400 million, only losing the deal. He also credits Elon Musk for the idea behind MARI, because he ensured him that the only thing AI can't disrupt is live entertainment.

Chris Nowinski walks through a British Medical Journal study found that of 878 NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021, at least 215 had CTE, which puts the floor at one in four. The Guardian Caps worn by 500,000 youth and high school players are the version the NFL tested and rejected, and in Virginia Tech lab tests they cut rotational acceleration by 2%. Once a blood test can diagnose CTE in living players, Nowinski argues, it becomes a disease with a million patients, and funding a cure becomes the cheapest way for the NFL to protect its business.

That's up nearly 4x from the NHL’s ~$400 million floor in 2021, and it now tops MLB's "get-in" price, where the Miami Marlins sit at $1.45 billion.

Speaking of injuries in football, every single hit in this promo would be illegal today. Including a blatant face mask and a player taking a cleat to the back while on the ground was a nice touch. Simpler times.