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Fan Fact
According to a report from Sportico, the Raiders generated the NFL’s highest ticket revenue during the 2021 season, bringing in $119 million in net gate revenue from general seating and club seating.
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Nike opened its latest store concept, Nike Style, in Seoul, South Korea. The athletics giant in a blog post described the store as a “remixed expression of sports retail culture that blurs the line between physical and digital.”
What's the deal?
Nike is returning to Seoul for its latest store format, after opening a Nike Rise concept in the city about a year ago. The Hongdae neighborhood, where Nike Style is opening, has a strong relationship with sneaker culture, according to Nike, and the store will be surrounded by local retail and entertainment.
As with many of Nike’s store concepts lately, Nike Style has tech baked into it. QR codes throughout the store allow shoppers to open augmented reality experiences tied to art installations and product innovation, a feature that was also recently on display at the Nike Live store in Los Angeles. A more unique feature, Nike’s new format includes a content studio with customizable backdrops where anyone from local creatives to shoppers can create content for their social media channels.
The bottom line:
As Nike has worked to pursue a direct-to-consumer strategy over the past few years, Nike’s store concept list has grown to include digital-focused formats like Nike Live, Nike Rise, Nike House of Innovation and now Nike Style. In March this year, the company also teased that it was planning stand-alone Jordan brand stores.
Read: Retail Dive
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In the early 1960’s, commissioner Pete Rozelle and NFL owners had a unique idea to make NFL football available in every home in America. Television made that possible for the first time. In 1950, approximately one in 10 living rooms had a television, according to Britannica. By 1960, eight in 10 homes had bought a TV set, making the television the best way to reach a sports-crazy nation. The thinking was—by making the NFL widely available—the country would love what they saw. And they did.
Since then, the NFL has turned that idea into our guiding star—serve current NFL fans and build new ones by reaching as many people as possible. Needless to say, today’s world is much different than it was in 1960. All of us are interacting with the world in new and ever more dynamic ways, not simply watching television. We are streaming, reading, texting, posting, creating and even tweeting and snapping—things Pete Rozelle never imagined. So, while the goal of reaching everyone remains the same, the way we do it is not.
Read: Sports Illustrated
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The National Basketball Association (NBA) has taken a minority stake in 15 Seconds of Fame (15SOF), an application that allows spectators to download clips of themselves from broadcasts of sporting events. The company’s technology uses facial recognition software to package together the clips from broadcast or in-venue video feeds, which can then be downloaded via partner applications. Fans can then share clips of themselves in the crowd (or on kiss cam) on social media, driving awareness and deepening engagement, while also generating advertising revenue which is shared between 15SOF and its partners.
The NBA, along with the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam, is already a partner of 15SOF. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but Scott Kauffman-Ross, the NBA’s head of gaming and new business ventures, told the New York Times that the investment is a “continuation of the NBA’s commitment to embrace innovation and new technologies.”
Read: SportsPro
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The sports leagues leading the way in fan engagement are leap-frogging the traditional sports marketing playbook to meet today’s fans’ demand for 24/7 social content. They’re building their own real-time digital content feeds to deliver an intimate window into matchday events and all the action — as it happens.
Video clips, highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, and sideline experiences are what fans expect now - and content that is opening the wallets of sponsors and broadcast partners.
From our work with leagues big and small, we’ve developed the industry's definitive best practices playbook. Read our free, step-by-step guide to learn how to create your league’s own digital media feed to supply your partners and your fans with the in-person experience they’re seeking.
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Notre Dame would remain independent if it can earn at least $75 million annually in media rights revenue from current broadcast partner NBC, sources told CBS Sports. The Fighting Irish's deal with the network is set to expire in 2025. For NBC to feel comfortable raising Notre Dame's valuation to such a level, it is seeking "shoulder programming" (in this case, games played before and/or after Notre Dame's contests) from a Power Five conference to enhance its college football coverage. When such a move had been speculated previously, the Big Ten was the conference mentioned most often as a target. However, the Big 12 has emerged as a strong option to fill NBC's shoulder programming needs.
The Big Ten is expected to announce a new $1 billion media rights deal possibly as early as this month with Fox as its primary partner. It is believed to be seeking 2-3 other partners to air its programming with NBC reportedly among the bidders. Outgoing Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby had not heard anything specific on NBC targeting the Big 12 for additional programming but said such a move "makes sense." The Big 12 may be one of the few leagues with inventory available as its media rights deal also expires in 2025.
Read: CBS Sports
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Outback is expanding early experiments with college athletes and digital content as it works to reach younger diners. Last month, the Australia-themed steakhouse chain released its first collection of NFTs, called “Bloomin’ Buds,” which featured more than 8,000 iterations of illustrated onions that over three days evolved from being “sweet baby onions” into teenagers before growing into full-grown roots.
Outback’s NFTs are part of the brand’s efforts to partner with college athletes across a number of sports following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June 2021 to rule against the NCAA and let students make money off their name, image and likeness. Although the NFTs helped promote new partnerships with baseball and softball players from a number of schools, Outback’s collaborations with college athletes began last fall with football season and expanded to men’s and women’s basketball over the winter.
Read: Digiday
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- NIL: An NIL collective called the Matador Club plans this week to sign 100 Texas Tech football players to a substantial one-year, $25,000 deal.
- ENTERTAINMENT: Amazon taps ‘Captain Marvel’ composer to create ‘Thursday Night Football’ theme music.
- PEOPLE: Range Media Partners announced the formation of a sports division, led by Will Funk, a former executive vice president at WarnerMedia.
- TRENDS: Mountain Dew ventured into the metaverse with a virtual esports watch party.
- STREAMING: On August 23, the price of ESPN+ will jump from $6.99 to $9.99 per month with an eye on profitability.
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- Brand: United Airlines & PGA Tour
- Campaign: Golf is Ours
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Lifewtr teams up with LeBron James for its first-ever athlete partnership
The Details
James has teamed up with premium bottled water brand LIFEWTR to provide for underserved communities in the U.S. The partnership will center around dedicated programs that will be announced later this year. LIFEWTR says it hopes to use James’ passion for community, empowerment, and storytelling, and leverage his platform to boost the company’s efforts to “enable people to thrive by providing the hydration and resources they need. These have included supporting artists through funding and exposure, and bottled water collections that feature unique expressions by people of diverse backgrounds.
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Share today's edition with a friend who's counting down the days until college football kicks off.
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