Sports & Entertainment Beat

Welcome back to the Spotlight! Just one more installment on the way next week before this dog and pony show packs it in for the rest of the year (pause for groaning, protests and/or sighs of relief). Unlike Juan Soto, I promise to be back next year—it won’t even take $765 million to make it happen. Though, for the record, I certainly would not turn down $765 million. While I’m on the subject, I’m not going to talk about the dynamics between the New York Yankees or Mets, I’ll save that for another time. Instead, if Soto is to receive $765 million (or more) over the next 15 years—the most lucrative professional sports contract—how much higher can players’ salaries go before we’re talking about equity compensation (in the form of options to purchase a piece of a team after retirement—so as to avoid apparent conflicts of interest) rather than cash? Such a shift might level the playing field so to (Soto?) speak for owners that are not worth $21 billion dollars (like the Mets’ Steve Cohen).  We’ve seen it most recently with Lionel Messi’s Major League Soccer deal with Inter Miami CF, so maybe it is just a matter of time before we see it in one of the Big Four professional sports leagues. 

• • Authentic Brands Group strikes a stadium naming rights deal to rebrand the home of MLS’ New York Redbulls, Sports Illustrated Stadium.  Perhaps that means we can expect the team to play in swimsuits one match per year.
     
  • The Writers’ Guild of America wrote (obviously) a scathing letter to Hollywood studios criticizing their allowing their intellectual property from being used for training generative AI models. In fairness to the studios, they didn’t have anything to say because the WGA didn’t write anything for them.
     
  • University of Colorado star Wide Receiver/Cornerback and Heisman Trophy frontrunner, Travis Hunter signs an endorsement deal with Adidas ahead of the draft. As part of their pitch, Adidas gave him two hats.

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn. 

Welcome back to the Spotlight! Hard enough as it is to believe, but as sure as I am incessantly refreshing my web browser for stories about Juan Soto’s free agency, we’re nearly at the end of the year. Indeed, if the cold weather and manufactured deadlines that overlook that the calendar rolls over to a new day (granted, an increasingly questionable proposition in this crazy world…) were not evidence enough, people are receiving and gratuitously posting their Spotify Wrapped highlights from 2024. If I had the budget to support it, I’d do a version of my own that tracked the number of dad jokes and sports and entertainment business headlines but there’s always next year (I think). Although tomorrow may not be promised, a cringe, eye-roll and/or smile is on the below:

• • Alex Cooper -- host of the second most streamed podcast on Spotify, “Call Her Daddy” – becomes the latest celebrity to wade into the beverage industry, launching “Unwell,” an electrolyte-infused drink marketed to women. With her following, the brand may just do better than its name suggests.  
     
  • The Washington Commanders make something of an unconventional hire for their front office, bringing in the former CEO of the Campbell Soup Company to serve as the team’s President. In so doing, the team is one step closer to a souper bowl. 
     
  • Speaking of soup, the traditional Jewish soup dumpling that is a matzo ball may soon be taking a more oblong shape, as Brigham Young University’s first Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff unveils his NIL sponsorship with kosher food company, Manischewitz. Now that’s something to kvell at!

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.