Sports & Entertainment Beat

Welcome back to the Spotlight! Before jumping in this week, allow me to clear the decks and orient you: it’s cold as winter through many parts of the country, though allergy season is very clearly in full effect. TikTok is again living on borrowed time, channeling Fredo from “The Godfather” (just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!) having been given another few months to find a suitable purchaser for its US operations. The global retaliatory tariffs on foreign goods in the US have similarly been delayed on every country that isn’t China (and, as a result, negotiations with respect to TikTok are off). The graph line on my 401(k) needs an emesis bag. That’s where we are today -- or at least I think. To add to the uncertainty, the NCAA basketball tournaments have concluded (congratulations to the UConn Huskies on the women’s side and Florida Gators for the men’s side) and many of those players in this year’s tournament will vie to compete in next year’s tournament – albeit for different schools. Indeed, thousands of basketball players have entered the NCAA transfer portal (that for some reason opened in the middle of the aforementioned basketball tournaments), looking for greener pastures (emphasis on “green”) as they seek out more lucrative deals from brands and schools. The upshot?: Hard as it may be to plan in this volatile environment, adaptability, creativity and nasal decongestant will go a long way to ride out the choppy waters.

• • University of Southern California-bound Alijah Arenas, son of former NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas follows in his dad’s footsteps, signing a endorsement deal with Adidas. If Alijah’s career takes off, he may make footsteps of his own in a signature shoe.
     
  • In case you’re starting to sour on pickleball, another emerging racquet sport, padel is on the rise with the Professional Padel League raising $10 million for an expansion into the U.S. market. Approximately half of that will be spent to educate people on how padel is different from pickleball.
     
  • Visual artist Daniel Arsham sues rapper Quavo and his record label Quality Control Music for copyright infringement after one of Arsham’s works appeared in a promotional music video. It is as much a reminder to make sure your lawyer reviews works for rights and clearances, as much as it is a breath of fresh air to have a copyright lawsuit against a recording artist that doesn’t argue a song is sort-of, kind-of, reminiscent of another song.   

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! Much as I would love to take your attention away from the “T” word (no…not “torpedo bats”), I feel obliged to open this week with a discussion on the impact of the across-the-board US tariffs on the sports and entertainment industries. At first blush, you might assume that there would be a minimal impact on sporting events, films and television or live musical performances – none of which being commodities in the traditional sense. But step back and consider, for example,  fan merchandise. Regardless of whether your official tour t-shirt or your favorite team’s jersey is made in the US, the price is almost certainly going to be higher – either because the tariffs drive up the costs of imported goods, or because they provide an economic incentive for domestic manufacturers to increase their prices up to the amount of what the imported goods would be. The same is true of production equipment – much of which is already made elsewhere, if not assembled in the US from foreign components. Concessions prices? Yep.  Imported beer and domestic beer (both of which seem especially enticing after looking at your savings) is likely to experience the same price increases. Yes, dear reader. Like a depressing game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” – everything is interconnected.

• • Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions leads a $45 million funding round in creator-driven golf, media and lifestyle brand, Good Good Golf. Manning—who has rode a legendary professional on-field career to success in the years after he hung up his cleats—will not only be able to leverage Omaha Productions to produce new content for the brand, but he may also be able to see what ordinary people do when they retire.
     
  • Rapper Cardi B and Revolve Group announce a beauty and fashion joint venture, seeking to provide “Finesse” to “Girls Like You.”
     
  • Carolina Panthers Wide Receiver Xavier Legette lands an endorsement deal with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  With Legette revealing last year that he eats racoon for Thanksgiving, I am encouraging my children to triple-check the label when Halloween comes around.

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