Friday Dump 🥟 - College on-field sponsors, New 3v3 league, Red Bull's new investment

What a day to be alive for the Friday Dump 🥟

Each Friday, we’ll breakdown 3 sports business stories that have caught our eye throughout the week. They will be assembled in the following format:

🔴 - Stories that make us stop, think, and question.

🟡 - Stories with a hint of risk and unpredictability.

🟢 - Stories that make us feel good to go and empowered.

Protect this newsletter at all costs.

🔴 College on the hunt for new revenue streams. Sure, we’re old enough to remember the times when the NCAA and athletic departments took advantage of student-athletes and their families. We’re not saying those were great times, but my goodness were they simpler 😂. About a week after agreeing to a $2.7B settlement to allow revenue sharing with athletes, the NCAA and the Power 5 schools are looking for new revenue baskets to forage through. An NCAA spokesperson said Wednesday that its rules committee will discuss a proposal to add corporate sponsorships to football fields and jerseys. As of now, corporate sponsors are only allowed on the field during bowl games, sponsored neutral-sites, and instances when a sponsor has purchased naming rights to the field, stadium, or facility (such as Kroger Field at University of Kentucky). So what could this include?

• As of now, the exact policy change isn’t clear. Though, the expectation is that schools will be permitted to display corporate names and logos in three ways: at midfield and at each 25-yard line.

• The potential changes to jerseys, such as schools adding patches to a player’s jersey (like official NBA jerseys) will be discussed by the rules committee in the next week or so.

• According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, big program schools could bring in upwards of $1M from each on-field sponsor and $5M in jersey patches.

• The SEC has also had talks of expanding of their football conference schedule, from eight games to nine.

  • A 9th game could draw as much as $3M to $5M in additional revenue per school 😳.

🟡 Ok ladies, now let’s get in the 3-player formation. Move aside BIG3, it’s time for the women to check ball. That’s right, women’s basketball has a new league. No, don’t worry it won’t coincide with the WNBA schedule. Unrivaled, co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, will be the name of the new 3-on-3 pro women’s basketball league which begins play in January 2025 (yes, that’s the WNBA offseason). And my goodness are the money-makers lining up to write checks.

• Initial funding will be led by U.S. Soccer co-captain Alex Morgan through her venture firm, Trybe Ventures, where she has helped put together a crew of famous investors.

  • It will include Olympic soccer gold medalist Megan Rapinoe, former 2x NBA MVP Steve Nash, 5x LGPA champion Michelle Wie West, and Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman.

  • Actor Ashton Kutcher, former NBA star Carmelo Anthony, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk, and former ESPN president John Skipper also contributed to the seed round.

• Unrivaled will offer equity to each of its 30 players as it builds a player-owned league with six teams. The equity pool will vest over a four-year period, which incentivizes the players to stick around.

• They’re also looking to offer a league minimum salary of $100K, which would be the highest average salary in women’s pro sports 👏.

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🟢 Red Bull to give English soccer club wings. You can say it. We were all thinking it. Red Bull can be such a little sponsorship slut. On Wednesday, it was announced that Red Bull struck a deal to purchase a minority stake in Leeds United — and will be the main sponsor of the club’s jerseys next season. Unfortunately for Leeds, the news was released after a 1-0 loss on Sunday to Southampton in the Championship playoff final which would have given them the opportunity to clinch promotion to the Premier League. They’ll spend another season in the second division of English soccer repping Red Bull across their chests, instead of their previous sponsor BOXT. So what does this mean for the club and Red Bull moving forward?

• Red Bull already owns and operates five soccer clubs around the world: RB Leipzig (Germany), New York Red Bulls (U.S.), Red Bull Bragantino (Brazil), RB Brasil (Brazil), and FC Red Bull Salzburg (Austria). Oh, don’t forget they also own the powerhouse Formula 1 team: Red Bull Racing.

  • Even though there has been some past controversy when it comes to Red Bull rebranding soccer clubs (i.e. RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg), sources say as part of its share acquisition, the club’s name, shirt color, or stadium name will not change.

• Leeds is run by 49ers Enterprises, the private equity arm of the NFL franchise, San Francisco 49ers.

  • The 49ers’ fund is made up of numerous individuals and investors such as, golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, NBA players Larry Nance Jr. and T.J. McConnell, and actors Will Ferrell and Russell Crowe.