1) Is David Blitzer addicted to shopping (for sports teams)?
The first man with stakes in teams in all five US major leagues – the Washington Commanders (NFL), Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), Cleveland Guardians (MLB), New Jersey Devils (NHL), and Real Salt Lake (MLS) (his stake in which he sold last year) – as well as a Premier League club (Crystal Palace) for good measure, is now an IPL owner. The American’s Bolt Ventures investment firm leads a group containing Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla Group, The Times of India Group and private equity firm Blackstone that has bought reigning IPL champions Royal Challengers Bangalore from British drinks firm Diageo for a fee of $1.78 billion. Of course, he’s not the first American to buy into the IPL. That would be Gerry Cardinale, who bought a 15% stake in the Rajasthan Royals in 2021 for a reported $37.5 million through his RedBird vehicle. That investment has now paid off, with the Royals also sold this week to a consortium led by Arizona-based tech entrepreneur Kal Somani, as well as Walmart heir and Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton and Michael Hamp, son of Sheila Ford Hamp, who owns Detroit Lions. The $1.64 billion paid by Somani et al means that the Rajasthan franchise has increased in value by 57x since it was picked up in the original 2008 IPL team auction. (And a quick bit of maths suggests Cardinale has made a $208 million profit in just five years in Rajasthan). On the eve of the IPL’s 19th season, the league has moved into a new era. It is now not just enriching the BCCI and Indian industrialists, but US financiers too.
2) Are there any other large numbers doing the rounds that are more surprising than the IPL franchise fees?
Here’s one: 148,384. That’s the number of people who showed up in Goiânia to attend the first Brazilian MotoGP in 22 years (a race weekend that, attendance beside, was beset by challenges). Here’s another: 100,000. That’s the number of spectators through the gates at LIV Golf’s South African event this past weekend, making it by some distance the best attended golf event in South African history. They made a heck of a lot of noise too. Is LIV finding its feet as the fan-experience-first golf tournament for the sleeping giant countries of the sport? It’s a question David and I took a nine-iron to on the podcast this week.
3) Should I launch a podcast?
Honestly, the answer to most iterations of this question is no. But if you’re a B2B focused business with a comms and marketing budget and a thought leadership itch to scratch, then why not. I continue to enjoy Chad Biagini and Excel Search & Advisory’s Excellent Leadership Podcast – such great depth on career development through Chad’s meticulous research and charm-and-probe interview technique. I’m also looking forward to the new Ascent series from Elevate finding its feet; a decent first effort with the USTA’s Kirsten Corio here. In fact, the increased priority that sports entities – be it service providers or rights holders – are paying to the B2B space is a growing trend. The Australian Open hosted a sports marketing conference for the first time this year. Likewise local organisers of the Super Bowl in San Francisco were delighted with the success of their B2B-focused Innovation Summit. We’re seeing measurable gains from club-run networking clubs like this one in Brooklyn too. (And, oh yes – if you’re curious, we can help with all/any of this too).
4) I’ve just signed a sponsorship deal; what do I do next?!
Follow Ricardo Fort’s excellent minute-by-minute guide to rolling it out internally, then externally.
5) What’s going on in UK horse racing?
Honestly, I don’t know anymore. And maybe that’s part of the problem (not that I personally am no longer as informed about the sport and its powerbrokers as I once was, but that communications more broadly have become a stiffer challenge in the sport in recent years). This piece by Rupert Hawksley brings some of the threads and factions in racing’s ‘civil war’ together.
6) What feels both ominous and impenetrable at the same time?
This announcement from the Indiana Pacers. It feels significant. It feels like an AI-powered breakthrough to unlock the buying capacity of millions of fans. It feels quite difficult to fully understand.
7) How is Don Garber going to grab my attention?
The first afternoon of our Business of Soccer event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta had the feel of a lap of honour for Major League President Don Garber, who received glowing, unprompted, tributes on stage from US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone and Kansas City Chiefs and FC Dallas owner Clark Hunt for his contribution to the sport's development in the US. Getting down to business, Garber was keen to emphasise how he intends to make Major League Soccer part of the conversation during the World Cup: a previously announced partnership with Ogilvy will see an ad campaign rolled out, including during Fox's US coverage of the final, with clubs able to customise and localise spots. The league, taking a seven week hiatus for the tournament, will also act as the lead-in to the World Cup final itself, resuming in between the semi-finals and the showpiece game.
8) What does a significant structural change look like in reality?
The realignment of the MLS season to match European league seasons is currently occupying much of Garber and his top team's attention. To make the shift, the league will stage a 'Sprint Season' between February and May next year, a 14-game mini season with compressed playoff structure. Teams are busy, as Garber put it, "conditioning" fans, partners and stadium operations to handle the enforced adjustment, including elements like reduced inventory, season ticketing and venue usage, but from a marketing standpoint the concept poses an additional tricky and specific challenge: make a shorter season feel as compelling and exciting, without making it so good that it impacts sentiment when MLS reverts back to its longer regular season format later in 2027.
9) How different will the 2031 Women's World Cup be?
One question doing the rounds this week in Atlanta on and off stage is the extent to which the operational delivery of the 2031 Women's World Cup might be different from the 2026 men's tournament, including the nature of Fifa's oversight and on the ground presence, the host city value exchange and the roles of the national federations. While there are Fifa formalities to be worked through, the US, in partnership with Costa Rica, Jamaica and Mexico, are sole bidders for the tournament. And Fifa Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom was listening intently from the front row as US Soccer's Parlow Cone offered this diplomatic assessment: "When I think about '31 and the operating model, we have some time to figure it out", she said, emphasising that there'll be learnings aplenty from this summer.
