Sports Business
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to receive it in your email? Subscribe here.)
Name-dropped today: Cooper Flagg, Josh Allen, Woody Johnson, Faith Kipyegon, Mark Walter, Ndamukong Suh, Caitlin Clark, Travis Hunter, Kevin Durant and more. Let’s go:
Behind Flagg, New Balance surges into the NBA conversation
Until now, New Balance — the classic, fashionable “dad shoe” progenitor — has been very selective in its NBA endorsements.
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The initial face of the brand’s hoops division was the inscrutable Kawhi Leonard, along with mostly erstwhile, one-time (or no-time) All-Stars. All in all: kind of underwhelming, certainly compared to Nike or Adidas.
But back in the fall, New Balance finally made its move in the men’s game: The New England-based company landed New England’s greatest basketball prospect ever — Cooper Flagg, who will be selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the first pick of the NBA Draft tonight and instantly become one of the most popular young faces of the league.
To be sure: Flagg is one of the best American basketball prospects of all time and has been a legend with Gen Z since he was 15.
New Balance is going all in on the moment, dubbing today “Flagg Day,” complete with a merch drop. This continues New Balance’s endorsement strategy of quality over quantity: Coco Gauff. Shohei Ohtani. Cameron Brink. Gabby Thomas. Quincy Wilson. A handful of European soccer stars. (After he was spotted wearing NB cleats last week at mini-camp, maybe even Josh Allen?)
“Because of New Balance’s approach in signing fewer names than its rivals, it can offer these athletes a dedicated focus on investment in bespoke products and their personal brands that others can’t match,” industry analyst Daniel-Yaw Miller (who publishes the essential business-of-sports-fashion newsletter SportsVerse) told me.
New Balance’s innovative relationship with Gauff has been a standard-setter. Applying that marketing playbook to Flagg should put him within a top tier among NBA players as soon as … well, tonight. Happy Flagg Day. (Which is actually a real thing today, as announced by the governor of Flagg’s native Maine.)
Big talkers from the sports business industry:
Lakers sell for $10B: Two of our MLB reporters dug into how Mark Walter’s tenure as Dodgers owner might foreshadow how he operates the Lakers. (More on this from our new Lakers reporter in “What I’m Wondering” below.)
Club World Cup: The heat in the U.S. is most definitely an issue, and it begs a pretty big (as-yet-unanswerable) question about what that means for the men’s World Cup next summer.
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NBA ratings surge in Game 7: 16.35 million people watched Game 7 of the NBA Finals, delivering — per my colleague Richard Deitsch — a “massive viewership win for NBA/ABC/ESPN given the brutal viewership numbers leading up to it.”
Pac-12 gets its media deal: I’m rooting for the plucky Pac-12. Its new deal with CBS gives it a reputable distro platform and the stability to add the eighth member it needs to remain relevant (i.e., fulfill its requirement to be part of the College Football Playoff).
Jets’ Woody Johnson buys into Crystal Palace: John Textor agreed to sell his 43 percent share of the Premier League club ($254M value), 25% of the voting control. Here’s what Johnson and Palace supporters can expect from each other.
Other current obsessions: Faith Kipyegon trying to become the first woman to break the four-minute mile in Paris tomorrow … Anthony Edwards x Prada … Auckland FC at the Club World Cup … PSA 9s … Josh Harris spending $500K on a Jayden Daniels card … The Athletic’s new business and personal finance podcast, “No Free Lunch,” hosted by football legend Ndamukong Suh, launching next Tuesday! Click to watch the trailer:
Let’s hear from The Athletic’s new Lakers reporter, Dan Woike:
“The changes coming for the franchise are sure to be severe, but when those changes actually start is still the big question. It’s reasonable to expect the franchise to operate in functionally the same manner as it has been this offseason, even as it’s set for this massive infusion of cash.
“The Lakers, of course, won’t be able to retroactively beef up their infrastructure, to build out a modern pro scouting staff, to scour the G League for hidden gems … They won’t be able to just fire money at free agents because of the NBA’s second apron essentially functioning as a hard cap.
“The sale might’ve happened overnight; the effects of it will probably move a little slower.”
Payout of the Week: $30.57 million
That’s Travis Hunter’s Jaguars signing bonus — paid entirely up front, unprecedented for a non-QB taken after the first pick of the draft. (His overall deal is 4Y/$46.65M.)
Investor of the Week: Kevin Durant
When he’s not at the center of massive NBA trades, KD remains one of the most active athlete-investors in sports. The latest: buying a piece of Paris Saint-Germain, which has an eye on dramatically expanding its basketball presence in Europe (with KD’s help?).
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Data Point: 515,993
That’s the league-leading number of WNBA All-Star votes earned by Caitlin Clark after the first round of voting, as you might expect. But, per my colleague Ben Pickman, the notable surge comes down-ballot:
“In 2023, no player received more than 100,000 votes for the WNBA All-Star Game, and only eight players received more than 50,000 votes. In the first returns this year, 39 players had more than 50K, and 19 had more than 100K.”
Name to Know: Matt Dennish
The 39-year-old teacher from Pennsylvania finished in third place at the inaugural Fanatics Games — an athletic skills-based contest — behind only Tom Brady (who came in first, of course) and UFC’er Justin Gaethje. Dennish won a rare LeBron James card he exchanged with Brady for $250K.
Related: Don’t miss the incredible stories from our reporters who covered Fanatics Fest. They saw some wild things.
Peak of the Week
What the OKC Thunder can teach any organization about culture. (My favorite Thunder staple: “Be where your feet are.”)
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
“I feel pretty confident saying some team is going to win a Super Bowl in the next few years utilizing AI at a very high rate, significantly higher than it has ever been used before.” AI is coming to the NFL and could transform the game.
Two more reads worth your time:
“F1: The Movie” opens this week. Here’s how Brad Pitt learned how to drive like a pro.
How do you raise a well-adjusted superstar college QB? Meet Arch Manning’s parents.
Back next Wednesday! In honor of Flagg Day: Draft a couple of friends or colleagues to send MoneyCall, with your personal recommendation to subscribe to get the newsletter every Wednesday (totally free, as are all The Athletic’s other newsletters).
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Dan Shanoff is a Managing Editor for The Athletic, focused on Sports Business. Before joining The Athletic, he held editorial and content-development roles at a range of companies including ESPN, USA Today Sports, Monumental and Quickish, a sports-news start-up he founded. He is a graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, has an MBA from Harvard Business School and was an award-winning adjunct instructor in Georgetown’s Sports Industry Management program. Follow Dan on Twitter @danshanoff
Why New Balance went all-in on NBA Draft sensation Cooper Flagg: MoneyCall – The New York Times
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