SBJ Unpacks: Portman, Ohanian Dish On Angel City FC

Tonight in SBJ Unpacks: Backers of the NWSL expansion club Angel City FC, including Natalie Portman and Alexis Ohanian, dish on the team's mission and backstory.

• Executives on pivoting during pandemic
• Andrew Hawkins talks working with LeBron, Maverick Carter
• Endorsement deals still coming through for athletes
• Vikings continue to reorganize business side
• Fox on pace for record low World Series viewership
  
  

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ANGEL CITY BACKERS TALK ROAD TO EXPANSION

• Three founders of Angel City FC shed light on the backstory behind the much-anticipated expansion NWSL club with plenty of Hollywood backing during the SBJ Game Changers virtual event today.
  
  

• Natalie Portman said she wanted to create a team when she began to realize that women's sport was undervalued and under-amplified, with female athletes not getting the visibility or sponsorship that they deserve. “Certainly not compared to their popularity,” Portman said, “particularly in the U.S., (where) we have the best players in the world in the most popular sport in the world.”
  
  
• Angel City President Julie Uhrman admitted that she, Portman and Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman had “no background in sports,” but that did not deter them from their goal. Uhrman: “We went to the league and said, ‘We believe we can make this happen in our city, Los Angeles. We believe we can find the money. We believe we can steer a stadium. We'd like you to trust us and bet on us.’”
  
  
• Reddit co-Founder Alexis Ohanian said, “I see all of this as an opportunity to show we can build a viable, profitable franchise.” Ohanian: “We want to build individual brands around our players, because each one of those players is, herself, a persona that has fans, that all bubble up for the benefits of the team.” He added, “We know that a big part of getting the pay equity is to bring the dollars in, and to actually help give our players more channels to make money.”

Portman said she wanted to create a team when she began to realize that women's sport was undervalued and under-amplified

EXECS ON PIVOTING DURING PANDEMIC

• Executives across the sports industry today at the SBJ Game Changers virtual event shared insights on how their respective organizations pivoted amid the pandemic throughout the calendar year.
  
  
• Drone Racing League President Rachel Jacobson said as a technology-based sport that “straddles the real and the virtual, we had that virtual there for the taking” amid the shutdown. Jacobson: "We’ve taken the time … to get smarter and more agile about our business. It’s almost like forget about the playbook, forget about what we’ve been planning for. … The properties that are thriving are those that have really been able to embrace change.” 
  
  

• USTA Marketing Managing Director Nicole Kankam noted one thing that “surprised” the USTA was that “none of our sponsors pulled out" of the U.S. Open. Kankam: “They all remained committed ... and really started to think creatively about how do we engage?” Kankam cited the Black Lives To The Front initiative -- where 18 commissioned Black artists had artwork featured in the front rows of courtside seats in Arthur Ashe Stadium -- as a pivot from the 2020 upheaval. “We took a negative -- all these empty seats -- and turned it on a positive." 
  
  
• NYRR Senior VP/Strategic Partnerships & Runner Products Christine Burke said her organization dove into the video content sector and “developed both a 12-episode podcast, as well as a short form video content series called Long Run Short Stories.” Burke: “The feedback has been really positive, and we’ve used those platforms as ways to engage with partners.”  

ANDREW HAWKINS ON EXECUTING SPRINGHILL'S VISION

• Former NFLer Andrew Hawkins started working with Uninterrupted (now SpringHill Co.) in 2016. Today, he is host of its “Kneading Dough” series, which provides athletes an open forum to discuss money management.
  
  
• “For a lot of people, whether you are an athlete or not -- you’re an everyday person, whether you’re an executive, an industry professional -- I think people having honest conversations about money makes us all smarter with our finances,” Hawkins said of the series’ key purpose. He told SBJ’s Andrew Levin, “That’s what the whole basis of the show is: You don’t know something until you’re taught. You don’t know something until you’ve experienced it.”
  
  
• “Kneading Dough” also discusses hot-button topics that are tangential to finance, including social justice, entrepreneurship, making the right decisions as a brand and dealing with family and friends. 
  
  
• Hawkins stressed that the property is fulfilling SpringHill co-Founders LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s key focus to educate and empower. “They’re leaders -- great leaders,” Hawkins said. “It would be easy for (James) just to release shoes and just make as much money as he can as a brand name. ... (However,) him and Mav have come up with an incredible company, incredible plan, an incredible outlook on how they view things to say, ‘Okay, here’s the power I have. Now I have the power to show everybody else what they’re capable of.’”
  
  
• For more insights from Hawkins on “Kneading Dough" and SpringHill Co., check out today’s episode of “SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead” podcast. 

DEALS STILL HAPPENING FOR ATHLETES

• Like everything in marketing, the pandemic has made the athlete endorsement market wither like election campaign promises in January, writes SBJ's Terry Lefton. Personal appearances and commercial production disappeared early on, but while pricing for any sports marketing asset is depressed, there are those who say demand has not lessened.
  
  
• “We have not experienced a reduction in deal flow,” said Phil de Picciotto, president of Octagon’s Athletes & Personalities unit, whose clients include Michael Phelps and Giannis Antetokounmpo. “Society becomes increasingly bifurcated with haves and have-nots during the pandemic and the same is true of athlete endorsements. There are companies taking advantage of the situation and getting out of deals. Others are spending. And there are more [individual athlete] content deals than ever, because of the void in traditional content production.”
  
  
• For more, see today's issue of SBJ Marketing.

VIKINGS CONTINUE TO REORGANIZE BUSINESS SIDE

• The Vikings have made further changes to their business leadership in the wake of longtime Exec VP & CMO Steve LaCroix’s imminent departure, according to Vikings COO Andrew Miller. Vikings VP/Corporate & Tech Partnerships John Penhollow has been promoted to Exec VP & CRO, taking over the revenue-generating side of LaCroix’s job, per SBJ's Ben Fischer.
  
  
• A search for a new CMO is now underway and a position will be posted soon; longtime VP/marketing and fan engagement Dannon Hulskotter will also be leaving the team, Miller said.
  
  
• The changes mark Miller’s first major moves since replacing now-Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren in the top business job at the Vikings in September 2019. His goal is to modernize the Vikings’ front office by centralizing all revenue under one leader and separating the marketing function.

FOX ON PACE FOR RECORD LOW WORLD SERIES

• Fox is averaging 9.1 million viewers for the Dodgers-Rays World Series after five games, easily on pace for a record low audience for the Fall Classic, writes SBJ's Austin Karp.
  
  
• The event has had to deal with headwinds in TV viewership amid an election year and general sports fatigue this fall due to the pandemic shifting many schedules. The previous low for any World Series on record was 12.7 million viewers for the Giants’ sweep of the Tigers in 2012. Through Game 5 of last year’s Nationals-Astros World Series, Fox was averaging 11.6 million viewers.
  
  
• Game 5 on Sunday night was the best audience yet for Dodgers-Rays, with Fox averaging 10.0 million viewers up against “Sunday Night Football,” down from 11.4 million last year for Game 5. On Saturday night, Game 4 averaged 9.3 million, down from 10.2 million. Friday night’s Game 3 was the least-watched World Series game on record, averaging just 8.2 million viewers.

SPEED READS

• D.C. United and FanDuel reached a multiyear partnership designating FanDuel the exclusive sports betting sponsor of the MLS club. The cornerstone of the partnership is a plan to open a retail sportsbook at Audi Field in 2021, pending licensing and regulatory approvals from the DC Lottery. The deal marks the first sports betting partnership for FanDuel with a MLS team.
   

• BetMGM hired ESPN Senior VP/Social & Digital Content Ryan Spoon to be COO, a role which will see him report to CEO Adam Greenblatt. Spoon, who starts Nov. 16, will be based in New Jersey. BetMGM has established relationships with several leagues and teams. Spoon will be tasked with growing BetMGM’s social and digital platforms. “A lot of my time will be spent around where I spent a lot of time during my early days at ESPN -- product and technology and operations,” Spoon told SBJ's John Ourand. “In the early going, it’s going to be about understanding the space and understanding the business. I’m going to dig into some of the product and the construction side."
  
  
• Atlanta-based ticketing inventory and technology company Experience will formally close shop by the end of 2020, reports SBJ's Karn Dhingra. Founded in 2011 by Tripp Rackley, Experience was used by many pro teams to sell seat upgrades and unique experiences to fans. In 2019, Experience signed a deal with the NBA to operate its subscription ticketing service. Read more here.
  
  
• The "likely opening day for NBA training camps" will be Dec. 1 if the "league's plan to set Dec. 22 as opening night of the 2020-21 season is approved by the union," according to the N.Y. Times' Marc Stein. Meanwhile, the N.Y. Post's Marc Berman cites sources as saying that the NBA eyeing Dec. 22 to start the season is a "strong reaction to the horrendous TV ratings for the late-summer restart/October Finals."
  
  
• Tonight in the SBJ College newsletter, Austin Karp takes a look at how the return of Big Ten football was a boost for the conference's TV partners over the weekend.
  
  
• Augusta National revealed more changes to The Masters, and the "Par 3 Contest is out" for the event, which was delayed to Nov. 12-15. The "most unusual" change is "ESPN's popular college football pregame show taking place on a stage that overlooks Ike's Pond and the ninth green of the Par 3 course." Regarding the "College GameDay" tie-in, it "helps that ESPN is a broadcast partner of the Masters and will televise the opening two rounds," per the AP.
  
  

• Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews has traveled to nine different stadiums so far this NFL season with the network’s A-team broadcast crew, working games with no fans in places like Seattle and N.Y., as well as venues like Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field, hosting over 15,000. She caught up with SBJ's David Rumsey to talk broadcasting games during this unique season earlier today. 
  
  
• ESPN's Greg Wyshynski spoke with three minor league hockey executives -- ECHL Commisioner Ryan Crelin, AHL President Scott Howson and SPHL Commissioner Doug Price -- about their plans for restarting their leagues this season, their concerns about doing so during a pandemic and if they can pull this off. Crelin: "We're all going through the same thing. We're all dealing with the same issues. We may take slightly varied approaches, but there's not an aspect of our business that this hasn't touched."

• Check out the most recent editions of our SBJ Unpacks podcasts:
  
  
  • T-Mobile VP Mike Belcher on the mobile carrier’s activation around the World Series.
    
    
  • NHL Chief Business Officer Keith Wachtel discusses the league’s participation in the American Gaming Association’s responsible gaming campaign..
    
    
  • Fox Sports Florida GM Steve Tello discusses the RSN’s coverage of the Lightning and Rays and breaks down pandemic-related issues.

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