Tonight in Unpacks: The Spurs are preparing to move into The Rock at La Cantera, a cutting-edge practice facility that will not just serve the team but the community as well. SBJ’s Tom Friend chronicles the ins-and-outs of The Rock and how it could become the envy of the NBA.
Other headlines:
- Oklahoma, Altius expand NIL relationship
- NFL sponsors ready for action
- The tech behind Amazon's second season of 'TNF'
- Op-ed: Welcome to the jumbled, balkanized future of sports media
- Endeavor stocks fall following news of PFL deal
- Verizon renews with MetLife Stadium, Jets, Giants
- ACC unveils new creative campaign
In this morning's Buzzcast, SBJ’s Abe Madkour wraps up August with:
- Saudi Arabia investing eye-popping $100 million into PFL
- Nebraska flexing community might for women's sports
- College Football Playoff facing too much uncertainty to make changes
- Avs rolling into more national TV dates than any other NHL team
- New Pepsi spot with NFL legends delivering the laughs
- CBS already having 90% sell-through for Super Bowl ads
- Verizon renewing a key NFL deal
La Cantera center is the rock of the Spurs' future
The Rock at La Cantera is scheduled to open in San Antonio’s northwest corridor at least in part by Oct. 1, billed as arguably the preeminent team practice facility in the United States. The shooting lab, the ground force plates, the hydrotherapy pool, the espresso machines, the motion capture, the digital park, the fine dining Spurs Club and the acoustical gym are being installed after team CEO R.C. Buford and his staff spent eight years traveling, vetting and daydreaming about a building that would transcend basketball.
It's a 500,000-square-foot complex built mostly with mass timber and layered with solar panels, one that SBJ's Tom Friend writes in this week's magazine could become the envy of the league. Spurs Sports & Entertainment is footing at least $100 million of the bill, with the rest coming from private investors, partners, the city and county.
As of late August, the only fully operational slice of The Rock was its adjacent 22-acre Park at La Cantera, which still has naming rights available and includes a 7.5-acre dog park, dog-wash station and agility course.
The Rock at La Cantera is billed as the preeminent team practice facility in the NBA
Oklahoma, Altius expand NIL relationship
Altius Sports Partners and Oklahoma unveiled the “OU Athlete Services Division” as part of a five-year agreement slated to run through 2028, reports SBJ's Ben Portnoy. It includes an on-campus representative from Altius working directly with Oklahoma on a number of matters related to NIL.
Oklahoma and Altius, whose relationship dates to March 2022, will enhance their current partnership to create this new division that will help educate businesses about NIL, assist student-athletes in understanding how to fulfill NIL agreements, create content and grow their media presence within the evolving rules.
NFL sponsors ready for action before Week 1 kickoff
With the regular season beginning next week, NFL corporate sponsors are readying activation supporting their pricey IP. David Cohen, the league’s senior director of sponsorship and partnership management, said 46 league sponsors and large licensees are activating with a combination of TV, digital, packaging, social and other media, reports SBJ's Terry Lefton.
YouTube TV is pushing its new NFL Sunday Ticket programming with a national presenting sponsorship of Kickoff Weekend and will have multiple ads, along with in-game enhancements. For the rest of the season, Cohen noted the increased number of co-promotions between NFL sponsors, which includes collabs between YouTube TV featuring Bud Light, TCL and Verizon.
This week's SBJ Marketing newsletter also covers:
- Rice, Moss, Marino among former NFLers joining Brady in new PepsiCo spots
- Alternate jerseys, video games helping fuel NFL product sales
The tech behind Amazon's second season of 'TNF'
In this week's SBJ Tech newsletter, SBJ's Joe Lemire takes a deep dive into the tech innovations that Amazon plans for its second season of "Thursday Night Football," which will build on a foundation of strong viewership in its debut campaign with enhanced picture quality (native HDR production) and more data-driven insights, particularly through its alternate feed, Prime Vision with Next Gen Stats.
For all the complicated technology underpinning the experience, Amazon’s Thursday Night NFL production team remains adamant that Feature Zero is football, and the goal is to use that information to better tell a story this year, not to flash stat-driven features just to show Amazon's technical capabilities.
Op-ed: Welcome to the jumbled, balkanized future of sports media
Tonight's op-ed comes from Harris Poll CEO Will Johnson on the changing media landscape for sports.
"Get used to this, sports fans. It’s no surprise that the NFL -- the country’s most popular and most-watched sport, according to a recent Harris Poll survey -- is at the leading edge of a wave of change disrupting and rearranging the sports media landscape. It is a harbinger, not an isolated change."
Read the full submission here.
Speed reads
- Check out the college football preview in today's edition of SBJ Daily, which examines the lack of ranked matchups in Week 1, conference realignment, sponsorships and marketing and more.
- The stock prices of WWE and Endeavor are both down notably today, and some are pointing to the PFL’s deal with the Saudi PIF as a possible reason, notes SBJ's Adam Stern.
- Verizon renewed its cornerstone sponsorship with MetLife Stadium and the Jets and Giants, in the process committing to major upgrades to the stadium’s cellular network ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, writes SBJ's Ben Fischer.
- The ACC released a new creative campaign as the 2023 college football season kicks off, highlighting the conference's successes in athletics, academics and more, notes SBJ's Ben Portnoy.
- EP Golf Ventures, the golf investment vehicle launched last year by Elysian Park Ventures and the PGA of America, completed the close of its first fund, writes SBJ's Chris Smith.
- Evil Geniuses CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson announced today that she's stepped down from her role and is leaving the esports organization in September, per The Esports Advocate.