Call it a March Madness hangover, or maybe I’ve been reading too many Succession plot line predictions about who will take over the family business, but I’ve been thinking about what common themes will stand out next week at the World Congress of Sports in LA.
I’ve been to enough of these events that often it feels like the speakers and attendees are in cahoots, preparing a BS bingo card we can all enjoy. As we prepare to head south to LA for the event next week, I’ve come up with ten predictions – rather themes – I expect to hear mentioned many times:
- Regional Sports Networks – Outside of the NFL, our property friends have some big decisions to make, and there has already been fallout (see #10).
- “Women’s Sports Time is Now” – When we say “NCAA Final Four”, the default is ‘Women’s’ right? From $2M to $50M in a few short years, NWSL franchise fees are rising at an eyepopping rate. The Sports Bra here in Portland is awesome, and is an unmitigated success.
- Direct to Consumer – D2C, streaming, apologies to the religious holiday – the rights-holder holy grail.
- Motorsports as a (continued) growth stock – F1 captures Americans’ love for streaming, storylines, and international travel. NASCAR’s innovation and willingness to try new things is impressive.
- “What keeps you up at night?” – If you are leading a panel, might be time to sunset this question post-pandemic.
- WWE+UFC – $21.4Billion – That’s a lot of acronyms, and zeroes. I remember when there was so much blood on the canvas, brands wouldn’t touch UFC with a ten-foot pole. No longer the problem!
- Fan Experience – With steep competition coming from all sides, including the living room, what technologies and levers can live event producers utilize to inspire fan engagement?
- LA2028 – When in Rome, I mean LA. The Olympic rings still have prominence and cache. Even though we are in LA, does ’28 get lost in the current news cycles?
- NIL – I attended an industry event recently where we talked about NIL. The panel wouldn’t utter the word ‘collective’ which highlighted the early-stage challenges in front of college sports leaders. Are there more ‘bad actors’ around college sports or in a Nic Cage movie?
- Leaving the worst for last, “economic headwinds” – We are recruiting for multiple senior leadership roles for NBA teams currently, but seeing the league office cool spending around hiring and travel for the remainder of the year is not good news for anyone. Uncertainty is the enemy of hiring.
Next week will show us if my predictions are correct!
