Morning Buzz

Sessions begin today for the CAA World Congress of Sports at the Grand Hyatt Nashville. World Congress Connect, a structured networking and information sharing session, starts things off in the morning, featuring Monumental Sports President of Business Operations & Chief Commercial Officer Jim Van Stone.

After breakfast, SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour opens things up with a chat with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, followed by the first panel of the event discussing key industry issues. Speaking on that panel are the USOPC’s Sarah Hirshland, Vanderbilt’s Candice Storey Lee, NBCU’s Mark Marshall, Delaware North’s Jamie Obletz and the Chicago Sky’s Nadia Rawlinson.

Also speaking Day 1 at World Congress are NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, brothers Bill and Jimmy Haslam, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro. You can see the full agenda by clicking here.

WCOS got started on Monday night with a VIP welcome reception at the Hyatt. Among those spotted were Sankey, CAA’s Howie Nuchow and Paul Danforth, Greenberg Traurig’s Dennis Braham, the Mavericks’ Rick Welts, Arctos Partners’ Doc O’Connor and Chad Hutchinson and TMRW Sports’ Mike McCarley. A number of the 2025 class of SBJ Champions were also on hand, including Ross Greenburg, Dave Checketts and Carol Stiff.

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The NCAA passed rules Monday that set the stage for “allowing colleges to pay their athletes” per terms of the proposed House settlement “expected to go into effect this summer.” The nine proposals that eliminated 150 rules and changed others “were largely expected but still mark a defining day in the history of college sports.” For the NCAA rules to officially go into effect, the changes prescribed by the House settlement “still have to be granted final approval” by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. The rules passed on Monday included:

• Modifying bylaws to “allow schools to pay the athletes directly.”
• Eliminating scholarship limits for teams, while “also setting roster limits that are designed to replace the scholarship caps.”
• Establishing “annual reporting requirements for schools that pay athletes.” A payment pool is set to be approximately $20.5M “for the biggest schools beginning next academic year.”
• Setting up a “clearinghouse for all name, image and likeness (NIL) deals that come from third parties and are worth $600 or more.”
• Granting authority to “an enforcement body being developed by the conferences named as defendants in the lawsuit to enforce the new rules passed to implement terms of the settlement” (AP, 4/21).

The CFP management committee is set to meet this week for their annual review meeting in Dallas, where “plenty of logistical business will be addressed.” This will be 2025’s fourth in-person gathering of CFP leaders, but it is “always the most all-encompassing,” spread across three days with “bowl and ESPN executives in attendance.” The “intertwined questions that dominated the past 12 months and hang over the postseason’s future will take center stage once again,” including:

• This year’s seeding: “Will the leaders change the 2025 CFP bracket structure to a straight-seeding model that seeds teams in order of their CFP selection committee ranking?”
• Governance: “Will every league (and Notre Dame) finish and sign the longform agreement that formally gives near-autonomous control of the CFP format to the Big Ten and SEC beginning in 2026?”
• The next CFP format: “Will the Big Ten (with perhaps the SEC in support) force through a 14- or 16-team model that gives as many as four automatic bids each to themselves?”

It is possible the committee, made up of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua, will “again fail to resolve or even address all the biggest issues.” CFP leadership “tries to avoid hard deadlines,” but “difficult decisions will have to be made sooner than later, and the results could further fracture the sport” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/21).

USL has sold naming rights for its professional women’s soccer league, the USL Super League, to Indiana-based insurance technology company Gainbridge under a multiyear sponsorship deal. Beginning with the 2025-26 season, the competition will be known as the Gainbridge Super League. The new league logo, featuring the Gainbridge wordmark, will appear on all team uniforms (on-field and retail), the match ball, in-stadium signage, broadcast elements and digital platforms.

Gainbridge, a subsidiary of Group 1001, will be the exclusive financial services partner of the Super League at the league level. At the club level, however, its exclusivity will be limited to annuities, meaning teams will be able to continue to cut deals with financial institutions in their local markets. Gainbridge is also the exclusive annuity partner for all other USL leagues, including its men’s professional leagues, USL Championship and USL League One.

“At the [Super League] level, with us taking on the naming rights position, we wanted to protect the financial services category,” said Group 1001 Chief of Sponsorship Strategy & Activation Mike Nichols. “But at the same point, we understand that in many cases there’s going to be a lot of money in the local markets to support these teams in the financial services space. We understand that for the league to be successful, the teams also need to be successful.”

Legends, which has a 10-year strategic partnership with USL through 2031, represented the soccer organization in negotiations with Gainbridge. Nichols said the proposal for a league-level naming-rights deal was extremely appealing to Gainbridge, as it aligns with its strategy of being the primary brand associated with each property it partners with, such as its presenting sponsorship of the Indy 500 and its arena naming-rights deal with the Pacers.

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Kroenke Sports & Entertainment submitted concept plans to Denver to “build a performance venue, a 13-story hotel and two residential buildings totaling 300 units on a parking lot just east of Ball Arena.” The plans filed Monday, dubbed “Phase 1A,” are "part of a larger redevelopment project surrounding Ball Arena" and come six months after Denver City Council rezoned nearly 70 acres around Ball Arena. Concept plans, which “represent the earliest stages of development,” are “subject to changes and approval from the city of Denver.” The larger Ball Arena redevelopment plans “call for turning more parking lots surrounding the arena into mixed-use developments, including bringing 6,000 units of housing, 780 hotel rooms, a child care facility, a new park, a recreation center and a slew of retail spaces.” KSE “could break ground on the redevelopment as early as next year,” but it “will take up to 30 years for it to be completed.” The submission of the Phase 1A concept plan “comes at a time when city leaders are making a push to speed development” (DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/21).

WrestleMania 41 from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas became the most-successful and highest-grossing event in WWE company history. The event generated the largest gate for any event in WWE history, with 124,693 fans attending across two nights. It was also the most-viewed WrestleMania of all time, up 114% from the record set last year at WrestleMania XL. Fanatics’ on-site merchandise sales were up more than 45% versus the previous all-time event record set by WrestleMania XL, while ecommerce sales were up 86% versus last year’s record. In addition, WWE World at WrestleMania 41 -- the five-day interactive fan experience -- became the most-attended WWE fan convention of all time with more than 50,000 attendees (WWE).

RELATED: On Location’s WrestleMania sales saw a 75% jump

ESPN personality Shannon Sharpe “has denied allegations of rape levied against him" in a civil lawsuit filed on Sunday, with his attorney claiming Sharpe’s accuser “presented the former NFL star with a ‘secretly recorded’ and ‘heavily edited’ video he says is designed to depict a nonconsensual encounter.” Sharpe’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said in a statement, “Mr. Sharpe categorically denies all allegations of coercion or misconduct -- especially the gross lie of ‘rape’ -- and will not submit to what he sees as an egregious attempt at blackmail. He stands firmly by the truth and is prepared to fight these false claims vigorously in court” (N.Y. POST, 4/21). Sharpe appeared on ESPN’s “First Take” for his regular Tuesday appearance and did not address the allegations (SBJ).

Excel Search & Advisory has hired former MLS VP/Talent Acquisition Tammy Castadot to become its head of recruiting operations and has promoted Kari Goodwin, who formerly served in Castadot’s role, to become an Excel Search & Advisory Principal. Castadot will be based out of Excel Sports Management’s headquarters in N.Y. and Goodwin will continue working from Nashville. Both will report to Excel Search & Advisory President Chad Biagini.

Castadot has worked in a number of leadership roles such as being TurnkeyZRG’s VP and Legends’ head of global executive talent acquisition. In her new role, she will lead recruitment efforts for senior executive roles across the sports and entertainment industries. Goodwin will serve in a similar role with an expanded focus on managing and supporting client accounts. Castadot will oversee four direct reports within Excel Search & Advisory’s team. Goodwin will not have anyone directly reporting to her.

Excel Search & Advisory has been responsible for completing more than 100 VP-level and above searches including positions such as CEO of Everton (Angus Kinnear), Sporting Director of Arsenal (Andrea Berta), President of the Texans (Mike Tomon) and President of Business Operations of the Pistons (Melanie Harris). Excel Sports acquired Nolan Partners in 2022, later rebranding it as Excel Search & Advisory in February. The company’s total headcount has increased 200% over the past three years.

“This country has 2 capitals, is bounded by 5 other countries & has 37 official languages.”