I look forward to seeing many of you in Palm Beach, Florida, starting Sunday for the NFL annual meeting at The Breakers.
The Pirates are tied for first place and Paul Skenes was pitching this afternoon; let’s hope this isn’t the high point of my 2025 MLB fandom.
Let me know if you watch the UFL opener tomorrow night on Fox and what you think of the product.
Read on to learn how the Rams and Browns are adding value to their suites and ticket products in hopes of retaining customers, a quick follow-up on the WME Football transition, another look at the UFL’s local business and more.
A direct mail piece to Browns season ticket holders, inviting them to a private Journey concert. Cleveland Browns/Haslam Sports Group
The Browns and Rams are both going to extraordinary measures to keep existing customers on the books ahead of high-stakes renewal deadlines, knowing how costly it can be to find new buyers. Let’s take a look:
In Cleveland: Hoping to keep season-ticket holders in the fold after a 3-14 campaign last year, the Browns have hired rock band Journey to perform a private concert at Huntington Bank Field before the first round of the NFL Draft. Only renewing season-ticket holders can attend, and the deadline to renew season tickets in Cleveland is Friday.
The concert will start at 6pm on April 24, and end just in time for the start of the NFL Draft. The Browns have the second overall pick, and fans are encouraged to stay at the stadium for the full first round. “Our belief is this is going to be the biggest draft party in the history of the sport,” said Brent Rossi, SVP/marketing and media for the Browns.
The Browns first solicited Journey, which is not touring this year, after consumer data showed the band is in their fan’s top three music acts (along with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones). The Browns’ financial modeling of this free concert offer suggests they can expect a 3-5% increase in renewals based on the draft party, Rossi said. The Browns raised ticket prices by about 5 percent on average.
The expectation is for between 40,000 and 50,000 people at the concert, Rossi said.
In L.A.: The Rams are facing the first tranche of expiring five-year suite contracts at SoFi Stadium this offseason and next, and they are making the following offer to those customers if they renew: A food and beverage package included in the price for their next contract term, and free tickets to non-Rams events at SoFi -- including the five-night Beyonce run starting April 28, and the July 19 George Strait and Chris Stapleton twin bill, just to name some of the most in-demand options.
The program, a “seven-figure spend,” is designed to address feedback from suite holders about additional costs on top of their contract, said Dan August, the Rams’ EVP/consumer revenue and strategy. That’s especially true for corporate clients, who may have had to twist arms for the budget to buy the suite to begin with, only to spend even more incrementally to fully leverage the asset.
“Now you can buy a suite, not spend another dime, and still get food and beverage for your guests, and you get concerts,” August said. About 70 suites, or a quarter of the stadium’s 260 total suites, are up for renewal this year and next. Suites will now also come with away games and other road trip options for five-year deals, instead of just 10-year deals.
The price over five years will be higher in most cases, August said, but for most renewals, the year-over-year price is flat.
On Sunday, I wrote about former Endeavor Executive Chairman Patrick Whitesell’s plan to acquire WME Football from WME Sports and hold it independently, a transaction designed to alleviate the conflict-of-interest problem created when WME Sports owner Silver Lake CEO Egon Durban invested in the Raiders.
At the time, sources told me the agency was working with both the NFL and NFLPA to ensure compliance, but I was unable to verify that with the union or the league over the weekend. But now, the NFLPA confirms that it’s looking into it.
“We are in communication with the contract advisors at WME Football to ensure that the new ownership, investment and management structure does not present a conflict of interest based on the NFLPA regulations governing contract advisors,” an NFLPA spokesman said.
It’s important to note that there’s no specific reason to believe there’s a problem. Also important: The NFLPA has jurisdiction over the individual agents, not the company. The NFL declined to comment on its vetting process.
Both the NFL and NFLPA have rules against the same person holding a financial interest in a team and player representation. The Whitesell transaction would leave the WME Football division, which represents stars likes Bengals QB Joe Burrow and Vikings WR Justin Jefferson, owned solely by Whitesell for now, though he intends to bring in agents and others as investors, sources said.
On its face, removing Silver Lake from WME Football’s cap table would appear to solve the potential conflict of interest. However, the NFLPA’s guidelines address the “appearance” of conflicts of interest as well, which suggests a wider range of concerns.
The NFLPA regulations governing agents prohibits them from “holding or seeking to hold, either directly or indirectly, a financial interest in any professional football club or in any other business entity when such investment could create an actual conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest in the representation of NFL players.”
The union first reached out to WME agents after SBJ broke news of the Durban-Raiders deal, and has recently followed up seeking more documentation. A Whitesell spokesman said: “We will continue working closely with the NFL and NFLPA as the deal is finalized and look forward to working closely with them going forward.”
The St. Louis Battlehawks set the standard for UFL attendance in Year 1, drawing 171,825 fans overall, 33% of the total for the entire league. Getty Images
On the eve of its second season, the UFL has a lot going for it by most standards. But it needs to sell more tickets, as I wrote in a season preview in this week’s SBJ.
The league spent its first full offseason, post-USFL-XFL merger, staffing up in marketing, sales and content, hoping to build relevance with local fans in its eight markets.
With so much riding on the local business, here’s a look at the market business leaders entrusted by the UFL. They all have the title of VP/team business and event operations, and oversee local directors in marketing, ticketing, sponsorship and communications, along with ticket sales staff of between two and five.
Returning:
San Antonio -- Evan Ashton
D.C. -- Kate Greenberg
Arlington -- Charles Johnson
Memphis -- Steve Macy
Houston -- Catherine Schultz
New:
St. Louis -- David Kinsey
Detroit -- Scott Schiff
Birmingham -- David Martin
There are a couple of potential trouble spots for the UFL worth watching: First, two coaches left their teams less than a week before the start of the season. Do individual coaches move the needle for the business of UFL teams one way or another? Probably not a lot. But football legitimacy in the eyes of fans is part of the equation for the UFL, and names like Ken Whisenhunt and Reggie Barlow -- the departed coaches -- helped in that regard.
Also, strife with the United Football Players Association looms in the background as the union continues to push for raises. We’ve heard nothing out of the union lately, but if they do have some kind of collective action planned, it could break late.
The opener, St. Louis Battlehawks-Houston Roughnecks, is scheduled to kickoff at 8pm ET on Fox tomorrow.
Jersey Mike’s will be emerging with NFL rights in the QSR category with Subway exiting as an NFL league sponsor, reports SBJ’s Terry Lefton.
Reports had Netflix not bidding on the NFL Draft, but my colleagues Austin Karp and Mollie Cahillane on this week’s SBJ Sports Media Podcast cite sources as saying not so fast.
The NFL will stick with the seven international games already announced for 2025, NFL EVP Jeff Miller told reporters Wednesday. That tracks with my report from February that Mexico City was, somewhat surprisingly, not likely to happen this year. The league had never held more than five international games. The seven are three in London, one in Brazil and first-time visits to Dublin, Madrid and Berlin.
Under Armour has returned to the NFL fold four years after a companywide marketing retrenchment, signing a new long-term, on-field licensing deal to allow players to wear Under Armour branded gloves and shoes while playing.
By this fall, both the Steelers’ Acrisure Stadium and Penguins’ PPG Paints Arena will have received total Wi-Fi system upgrades, though only the Penguins’ project will be receiving public funding from the Sports and Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, notes SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
