Good afternoon, here’s what we’re following at SBJ Today:
- NFL parlays Visa deal into three-headed sponsorship bonanza
- NFL draft first rounders by agency, by year: Which agencies will win the first round of the NFL Draft?
- Thousands begin descending on Pittsburgh for 2026 NFL Draft
- Plus: Pats’ Vrabel to skip Draft’s final day to attend counseling, WTA CEO Portia Archer, Trump envoy pushes for Italy over Iran in World Cup and more
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THE BIG STORY
NFL parlays Visa deal into three-headed sponsorship bonanza
For all the decades SBJ’s Terry Lefton has been parked at the corner of sports and commerce, a single truth has been most constant: No one runs auctions as successfully as the NFL.
When analyzing the NFL’s tripartite sponsorship triumph in transforming its 30-year-old Visa corporate sponsorship into three separate deals — AmEx for credit/payment cards, U.S. Bank for retail banking and PayPal for peer-to-peer payments — the most cogent fact is rooted in that original notion about NFL auctions. Sources involved in the deal say the league upped its return from one deal that became categories at between 3:1 and 4:1. That’s a healthy improvement regardless of the payment method employed.
Financial services as a whole remains the largest sponsorship category, and we continue to see additional fintech brands hatched daily, adding to the abundance of traditional banks, insurance brands, brokerages, exchanges, financial advisories, accounting firms and real estate concerns which have long comprised the sector.
Now, there’s a scramble to claim credit for the notion of division — which resulted in multiplication.
5 STORIES WE’RE WATCHING
1. Thousands begin descending on Pittsburgh for 2026 NFL Draft: Pittsburgh is expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors for Thursday’s NFL Draft on the North Shore and Point State Park, featuring 4 million square feet for festivities with a domed-shaped theater near Acrisure Stadium.
2. NFL draft first rounders by agency, by year: Which agencies will win the first round of the NFL Draft? Each year, Sports Business Journal breaks down agency representation across all Round 1 picks, complete with a detailed chart of teams, players, agencies and agents.
3. Patriots’ Vrabel to miss final day of NFL Draft to seek counseling: Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will not be present for Saturday’s third day of the NFL Draft as he seeks counseling following the the emergence of photos with him embracing NFL reporter Dianna Russini.
4. WTA CEO Portia Archer stepping down: WTA CEO Portia Archer is stepping down from her role, WTA Chair Valerie Camillo announced in a note to WTA staff, members and other stakeholders Wednesday afternoon.
5. Trump envoy pushing for Italy to replace Iran at World Cup: A top envoy to President Trump asked FIFA to replace Iran with Italy for this summer’s World Cup, as the U.S. continues its conflict with Iran.
ON THE MOVE
- Lululemon is naming longtime Nike exec Heidi O’Neill as its next CEO. O’Neill is set to start the role and join Lululemon’s board on Sept. 8. O’Neill left Nike last September after spending more than two decades there, most recently serving as president/consumer, product and brand (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/22).
- Toledo named Tom Moreland as its new VP/intercollegiate athletics and director of athletics. Moreland is currently Illinois’ CCO and previously held roles at Purdue and Iowa (Univ. of Toledo).
- Perfect Game named Kash Shaikh as CMO and head of international. Most recently, Shaikh served as chair and CEO of Baseball United in Dubai (Perfect Game).
- Brandon de la Cruz is joining Range Sports as director/DTC operations. He most recently oversaw strategic partnerships at 8AM Golf, including the direct-to-consumer golf instructional platform Short Game Chef (Range Sports).
NAMES IN THE NEWS
- Former President Bill Clinton made an appearance during the Cowboys pre-NFL draft news conference Wednesday at The Star in Frisco. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones “stumbled and nearly fell” as he tried to move across the stage to greet Clinton, who was at The Star to have lunch with his longtime friend from Arkansas (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/22).
- Lions QB Jared Goff was spotted at Game 2 of Magic vs. Pistons in Detroit (ESPN.com, 4/22).
HOT READS
ESPN.com went with the header, “Prediction markets create new leak temptations for NFL Draft.” Back in the day, an insider with knowledge of who NFL teams would pick and when they would do it needed to either make an illegal bet or place a wager offshore to profit from it. Now, someone could use that information to make a wager on a prediction market, and there’s little a team can do to prevent it.
Also:
- An ‘iconic image’ or ‘white supremacist propaganda’? It’s not clear why the DHS posted a photo of Fenway Park.
- The inside story of LeBron James’ surprising YouTube Golf debut.
- Sorry, Tampa, ‘mixed‑use’ doesn’t reverse the poor economics of sports venues.
- The Haslams should pay own way in bringing NWSL to Columbus.