SBJ Unpacks: MLB teams are becoming media mavens

Tonight in Unpacks: MLB teams such as the Mariners are producing their own video shorts in a growing trend that sees clubs invest in their own creative studios, reports SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo.

Also tonight:

• Rays, Tampa set June 1 deadline for ballpark approvals
• TNT Sports draws best NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship since 2019
• Albert now a triple threat in the WNBA
• Op-ed: The athlete’s AI safety playbook

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, Joe Lemire discusses NCAA men’s basketball title game viewership, a potential overhaul for college sports eligibility, WNBA free agency could bring unprecedented roster turnover and more.

For decades, the Seattle Mariners relied on Seattle-based advertising agency Copacino Fujikado to create their iconic commercials.

Now the club produces its video content entirely in-house — part of a growing trend across Major League Baseball as teams invest in internal creative studios to produce digital-first content.

A recent Zoomph study highlights the impact: The Los Angeles Dodgers generated an MLB-leading $101 million in social media value from team accounts last season, along with 2.51 billion impressions and 122 million engagements.

Social value is defined by Zoomph as “the total estimated media value of a social post, based on impressions, video views and engagements, which represents the equivalent cost required to reach the same audience through paid advertising.”

“Any of these teams could’ve reached the same size audience with paid media campaigns, but reach does not create fandom,” said Zoomph Marketing Director Dan LaTorraca. “Organic content like this builds a deeper connection with fans, humanizes players and creates a sense of pride while building excitement.”

That kind of reach is why teams increasingly treat content creation not as marketing support, but as a central business driver.

And while Copacino Fujikado set the standard, Seattle’s internal team is turning offseason brainstorming sessions into digital shorts that are shot, produced and edited in-house before going viral on social media.

The Mariners produced four digital shorts — once known simply as commercials — heading into the season. One features All-Star catcher Cal Raleigh’s alter ego, “Hal Baleigh,” which was inspired by star pitcher Felix Hernandez’s alter ego from 14 years earlier, “Larry Bernandez.” Another, titled “Babyproof,” highlights the influx of new fathers on the roster, its theme relatable to those who cannot throw or hit triple-digit fastballs.

“One advantage to going in-house is we have the ability to build relationships with these players,” Mariners Creative Director Keri Zierler said. “We get to meet these guys when they’re coming up through the farm system, and that sort of builds trust. We get to know them on a more human level, so we have insights into their personalities and them as humans, more so than an external agency just coming in cold would have. And that gives us the ability to tell more authentic stories.”

Other MLB teams may have slightly different setups and occasionally use outside vendors for more complicated shoots, but most of their video production is done in-house. Their goals are similar: provide inside access, build brand affinity, increase fan engagement and — hopefully, though perhaps not directly — drive viewership and ticket sales.

“We want our fans to feel closer to the team than they’ve ever felt,” said Bobby Clemens, New York Mets vice president of creative content, whose team has been delving into long-form content. “Content has gone, over the years, from kind of a support function to now being the main driver of the business. It’s not just about promoting the games anymore.”

Teams now have access to data, metrics and real-time fan reaction that allows for immediate feedback. But a well-executed video has a longer shelf life, potentially leading to a promotional giveaway, ballpark theme night or ticket special.

“That goes into the strategy piece, thinking about how we not only share these as a one-off, but how do they carry some weight, momentum and steam,” said Tim Walsh, Mariners senior director of digital marketing and social media. “We’re always looking to create that next generation and wave of Mariners fans.”

For the Milwaukee Brewers, that strategy includes doing something that draws attention from the industry itself. A pair of ideas from Carter Green, senior videographer and creative lead, accomplished just that this spring.

Some slick work made it appear that pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, who has registered 104.3 mph with his fastball, had thrown a heater that knocked an apple off top prospect Cooper Pratt’s head as he was sitting backward 60 feet, 6 inches away from the mound. And then there was a “Day In The Life” video of outfielder Sal Frelick that stood out for its “Grand Theft Auto”-inspired theme.

“We have this philosophy where we want to be different from the other 29 teams. We want to stand out. We want other teams to look at us for inspiration,” said Ezra Siegel, Brewers senior manager of content. “We want to be sort of the leaders in this space. We kind of internally dubbed our philosophy as ‘Arthouse Baseball.’ Our goal is to always present baseball in ways that fans haven’t seen it presented before.”

Clemens and the Mets elected to go the long-form route following their 15-year, $765 million signing of Juan Soto prior to the 2025 season, resulting in a two-part documentary on the team’s YouTube channel. Since then, the in-house video production team has added “Inside The Diamond,” which delves into the daily lives of players, and “On the Road,” a once-a-month feature that provides a behind-the-scenes look at Mets road trips. One video highlighting team travel manager Edgar Suero performed extremely well. CohnReznick was the presenting sponsor on the Soto doc, while Anchin has the “Inside the Diamond” series.

“We want to take fans where they’ve never been before,” Clemens said. “We did some of our own research on one-off posts and found that fans seem to really like the behind-the-scenes of our staff.”

Elsewhere, the Dodgers have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of baseball’s digital push.

An offseason campaign continued that success, with the team embracing its role as baseball’s villain through a video anchored by Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” song and narrated by Jason Bateman. Both Eilish and Bateman are Dodgers fans, of course.

“We never try to create something that we think is just going to go viral,” said Erik Braverman, Dodgers senior vice president of marketing, community relations and broadcasting. “We try to create something that’s going to be super fun, and out of that, what we’ve found is just naturally, organically, several have gone viral.”

Braverman also pointed to the importance of having a diverse group of creatives in terms of ages, backgrounds and skill sets. “It brings out an excellence that, when you talk about a secret sauce, that’s what it is,” Braverman said. “When you work through agencies, oftentimes their timeline just doesn’t align with the speed at which we work internally.”

Having a once-in-a-generation player like Shohei Ohtani helps.

“We’re blessed that the ownership group made that investment in Shohei, but we can’t just sit back on our laurels and let everything be Ohtani-driven,” Braverman said.

With Hollywood in their own backyard, there is certainly a high standard.

“We put a lot of it on ourselves to say ‘we have to deliver,’” Braverman said. “Mark [Walter] and the ownership group, they have an expectation. We don’t run all ideas by ownership. We just know that when they’re here for a ring ceremony or Opening Day, they expect to see something in L.A. that might be a little bit different. That’s our charge and mission, and we do a pretty good job of delivering it.”

In Seattle, the players have easily bought in, which makes the jobs of the in-house production team that much easier. It is emblematic of younger players growing up around social media and displaying savvy in the space, actively seeking it out.

After not having a line his first year doing it, pitcher George Kirby told the team that he wanted one the next year. Raleigh, whose nickname is “Big Dumper,” did a viral video with the Mariners in 2024 titled “Big Dumper Trucking.” Now, he wants to be part of their brainstorming sessions.

“He knows the players even better than we do, so he can kind of bring another element to it,” Walsh said. “These guys have ideas, too.”

A memorandum of understanding between the Rays, the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County has set a June 1 deadline for all sides to secure approvals that would allow for the franchise to build a $2.3B ballpark and privately funded adjacent mixed-use development in time for the start of the 2029 season.

The projected budget for the $2.3B public-private partnership would feature a $1.235B (and overruns) contribution from the Rays and a maximum public contrition of $1.065B. The breakdown would be $750M from Hillsborough County, $251M from the city of Tampa and $64M from additional public funding sources. The Rays would commit to a 35-year lease, with three five-year options that could bring it to 50 years, and a non-relocation agreement.

Before the project proceeds, the city council, county commission and CRA board must approve the final project agreement; MLB must approve the new ballpark and all project agreements; all public bonds must be validated; and all legal processes and governmental processes must be met.

The Tampa Bay Times reported Sunday that Hillsborough County voters favor a new ballpark in Tampa, but oppose using sales tax money to help build it.

Michigan’s win over UConn on Monday night delivered 18.3 million viewers to TNT/TBS/truTV, marking the best NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game audience since Virginia-Texas Tech drew 19.6 million in 2019. The gain of 1% over Florida-Houston last year is likely attributable to the introduction of full out-of-home measurement and Big Data. The audience is easily the best national title game for TNT Sports, passing the 17.8 million that the three networks got for the company’s first title game back in 2016 (Villanova-North Carolina). Michigan-UConn peaked at 20.4 million viewers on Monday from 11-11:15pm ET. Overall, the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV was up 7% compared to 2025 and marks the second-best tourney since 1994. The event also set a new mark for content views on official social platforms.

ESPN finished with an average of 1.3 million viewers for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, marking the second-best tourney average on record (behind only 2024, when Iowa and Caitlin Clark made a run to the final). This year’s tournament had 21 games top 1 million viewers, passing last year’s total.

While it’s a term usually reserved for hockey, we’re calling it a hat trick of sorts for Albert. The personal finance app, which claims 20 million users, has inked its third WNBA ad patch deal over the last 14 months — the latest, a four-year pact with the Atlanta Dream.

“I drank the [WNBA] Kool-Aid,” acknowledged Albert Founder/CEO Yinon Ravid, adding that brand recognition has elevated in the year-plus since the earlier patch deals with the Sparks and the Wings (where Albert is sharing real estate with CVS). “I like their enthusiasm and evangelism, and their customer base is very similar to ours.”

Like Albert’s prior WNBA hookups, aside from the uni patches, the deal includes press-backdrop branding and on-court signage, except in national telecasts. Ravid identified his KPIs on the deal as “brand awareness and recognition, along with the way our brand is perceived, which is a little squishier measure.”

The Dream will wear Albert ad patches for the first time during their initial preseason game on April 29. Excel Sports Management negotiated all of Albert’s WNBA deals. Ravid said Albert is activating those deals in-house.

At 10 years old, Albert is a graybeard of sorts amid an exploding market of competitive fintech startups. According to numbers from Statista, there are now 31,801 fintech startups globally, triple the amount in 2018. Fueling all those startups are aggressive forecasts showing the global fintech market mushrooming from $394.9 billion in 2025 to $1.13 trillion by 2032.

NEWARK, N.J. — When Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils practice, they aren’t the only ones preparing for an NHL game there.

The Prudential Center’s practice rink is now a training facility for new league ideas and technologies, as part of the newly opened NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizon.

There is a dedicated working office space that houses Verizon servers and a 12-foot high-resolution LED display that was designed by KSS Architects and built by the Phelps Construction Group. But much of the work will take place on the practice ice and game rink, connected via Verizon’s private 5G network.

“We’re really able to go and stretch the art of the possible, both in the coverage of our game but also how we officiate it,” said Grant Nodine, NHL SVP of technology. “And then we can make sure that we are really dialed in on how we’re going to operationally support these new technologies in the field.”

SBJ first shared news of the Innovation Lab a year ago, and last week marked its grand opening, with partners and execs, including Sean Williams, NHL VP of innovation-technology partnerships; Evin Dobson, NHL SVP of U.S, partnership marketing; Brian Gorney, senior director of U.S. pro sports, Verizon Business Group; Sasha Puric, HBSE CTO; as well as media — SBJ included — invited for an open house, arena tour and champagne toast.

Nodine described the Innovation Lab as a “prototype environment” designed to accelerate progress and iterations of new ideas that are otherwise hard to test.

In addition to the backend networking, opening the Innovation Lab included the installation of a Sony Hawk-Eye tracking system in the practice rink to creative a test environment for data collection.

John Frantzeskakis, NHL SVP of arena/game technology and operations, walked SBJ through a few R&D ideas being tested:

High sticking: Hockey players cannot raise their sticks above shoulder height to deflect the puck to a teammate. This is an area identified by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman where Hawk-Eye cameras might be able to help automate the decision.

“Our goal is to bring high stick detection by the start of next season,” Frantzeskakis said. “That is an ambitious goal that we’re trying to get to.”

Timing and lighting: While officials now wear Apple Watches synced with the game clock and other notifications, players and coaches don’t have access to ice-level time reminders. The practice rink includes two configurations of the clock being built into the boards at either end, plus the possibility of LED lights signaling certain colors for end of period, coach’s challenge and more.

“You can imagine now, the game’s about to end, I’m down 2-1, and all of a sudden I don’t know how much time I have left — I have to look up,” Frantzeskakis said. “We don’t want that, right? We want to have a visual right in the corners.”

Communications: The NHL is exploring ways for referees to communicate with the Situation Room in Toronto or even with each other across the ice through mics and earpieces. An exact implementation isn’t settled.

“We don’t know,” he said. “Our focus right now is, can we get the tech to work that way if we needed to?”

Tracking data integrations: The Edmonton Oilers last year asked to pair the NHL Edge tracking data with their lighting system so, for example, the spotlight can automatically follow a player who just scored a goal. That’s just one possible integration that the lab can test.

Immersive highlights: With Cosm’s C360 cameras in every arena providing 10.5K resolution, the NHL is looking into ways of using that content for personalized fan experiences.

As for why the Prudential Center was chosen, it is a modern building in close proximity to the NHL office in NYC and is one of only four arenas with the practice rink attached. The same networking infrastructure can power use cases early in the process on the practice rink and later in the testing protocols on the game ice.

“If you think about applications that require high reliability, low latency, maximum security, the network’s able to complete all those functions all the way throughout,” said Jake Kornblatt, Verizon Business Group VP.

Not long ago, we thought that social media offered near-limitless opportunities to monetize athlete intellectual property (IP). Generative AI has been a sobering development. From digital replicas and voice cloning to highly realistic deepfake videos, artificial intelligence creates a portfolio of new risks that athletes must confront. Endorsement, NIL and similar deals through which sports stars capitalize on their brands have a long history and involve standard industry practices. However, AI raises new legal and practical issues that demand attention at every stage.

Growing threat of unauthorized AI use

AI creates a growing threat of unauthorized use. AI deepfake technology allows bad actors to generate convincing content depicting a star endorsing a product, delivering a political message, or associating with a cause. Incidents have already been documented globally, recently a deepfake of Brady Tkachuk mocking Canadians after the Winter Olympics and nonconsensual imagery of female Olympians posted on 4chan.

This category of harm sits at the intersection of multiple legal theories. A false AI-generated endorsement may give rise to right-of-publicity, Lanham Act, state consumer protection and common law fraud claims. The challenge is speed: AI-generated content spreads across platforms in minutes, and by the time takedown notices are issued or litigation initiated, the damage is done. Statutes are also not without their limitations, especially because most were not drafted with AI in mind. This is especially true given the patchwork of state right-of-publicity laws. For example, while California and New York provide broader protection, other states offer more limited protection. At the federal level, the bipartisan NO FAKES Act would establish a federal right of publicity in digital replicas, create a private right of action against unauthorized use of voice or likeness and impose a DMCA-style takedown regime. The bill has industry support but has not been enacted, leaving athletes reliant on the existing patchwork, which creates real exposure.

For sports stars, the stakes of unauthorized AI use are extreme. Fabricated endorsements can damage carefully managed brand relationships and violate existing agreements with partners. Proactive monitoring using AI-detection platforms is prudent but must be paired with experienced counsel prepared to take enforcement action.

AI in commercial deals and preventing catastrophe

It is critical for athletes and their representatives to be meticulous in deals. Provisions that were once uncontroversial now require careful negotiation.

AI restrictions: Many contracts contain broad grants of rights authorizing the use of athletes’ NIL across all media and by all technologies now known or hereafter developed. Courts have not yet definitively resolved whether such language is broad enough to authorize use in connection with AI. As such, broad “all media and all technologies” clauses should be narrowed or modified to exclude use in connection with AI, particularly in training, cloning and digital replica creation. While some state statutes, such as California AB 2602 (which renders digital replica provisions unenforceable in performance contracts), may provide some protection, they are not perfect or well tested in the courts. Careful contractual negotiation is essential to best protect against risks posed by AI.

Appropriate compensation: When athletes allow the use of AI in connection with the exploitation of their IP, it is critical that compensation attached to that use is scrutinized and negotiated. Flat fees in traditional endorsement deals often don’t account for AI use. Equity grants are increasingly common and may be better suited to the wide-scale use of athlete IP. Tiered compensation with upfront fees, plus use-based royalties for AI-generated derivative content, are other options to address commercial value in the age of AI.

Written approvals: As an additional protection against excessive AI exploitation by commercial partners, even authorized AI use can be further conditioned on written consent. Rather than default authorization, athletes may require commercial partners to request and obtain specific prior written approvals before AI is used in conjunction with their IP. This is especially important as AI capabilities continue to improve rapidly.

Scope and territory: Perpetual, worldwide grants are always dangerous, particularly with respect to AI. Replicas trained and released today may be generating additional content decades from now. Contracts should define a term for any AI-related use, require destruction of content upon license expiration, and include geographic restrictions.

Indemnification and takedown obligations: Athletes should negotiate robust indemnification from commercial partners for any claims arising from AI-generated content and require contractual commitments to the rapid takedown of unauthorized AI-generated content that violates their publicity and IP rights.

NIL agreements: NIL agreements pose acute challenges, as college athletes are often unrepresented and negotiate against sophisticated partners. Compressed timelines and lower NIL deal values create additional pressure to accept form agreements. Yet the AI issues are, if anything, more pronounced in NIL agreements because college athletes are younger and contractual provisions can allow the use of their NIL long after they graduate, turn pro, and their IP becomes more valuable.

AI estates of sports stars

AI complicates the already nuanced area of postmortem publicity rights. While California and New York extend rights of publicity beyond death, many states have more limited protection, and AI creates new threats and opportunities across the landscape. Laws such as California Assembly Bill 1836, enacted in 2024 to address digital replicas, have attempted to address this threat by narrowing the statutory exemption that had previously permitted “expressive works” to incorporate a deceased celebrity’s voice or likeness without consent. However, they are not comprehensive. For athletes, estate planning should now explicitly address AI rights: who controls digital likeness after death, on what terms it may be licensed, and what residuals or compensation flows to heirs. And there should be careful monitoring by estates of the use of a deceased athlete’s IP.

The game plan

AI has fundamentally altered the playing field for athletes. The regulatory and contractual frameworks are developing rapidly, and those who fail to be proactive risk exposure. Athletes cannot afford to wait for a statutory solution that may never come. Some immediate priorities are clear: audit existing agreements for unintended AI grants; negotiate AI-specific protections in new deals; implement monitoring and enforcement protocols; and ensure that estate plans address digital NIL rights. Athletes and their representatives who act now will be better positioned than those who treat AI as tomorrow’s problem.

Nick Saady is a sports and entertainment lawyer at Pryor Cashman LLP in New York, representing athletes, sports leagues and sports-related businesses.

• On this week’s SBJ Sports Media Podcast, SBJ media reporters Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter — making his co-hosting debut — discuss Prime Video’s debut at Augusta National and its ambitions, March Madness and local sports delivery. Also: Athletes First’s Gideon Cohen joins Karp to discuss how the agency has built its media representation business.
• Mazzeo also notes that eight MLB teams released their Nike City Connect uniforms for the 2026 season: the Braves, Orioles, Reds, Royals, Brewers, Pirates, Padres and Rangers.
• ESPN drew its best Q1 prime-time viewership on record, with the January/February/March period buoyed by the NFL Wild Card and Divisional rounds, the CFP, college basketball’s regular season, NHL games, NBA games and more, writes Karp.
• The interior of the $78 million Indiana Fever Performance Center will feature the kind of spa-like design that’s becoming a cornerstone of women’s professional sports teams’ training hubs, reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
• David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures made another investment in golf by acquiring the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour, notes SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.
• Carpenter also writes that as TGL is amid media rights negotiations with its ESPN contract expiring, presenting sponsor SoFi is eyeing more consistent broadcast windows in the league’s next deal.
• Amid the frenzy of the 2026 Masters, WME Sports is adding longtime golf marketing executive Sean Guerrero as a golf agent focused on brand consulting and digital strategy, notes SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario.
• The Asian University Basketball League, a pan-regional intercollegiate basketball league founded by Nets co-owner Joe Tsai, raised a Series A round featuring investments from former Bucks owner Marc Lasry, Bolt Ventures (the family office of 76ers co-owner David Blitzer) and Basketball HOFer Yao Ming, writes SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.
• TKO Group completed a domestic sponsorship deal making FRE the “official nicotine pouch” across six properties, notes SBJ’s Adam Stern: UFC, Zuffa Boxing, PBR, UFC BJJ, World’s Strongest Man and Formula Drift motorsports.