Profit Players Newsletter 4/10

Author

Nate Rodgers
April 10, 2024

College Sports are Peaking

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

March Madness came to an end on Monday night as the UConn’s men’s basketball team became the seventh program to win back-to-back national championships. While Purdue big man, Zach Edey, put up a fight in the first half, the Huskies did what they’ve done all tournament: cruised to a double-digit lead in the last 20 minutes of the game. South Carolina had a similar fate on the Women’s side. Iowa and Caitlin Clark put a good fight in the first half, but South Carolina pulled away in the second half to complete their undefeated season.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

This March Madness was a massive success. The women’s side broke any and every viewership record. The NIT had the best figure for viewership in almost 15 years. Even college football had its highest viewership this year since the inception of the college football playoff. If all of these viewership numbers are up, why do I believe that college sports are peaking? NIL is changing college sports. I think that there is much to be said about the positives of NIL, but the negatives are becoming glaringly apparent. I am all for athletes getting paid in college, but being a coach in college athletics is becoming a near impossible job. Legendary football coach, Nick Saban, retired and cited his reasons were in large part of due to NIL.

(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

My main concern is not that athletes are getting paid. My concern is the transfer portal. Athletes are not staying with colleges and building a culture and because of this, all of the best coaches are threatening to leave or have left for professional leagues. These coaches are having to prepare for entirely new starting lineups every year, because players are being offered more money elsewhere that they can’t compete with. This in-turn dilutes all non power-5 conferences as they will turn into developmental leagues for players to then be picked off by schools with more money. I think it’s no surprise that the biggest star in all of sports is a 4-year starter who built her brand over her time at Iowa. Athletes changing schools every year doesn’t allow stars to develop with the fans and that hurts the marketability of college sports as a whole. Without some major changes, college sports may be in trouble. I think the future of NIL includes contracts for players to agree to staying and playing for more than 1 year. NIL is great for players, but bad for just about everyone else.

The Money of the Masters

The Masters is the most iconic tournament in golf and arguably the most iconic sporting event in the country. Even non golf fans tune in for the masters each year, and the tournament never disappoints. The Masters and Augusta National Golf Club have been teaming up every year since 1934 to create an incredible experience for golf fans. They have created one of the most lucrative and exclusive atmospheres in all of golf, even if that means giving up millions in revenue to make it happen. Augusta National operates as a for-profit entity, so they don’t have to publish any of their earnings. That being said, last year Forbes posted an article detailing an estimation of how much they make each year during Masters week.

  • $70 million on merchandise

  • $40 million on tickets and passes to the event

  • $8 million on concessions and food

  • $25 million on tv deal

Some of those figures are much more impressive once you get some background information. The $70 million they make on merchandise is ONLY sales made on the Augusta National premise. They pride themselves on exclusivity and because of this, they only sell their licensed merchandise to people that attend the event in person. The $8 million that they make on concessions is made off of a menu in which the most expensive thing you can buy is $6 cup of wine. It is estimated that they could make an additional $4 million per tournament if they adjusted their prices to match inflation. The most insane thing that Augusta National does to feed into their inclusivity is their sponsorship policy. There are only six official sponsors for the Masters: AT&T, Delta, IBM, Rolex, UPS, and Mercedes-Benz. Because they choose to only have 6 sponsors, they lose an estimated nearly $300 million annually in sponsorship dollars. It takes a crazy amount of discipline to turn down hundreds of millions to stick with the exclusivity of the tournament.

Not only is this tournament, an extraordinary opportunity for Augusta National, the town of Augusta, Georgia, sees a lot of extra money added to the community during the week. It is not uncommon for year round residents of Augusta, Georgia to move out of their houses for the week and rent them to fans or even players for the week. A standard 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house rents on average for about $8500 for the week of the Masters. The hospitality industry also sees over 10% of their annual revenue from this upcoming week. The sports books are also looking forward to this weekend fans from across the world will be placing bets all weekend.

Here are some of my best value bets for the tournament

  • Scottie Scheffler: +400 (To Win)

  • Brooks Kopeka +1400 (To Win)

  • Sahith Theegala +350 (Top 10)

Getting Butts in Seats

There are no issues getting fans to come to sports events when your teams are doing well. It is when your team is struggling that this because a more difficult task. Teams are forced to get more creative with how they are able to get butts in seats. One way that teams are doing this is to offer speciality ticket packages with benefits that you wouldn’t otherwise get for a normal ticket.

Here are unique ticket packages

This doesn’t even account for the many promotions that teams run every year. Like the famous Phillies dollar dog night, which was famously taken away for the 2024. There has also been a increase in premium seating for guests as owners want to other more luxury viewing opportunities. In the recently built SOFI Stadium in Los Angeles, there are a whopping 269 luxury suites. We have seen a similar trend for the Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, and Cleveland Guardians as three of their stadium renovations include more premium and luxury seating.

I do believe that these promotions are working. They are working especially well for baseball and the MLB. The MLB has seen a widespread increase in in-person viewership over the last few seasons. Baseball is having a resurgence and I am here for it. I am curious to see how the game continues to evolve and what other interesting promotions are in the future.

Quick Reads

  • Coach John Calipari is leaving the University of Kentucky after 15 years to become the head mens’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas,

  • The NAIA has voted to ban transgender women from women’s competitions, starting during the 2024–25 academic year.

  • The number of Division I men's basketball players in the transfer portal is expected to top 2,000—nearly half the country.

  • Caitlin Clark women’s college basketball Wooden Award for 2024.

  • The Women’s college basketball championship was the most watched women’s basketball game ever.

Job Openings in Sports

Games of the Week

  • The Masters - (Thursday-Sunday)

  • UFC 300 - Saturday Night

  • PSG vs Barcelona - Wednesday @ 3 PM

  • Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros - (Friday-Monday)

Feel free to reply to any of our emails and tell us what you like AND don’t like about these so we can continue to improve!