SBJ Unpacks: Orlando levels up as top Sports Business City – Sports Business Journal

 
Tonight in Unpacks: When it comes to hosting a sports event, Orlando has established itself as the No. 1 city in the U.S., reports SBJ Research Director David Broughton as part of this week’s magazine cover story.

Also tonight:
Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour opens the week with the Sports Business Awards nominations, a stellar opening weekend for the NWSL, a potential team sale brewing at Angel City FC and more.
Orlando’s evolution as an event host began in earnest in 1994, when it beat out Miami and Tampa for the right to host five FIFA World Cup matches. The city has since attracted dozens of international matches, is home to Orlando City SC and the Orlando Pride and their soccer-specific stadium, and the U.S. Soccer women’s national team spring training camp. In fact, the USWNT is 18-0 all-time in Orlando.
The opening in 1997 of the 220-acre ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex changed not only Orlando’s sports DNA but also served as a model for mixed-use, multisport developments around the world. More than 200 sporting events take place each year at the complex and elsewhere on Disney property, such as a multitude of annual soccer, baseball, softball, cheer, tennis and golf tournaments. And when sports began to return in the summer of 2020, the NBA and MLS turned to the Disney site to create the “bubbles.”
The multisport strategy has worked well for the city, making it No. 1 entry on the 2024 edition of Best Sports Business Cities, reports SBJ Research Director David Broughton in this week’s cover story.
For the full list, click here. For SBJ’s selection criteria for this project, click here.
SBJ revealed the 90 nominees for the 17th annual Sports Business Awards in this week’s magazine. We’ll announce the winners Wednesday, May 22, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Additionally, SBJ is honoring the McLendon Foundation with the Celebration of Service award and will present AMB Sports + Entertainment chairman Arthur M. Blank a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The full list of nominees follows:
RCLCo unveiled a project tracker for sports venue-anchored mixed-use developments that it will use to keep tabs on one of the more fundamentally important trends in the industry. The tracker is following 43 of what RCLCo — a real estate consultancy with an active and growing sports practice headed by Managing Director Erin Talkington — considers venue-anchored real estate development projects on the ground, with seven under construction, and 34 planned or under consideration. RCLCo plans to update the tracker quarterly.
Sixteen MLB ballparks have what RCLCo deems active stadium-anchored mixed-use developments. Only eight exist in the NFL, though eight others are in the planning/discussion phase (which is more than MLB, NBA, NHL, or MLS are considering). NBA- and NHL-shared arenas have the third-most active developments (seven), while MLS has the most under construction (three).
MLB’s 81 home games and the duration of its season are two of the main reasons for leading the mixed-used pack. While it has fewer games, the NFL’s mixed-use opportunity is growing because many of its newest venues are built with roofs, enabling those sites to operate more like arenas and host more events. And whereas only 43% of existing developments include the involvement of the team or venue owner in the surrounding mixed-use real estate, 68% of the planned projects have team or venue ownership involved, a product of the success seen by the Braves (The Battery), Lightning (Water Street) and Bucks (Deer District) owning and controlling the land around their venues.

Nike continued to dominate as the top shoe and jersey provider of teams in the NCAA D-I Men’s Basketball Tournament, with the apparel company and its Jordan Brand outfitting 42 of the 68 teams in the field, reports SBJ’s Wes Sanderson.
This is two more than last year and includes all four No. 1 seeds: UConn, Purdue, Houston and North Carolina. Under Armour rebounded this year with teams making the tournament after only having 11 earn a bid in 2023. No. 4 Auburn was Under Armour’s highest ranked school. Meanwhile, Adidas saw the biggest decrease in team’s sponsored, going from 17 to only 10, including just one — Kansas — with top four seeding.
This week’s opening of sports betting in North Carolina — something SBJ’s Bill King looked at in a video for SBJ Spotlight — brings the total of 21-and-over U.S. residents living in states with legal online sports betting to 128.9 million, or 52% of U.S. adults. If you put still-gray Florida in the legal column, that number surges to 59%. While every state is a snowflake, with varied demographics and sporting cultures, there’s been bullishness around the Tar Heel State coming into play.
In the most recent SBJ Betting newsletter, King does a deep dive into the launch of — and prospects for — sports betting in the Tar Heel State.
Tonight’s op-ed is from former Burson-Marsteller PR agency SVP Arthur Solomon on measuring the value of marketing spend on high-priced ads such as those for the Super Bowl.
“In 1919, when advertising was limited to print publications, billboards and circulars, John Wanamaker, a marketing pioneer, said, ‘Half my advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.’ While advertising has changed dramatically since Mr. Wanamaker’s comment more than a century ago, one thing has not changed: There isn’t a scientific method of measuring the ROI of a commercial, and the same is true for a PR campaign.”
Read the full submission here.
Register for a free SBJ account to unlock one extra article per month.

© 2024 Leaders Group. All rights reserved.The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Leaders Group.
© 2024 Leaders Group. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Leaders Group.
Already a subscriber? Click below to sign in.
Upgrade your subscription to get all the news you need:
Adding SBJ weekly content will give you the comprehensive view of sports business with:
Already a subscriber? Click below to sign in.
Upgrade your subscription to get all the news you need:
Adding SBJ daily content will give you the comprehensive view of sports business with:


This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!