FOS PM: The $1.5B La Liga Rights Deal

Telefonica will once again be able to broadcast all La Liga matches after striking a sublicensing deal with DAZN worth $1.5 billion.

DAZN had won rights to five fixtures per matchweek – around half of the league’s games – at an auction in November, threatening to end Telefonica’s streak of carrying all matches for the top Spanish league.

That auction saw La Liga dole out $5.6 billion in rights contracts between the two broadcasters over the five-year period beginning with the 2022-23 season.

• Telefonica will pay $310.7 million annually for five years to show those matches on its TV platform, Movistar+.
• DAZN will continue to be able to stream the matches it is sublicensing, which total 175 games over the five-year period.
• DAZN will oversee production for those matches.

The two sides reached the agreement in February but held off announcing it due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Familiar Partners

Last year, Telefonica and DAZN linked up on a deal allowing Telefonica to air Formula 1 and MotoGP races on a new DAZN channel on the Movistar+ platform. The new channel replaces Movistar’s own F1 channel through the 2023 season.

Under the arrangement, DAZN airs its other Spanish sports properties through Movistar as well, including the Premier League, EuroLeague Basketball, Copa del Rey, and UFC.

Academy Sports + Outdoors reported sales of $6.77 billion in 2021, a 19.1% year-over-year increase and a 40.2% jump from 2019, marking the company’s second consecutive record year. 

The sporting goods retailer’s fourth-quarter net sales jumped 13.2% year-over-year to a quarterly record of $1.8 billion, up 32% from 2019. It marked the 10th consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales.

The quarter’s pre-tax income rose 55% year-over-year to $188.4 million, with full-year pre-tax income increasing 153.5% to $859.5 million.

• For the full year, all four of the company’s merchandise divisions and geographic regions posted double-digit sales growth.
• Fourth-quarter e-commerce sales jumped 22.7% year-over-year and 97.2% from 2019. For the full year, e-commerce sales increased 6.2% from 2020 and 153.1% from 2019.

Academy ended its fiscal year with $1.2 billion in inventory, up 18.4% compared to fiscal 2020. It expects 2022 net sales to reach between $6.56 billion and $6.77 billion, with net income landing between $590 million and $640 million.

Big Year For Gear

Academy Sports isn’t the only sporting goods retailer to record a record quarter — or year. Earlier this month, Dick’s Sporting Goods reported a record $3.35 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, up 7% from 2020 and 28.5% from 2019. Its full-year revenue reached a record of $12.29 billion, a 28.3% increase from 2020.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee met with members of the state’s legislature to request $500 million in bonds for the construction of a new stadium for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. 

In January, the Titans planned upgrades at Nissan Stadium that would have cost up to $600 million and included a redesigned stadium and new entertainment district. Financial plans included $300 million in bonds from Metro Sports Authority, the stadium’s landlord, and $300 million collectively from the team and private investors.

A month later, the Titans pivoted to exploring the possibility of a new stadium amid rising costs associated with the upgrades, but a new stadium is double the price and comes with its own requirements.

• A new facility could cost roughly $2 billion.
• The state funds must go toward an enclosed stadium, not an open-air venue. 

The Titans’ current lease requires the city of Nashville to pay for maintenance, and the Titans are owed at least $25 million in completed repairs. Even though the Titans are expected to pay nearly double the estimated cost of the upgrades to build a new stadium, the move is considered a long-term financial decision.

Breaking Ground

Other NFL teams are exploring new stadiums, including the Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders, and Kansas City Chiefs.

Earlier this week, New York and Erie County officials reached a 30-year deal with the Bills calling for $850 million in public financing to build a 62,000-seat, open-air stadium expected to cost $1.4 billion.