<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png" width="1456" height="968" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/aa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:968,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:8356808,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/i/172791015?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1UZm!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa199c63-a976-409b-8391-71c0279d27cb_2875x1912.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container restack-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-refresh-cw"><path d="M3 12a9 9 0 0 1 9-9 9.75 9.75 0 0 1 6.74 2.74L21 8"></path><path d="M21 3v5h-5"></path><path d="M21 12a9 9 0 0 1-9 9 9.75 9.75 0 0 1-6.74-2.74L3 16"></path><path d="M8 16H3v5"></path></svg></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>Now that the <a href="https://www.usopen.org/index.html">2025 US Open</a> is freshly in the books, it reminded us of a truth about sport:</strong> progress isn&#8217;t confined to the bright lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium. Yes, the Open dazzled with AI-powered broadcast graphics, real-time Hawk-Eye line calls, and a new 15-day format that welcomed 70,000 extra fans. But the next era of racket sports isn&#8217;t just shaped under the spotlight&#8212;it&#8217;s being built quietly on community courts around the world.</p><p>That&#8217;s where <strong><a href="https://www.wingfield.io/en">Wingfield</a></strong> comes in.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe now to receive the latest LEAD posts.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>The German sports tech startup&#8212;one of LEAD&#8217;s earliest investments&#8212;is redefining what &#8220;AI Courts&#8221; mean for tennis, pickleball, and padel. Their net-post device delivers pro-level video, analytics, and gamified training to schools, clubs, and rec centers&#8212;making insights once reserved for elite pros available to everyone.</p><h3>The Orlando Conversation</h3><p>Back in March at the LEAD Summit in Orlando, I approached <strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaan-brunken-a892a09a/">Jaan Brunken</a>, COO &amp; Co-Founder of Wingfield</strong>, to grab a quick soundbite for our highlight reel. Just a handshake, a line to camera, then back to production.</p><p>What I got instead was a conversation I&#8217;m still thinking about.</p><p>Jaan began by praising the Summit&#8212;how it felt founder-first in a way most events don&#8217;t. But minutes in, he shifted. We started talking about what happens when new technology meets everyday barriers in sport.</p><p>As someone who&#8217;s worked in tennis during the height of the pickleball boom, I was hooked. Jaan described how, on the pro tour, performance data and video analysis were everywhere. But for amateurs? Recreational players? Pickleball enthusiasts at the local park?</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;It was all locked behind the gate,&#8221;</em> he said.<em>&#8220;We knew that if we could bring that level of insight to everyday racket sports players, it would completely change how they trained&#8212;and how they saw themselves.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>That wasn&#8217;t a product pitch. It was a purpose.</p><h3>Wingfield&#8217;s New AI Milestone in Pickleball</h3><p>That conversation feels even more relevant now. <a href="https://www.wingfield.io/blog/partnership-dupr">Wingfield just announced</a> a landmark partnership with <strong><a href="https://thepicklr.com/">The Picklr</a>, <a href="https://www.dupr.com/">DUPR</a>, and <a href="https://www.duprcoach.com/">DUPR Coach</a></strong>&#8212;launching the sport&#8217;s first <strong>end-to-end, AI-powered pathway for player development</strong> in pickleball.</p><p>Players begin with a <strong>standardized, AI-analyzed assessment</strong> that measures core skills like serve, return, volley, and dink. Coaches then layer human insight on top of the data, creating a <strong>transparent skill profile</strong> that removes the guesswork.</p><p>For the first time, those assessments roll directly into <strong>official DUPR ratings</strong>&#8212;not just for initial placement, but for competitive play. Every verified match on a Wingfield-enabled court now automatically updates a player&#8217;s DUPR.</p><p>The impact? Walk into a Picklr club, complete your first AI assessment, and immediately start building a verified rating that reflects both training and competition.</p><p>This isn&#8217;t just technology&#8212;it&#8217;s infrastructure. By making <strong>AI Courts</strong> the standard for pickleball development, Wingfield is setting the benchmark for how emerging sports can grow with fairness, precision, and excitement.</p><h3>AI Courts for Every Racket Sport</h3><p>Wingfield&#8217;s Tech-enabled courts transform any court into a training ground with:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Tennis</strong> &#8594; Match footage, serve speeds, rally analytics, verified tournament validation</p></li><li><p><strong>Pickleball</strong> &#8594; Gamified drills, highlight creation, performance tracking, and now DUPR integration</p></li><li><p><strong>Padel &amp; beyond</strong> &#8594; The same infrastructure applies, because Wingfield isn&#8217;t tied to one game, but to the <em>entire racket ecosystem</em></p></li></ul><p>Already installed on <strong>1,000+ courts across 500+ locations</strong>, Wingfield is serving more than <strong>80,000 players worldwide</strong>. And with its U.S. expansion through <strong>Har-Tru</strong>, the country&#8217;s leading court builder, the next wave of AI Courts could be just down the street&#8212;from high schools and college programs to rec centers and neighborhood clubs.</p><h3>The US Open Connection</h3><p>The Open has always been more than matches&#8212;it&#8217;s where tradition meets transformation. From the tiebreak in 1970, to equal prize money in 1973, Hawk-Eye in 2006, and the roof over Arthur Ashe in 2016&#8212;the tournament has consistently set new standards.</p><p>Each change reshaped the sport. And just as the Open raised the bar at the professional level, Wingfield is doing the same for players everywhere else.</p><h3>From Hamburg to Flushing Meadows</h3><p>When I think back to my conversation with Jaan, what struck me most wasn&#8217;t the technology&#8212;it was the philosophy.</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;We&#8217;re not just digitizing courts,&#8221; Jaan told me in Orlando. &#8220;We&#8217;re reimagining what&#8217;s possible when every player&#8212;tennis, pickleball, or padel&#8212;has access to the tools the pros take for granted.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>That belief connects Wingfield&#8217;s journey from Hamburg to Har-Tru, from European federations to U.S. schools, from everyday players to the spectacle of Flushing Meadows.</p><h3>Charting the Future of Racket Sports</h3><p>The US Open showcased progress at the highest level. Wingfield is democratizing it at the local level. Together, they tell the story of where racket sports are headed. Tech-enabled courts are here to stay.</p><p>They&#8217;re not just tracking serves and shots.<br>They&#8217;re charting the future of racket sports&#8212;<strong>one court at a time.</strong></p><p><strong>Let&#8217;s Talk</strong><br>Building something that bridges access, ambition, and analytics? We&#8217;re listening. Pitch us at <strong>dealflow@lead.vc</strong> or tag us <strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/lead-vc">@LEAD_vc</a></strong> on any of your favorite social media platforms. </p><div class="captioned-button-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/p/wingfield-and-the-future-of-ai-courts?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Feel free to share this with anyone who might find it insightful. And leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the inclusions of AI in sports. </p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/p/wingfield-and-the-future-of-ai-courts?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://leadvc.substack.com/p/wingfield-and-the-future-of-ai-courts?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p></div>

Fresh off the US Open, Wingfield is proving that the next wave of racket sport innovation isn’t on center court—it’s on AI Courts everywhere.

Wingfield and the Future of AI Courts: US Open 2025 + Beyond

<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png" width="1456" height="817" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:817,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1337300,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/i/201233039?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9TCH!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb893b23e-bee8-4e54-8ac2-474173538420_1742x978.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>There&#8217;s no denying that sports teams have some of the most loyal customer bases in the world. Yet despite valuations in the billions, most teams don&#8217;t know their fans&#8217; names (or much else about them) because they don&#8217;t own their consumer data. That gap, in our eyes, is the structural problem in sports &#8212; they are not acting like consumer brands. </p><p>The critique isn&#8217;t that valuations are wrong, but that they are incomplete. Today&#8217;s market prices in brand equity and media rights, but not yet data infrastructure or the compounding value of a direct customer relationship built over decades. The conventional justification is that the supply of sports teams is scarce, fans don&#8217;t churn, and a new investor will always want in. We don&#8217;t disagree. But it explains the floor, not the ceiling.</p><p>Data infrastructure and customer data don&#8217;t appear in a traditional sports team&#8217;s valuation, but they do in every other consumer business. Netflix commands its valuation not because of its content library alone, but because it knows exactly who is watching, when they stop, and what brings them back. That gap between what a sports team is worth today and what it could be if it centered on fan data is where the next tier of value is created.</p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>I. The Valuation Paradox</strong></h4><p>In the last 5 years, franchise valuations have defied gravity. The NFL&#8217;s average team now exceeds $5 billion, with the NBA, NHL, MLB, and European football clubs not far behind &#8212; all trading at multiples that compare to most tech deals. Every new sale seems to set a record that the next one breaks.</p><p>And to be fair, the track record justifies the attention. Over the past two decades, the big four North American leagues have generated 13.2% annualized returns (outpacing the S&amp;P 500 by more than 2x). As an asset class, sports franchises have been among the most consistent wealth-creation vehicles over the last generation.</p><p>When you look past the headlines, most teams still run a business model designed for a different era. They don&#8217;t own their ticketing infrastructure, don&#8217;t control their merchandise, and have outsourced their media rights. At some point, price appreciation alone stops being a thesis. We are confident that reality has either arrived or is close.</p><p>The business of sports teams is not easily explained on a spreadsheet. The real question is what they would be worth if they were run like a consumer brand that owned its customers?</p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>II. A Brand With No Customer</strong></h4><p>Think about the brands with the most loyal customers in the world: Apple, Netflix, Adidas, and Spotify. Their business is built around one obsession: knowing their customers better than anyone else. Spotify knows your favorite artist and can recommend a new song to you. Adidas knows which sneakers you bought and can offer a special-edition Samba next release. Now think about your favorite sports team. You've worn the jersey since you were 8 years old. You've never missed a home game, with season tickets, exclusive merchandise, and the league pass. Chances are, the team has no idea who you are.</p><p>Sports franchises sit on the most emotionally committed customer bases ever assembled. This is loyalty that consumer brands spend billions trying to manufacture. In sports, it exists organically and is inherited across generations, geographies, identities, and communities. By every metric that matters in a modern consumer business, teams have already won the hardest part. It&#8217;s precisely why sponsorship commands such a premium: partner brands are paying to access a loyal customer base they could never build on their own.</p><p>And yet, structurally, they operate like a business that is not direct-to-consumer.</p><p>The average fan can appear as four entirely different users across four entirely different systems. The ticketing platform knows you by your seat number. The merchandise provider knows you by your shipping address. The broadcast partner knows you by your subscriber ID. The team itself? Often, it knows you as little more than an email address. Of course, through innovation, this is changing drastically, and it is most teams&#8217; top priority.<br><br>The average fan can appear as four different users across four entirely different systems. The ticketing platform knows you by your seat number; the merchandise provider by your shipping address; the broadcast partner by your subscriber ID. The team itself? Often, little more than an email address. Through innovation, this is changing drastically, and it is most teams&#8217; top priority.</p><p>The model currently optimizes for the vendor partner over the fan relationship. It has not measured what it&#8217;s losing: the compounding value of unified fan data.</p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>III. Why Intermediaries Made Sense And Why They Don&#8217;t Anymore</strong></h4><p>For most of the 20th century, sports organizations lacked the technology and operational infrastructure to sell directly to fans at scale. Ticketmaster could distribute inventory across thousands of outlets. Fanatics could manufacture, warehouse, and ship merchandise globally. Broadcast networks could reach tens of millions of households that no team could reach.</p><p>The problem isn&#8217;t that intermediaries exist. It&#8217;s what happens over time when the entire fan relationship is built on someone else&#8217;s infrastructure.</p><p>Every time a fan interaction is outsourced, the team loses a little more visibility into who that fan is, what they value, and how their behaviors connect. Intermediaries don&#8217;t just take margin; they take context. And unlike margin, context doesn&#8217;t show up on financials until it&#8217;s gone.</p><p>The model highlights a structural weakness: the idea that ticketing, merchandise, media, and sponsorship are separate businesses that happen to share a logo. Each vendor relationship became its own silo, with its own contract, data, and definition of who the customer is.</p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>IV. What Would a D2C Business Model Look Like?</strong></h4><p>We provide a blank-page exercise exploring what could be possible if they were run more like a consumer business, with examples below.</p><ul><li><p><em>Ticketing: </em>The status quo is that outsourced providers such as Ticketmaster, Live Nation, SeatGeek, StubHub, and others control primary/secondary distribution. The D2C vision is to sell inventory through owned channels, with price optimization and other strategies managed by the team.</p></li><li><p><em>Media/Broadcast: </em>The status quo is that broadcast rights deals are the dominant revenue engine for teams today. The D2C vision is to include behind-the-scenes programming, player storytelling, and other content opportunities owned by teams and leagues, built on a direct, owned audience.</p></li><li><p><em>Merchandise: </em>The status quo is that Fanatics controls manufacturing and distribution for most major North American league apparel. The D2C vision is to sell all merchandise through an owned commerce infrastructure, in which the sports team retains all customer data.</p></li></ul><div><hr></div><h4><strong>V. The Talent Evolution in Sports</strong></h4><p>If the problem were technological, it would already be solved. The tools to build a D2C business exist and are accessible; the harder problem is organizational.</p><p>For decades, the sports industry has been powered by career insiders, people who have built deep institutional knowledge over 20 years within the same organization, league, or ecosystem. That experience is genuinely irreplaceable. Nobody understands a fanbase, a market, or a league relationship better than someone who has lived inside it for a generation.</p><p>But the next chapter of value creation requires bringing in diverse thought and experience alongside these leaders. In technology, the pace of change is relentless by design. Companies like Anthropic, SpaceX, and Ramp operate on an iteration cadence that most industries never experience. Operators who have built consumer businesses from scratch think differently about data, retention, and customer lifetime value.</p><p>Sports are beginning to import talent. AC Milan hired Maxime Laharrague, formerly a data scientist and insights manager at Spotify, to lead their data strategy across business and marketing. The Florida Panthers brought in Michael White, President of Business Operations, who previously served as Chief Product Officer at Amazon&#8217;s autonomous vehicle division. These examples are early signals of what more ownership groups will begin to implement.<br><br>Sports are beginning to import talent. AC Milan hired Maxime Laharrague, a Spotify data scientist and insights manager, to lead their data strategy across business and marketing. The Florida Panthers brought in Michael White as President of Business Operations, a former Chief Product Officer at Amazon&#8217;s autonomous vehicle division. These are early signals of what more ownership groups will begin to implement.</p><div><hr></div><h4><strong>VI. The Valuation Implication </strong></h4><p>Here&#8217;s the question we keep coming back to: if two teams generate identical revenue but one runs through intermediaries and the other through owned channels with first-party data infrastructure, are they worth the same multiple? We don&#8217;t think so. Not even close.</p><p>When a team knows every fan, it can model churn, underwrite a fan product, build sponsorships based on verified performance, and personalize experiences at scale. It carries a technology asset alongside the sports asset. The comps stop being other sports teams and start looking more like Spotify and Netflix: consumer businesses where the depth of the customer relationship is itself a source of enterprise value.</p><p>That&#8217;s the shift we&#8217;re watching for at LEAD. Not which team sells next, or at what price, but which groups are quietly building the infrastructure that turns every fan relationship and data point into a driver of valuation.</p><p>The teams that get there first won&#8217;t just be worth more; they&#8217;ll be worth it.</p>

There's no denying that sports teams have the world's most loyal customers. Despite being worth billions, they still don't know everything about their fans.

Sports Teams Are Consumer Brands That Don’t Act Like It

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Why Does Every Health System Want a Sports Jersey on Its Wall?

<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png" width="1456" height="969" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:969,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:4793682,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/i/169671774?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WIG0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d436f7b-63a4-43f4-9937-d0ad1cb4d8cc_2875x1913.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container restack-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-refresh-cw"><path d="M3 12a9 9 0 0 1 9-9 9.75 9.75 0 0 1 6.74 2.74L21 8"></path><path d="M21 3v5h-5"></path><path d="M21 12a9 9 0 0 1-9 9 9.75 9.75 0 0 1-6.74-2.74L3 16"></path><path d="M8 16H3v5"></path></svg></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>I. Introduction</h2><p>College athletics, long celebrated as the last and purest form of amateur sport, is undergoing a dramatic transformation&#8212;a fast-track toward professionalization.</p><p>What was once a university-operated, donor-supported, community-backed ecosystem governed by tradition is now increasingly influenced by macroeconomic market forces, including labor rights, media rights, and potentially private capital.</p><p>This is no longer just about who wins the Rose Bowl or the Final Four. It&#8217;s about who controls the infrastructure, monetization, and influence of a multi-billion-dollar industry.</p><p>I see this not just as a cultural shift&#8212;but as an infrastructure vacuum. When the old models collapse, someone will build the new ones. The only question is: who?</p><h2>II. NIL as the Trojan Horse</h2><p>The emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) in 2021 was a highly debated topic. Traditionalists branded it as a violation of what it means to be a student-athlete, while progressives called it a long-overdue move to give athletes the right to monetize their efforts. Whether people agreed or disagreed, the legalization of this athlete-empowered movement sparked a snowball effect that could not be stopped, even if an attempt was made.</p><blockquote><p><a href="https://miamihurricanes.com/news/2023/11/17/canes-connection-named-official-nil-collective-of-university-of-miami-athletics/">Case Study</a>: At the University of Miami, a booster-backed collective signed a $400K NIL deal with a top men&#8217;s basketball recruit. That public deal set a new standard&#8212;effectively pricing out less-resourced programs. The result? A Final Four run in 2023 and a clear statement: NIL was no longer about individual endorsements. It had become an institutional weapon.</p></blockquote><p>NIL was never just about athletes making money off Instagram. From the start, collectives were used as the primary recruiting tool for coaches to attract top talent to their schools. An anonymous SEC Athletic Director said, &#8220;Boosters used to give to build facilities. Now they&#8217;re paying for talent directly. That changes the whole power structure.&#8221; It&#8217;s now a full-fledged compensation system disguised as marketing. Honestly, that took some time to develop. In 2021, NIL mainly involved ad-hoc sponsorships and brand deals. And now, in 2025, it has grown into structured contracts, retention incentives, and tiered recruiting payouts. Many would describe this short-lived period as the Wild West.</p><p>However, as many had predicted, this structure alone could not hold up. It quickly turned into an arms race to the bottom, with the winner being the one with the most donor dollars.</p><p>The aftermath that we predict is a lose-lose where every party involved is fatigued at the end.</p><p>Market forces are now knocking on the front doorstep of college athletics to clean house.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe to receive all of LEAD&#8217;s latest posts.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p><h2>III. The Broken Model &amp; Its Unintended Consequences</h2><p>The traditional economic model of college athletics was based on three pillars (but not for much longer):</p><ol><li><p><em>Volunteer amateur labor:</em> When the <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2016/02/24/northwestern-union-case-book-indentured">Northwestern football team tried to unionize in 2014</a>, it marked the beginning of a labor rights awakening. With recent settlements, the NCAA has finally lost its grip on defining athletes as &#8220;students first.&#8221; Using this argument, universities profited off athletes&#8217; names and likenesses without paying them. The era of unpaid labor is essentially over.</p></li><li><p><em>Ever-increasing broadcast revenue:</em> While media revenue has surged, so have expectations. Linear TV is funding the present, but it&#8217;s not shaping the future. Media revenue was once the main driver of growth. Now it&#8217;s the wedge that&#8217;s divided the sport. Mega-deals with Fox and ESPN have created &#8220;haves&#8221; and &#8220;have-nots,&#8221; with Power5 schools earning three to five times more than mid-majors. That imbalance is now apparent.</p></li><li><p><em>Alumni-driven efforts:</em> Donors are funding talent pipelines in the dark, often with no say or stake. This shift from philanthropy to transaction is forcing many to rethink their role in the ecosystem. When their emotional ties unravel, dollars will slowly disappear. A Stanford donor said in a Sportico article, &#8220;If we become just another minor league, don&#8217;t expect me to keep giving like this as an alma mater.&#8221;</p></li></ol><p>That model is now broken. Why now? This is a $20B market awakening to its own inefficiencies. College athletics is no longer just a stepping stone&#8212;it has become its own market. With ongoing legal reforms, revenue increasing from media rights, and private equity interest intensifying, it is an inevitable truth waiting to be revealed.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Legal Reforms:</em> <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/45467505/judge-grants-final-approval-house-v-ncaa-settlement">The House v. NCAA settlement</a> marks a turning point. Approximately $20.5 million per school in new revenue allocation has temporarily leveled the NIL landscape &#8212;no more pay-to-play arms race, but most schools still lack the tools to spend wisely. The new structure means that every athletic department now operates under a quasi-professional model. Schools must now budget like businesses, with actual labor costs. Without a unified labor framework, the result is chaos: different state laws, inconsistent enforcement, and vast compliance gaps. More to come here.</p><p><em>Revenue Surges:</em> In 2025, the Big Ten and SEC are projected to generate over $1.5 billion in media rights, surpassing the revenue of some professional leagues. However, this &#8220;super conference&#8221; model results in concentrated value&#8212;40 schools thrive while 300 others struggle. This consolidation reflects Silicon Valley: dominant platforms overshadow everyone else.</p><p><em>PE Interest:</em> Firms are targeting college sports to control the infrastructure. Similar to fintech or logistics, owning the infrastructure offers long-term leverage. Revenues have increased, but cost structures remain inflated. Some groups are quietly exploring ways to bundle athletic department revenue streams for securitization. It&#8217;s financial engineering combined with fandom.</p><p>All these rapidly changing dynamics raise a significant concern: the unintended result of facing inequities in college athletics for non-revenue sports. This is a question I haven&#8217;t seen many people in the industry address or have a clear strategy for. I am hopeful that this will change.&nbsp;</p><h2>IV. Global Models: A Mirror or a Warning?</h2><p>Across Europe and around the world, professional sports primarily grow through club academies and federated systems, rather than universities. Some UEFA development coach probably says, &#8220;In Europe, we don&#8217;t pretend our 18-year-old striker is here to major in biology.&#8221; Separating academics and athletics has its downsides, but also provides clarity. US college sports might be closer to that reality than we first think. As schools move away from the student-athlete label and start offering direct pay, they&#8217;ll need new models for scale, governance, and ownership.</p><h2>V. What I&#8217;m Looking for as a VC?</h2><blockquote><p>&#8220;Schools need infrastructure fast. If the NCAA won&#8217;t build it, startups will.&#8221; &#8212; Blake Lawrence, CEO, OpenDorse</p></blockquote><p><em>&#129504; Thematic Signals I&#8217;m Tracking:</em></p><p>I want to find builders developing new systems for an old industry. This cosmic shift in the industry is that increasing revenue is the top priority. Revenue can be perceived directly on a P&amp;L, but also indirectly through a team&#8217;s winning percentage. But do not ignore or lose sight of what matters most to athletic departments moving forward.</p><ol><li><p>&#8220;Boring&#8221; back-office tools for athletic departments to operate like a traditional business.</p></li><li><p>&#8220;High ROI&#8221; front-office &amp; on-field tools designed to impact winning games sustainably.</p></li><li><p>Infrastructure for fan monetization beyond tickets. Fan identification is required first.</p></li></ol><h2>VII. Final Words</h2><p>This isn&#8217;t the &#8220;hype wave&#8221; we all experienced with NIL. It&#8217;s a structural re-architecture.</p><ul><li><p><em>For founders:</em> the need is real, and the buyers are scared. Get busy!</p></li><li><p><em>For athletic departments:</em> the clock is ticking. Go out and innovate. If you want to retain control, start running a sports enterprise, not a scholarship office with a stadium.</p></li><li><p><em>For VCs:</em> The market size is substantial, and market dynamics are currently in place.</p></li><li><p><em>For PEs:</em> While it has some perks to the vanity asset (like professional sports), you&#8217;ve got quite the operational task ahead of you. That said, there is serious upside if executed the right way.</p></li></ul><div class="captioned-button-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/p/the-great-unbundling-of-college-athletics?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Feel free to share this post with someone it resonates with.</p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://leadvc.substack.com/p/the-great-unbundling-of-college-athletics?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://leadvc.substack.com/p/the-great-unbundling-of-college-athletics?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p></div><p></p>

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