The Only Sports Clip to Watch this Week! 📹
+ Miami GP x Fyre Festival + Naomi Osaka Follows in Lebron's footsteps!
Hello Everyone,
As promised, here is the greatest sports clip of the week (or perhaps even the year) enjoy. 😊
Talking of being fast in America, the Miami Grand Prix happened last weekend and… it was weird!
Not only was the race a little boring, the organizers decided to give the top three drivers a police escort to the podium and handed them NFL helmets to wear while collecting their trophies.
But weird is not always bad and it looks like most fans appreciated the excessive amounts of pizzazz on display in Miami.
In fact, U.S. broadcaster ABC recorded an average audience of 2.58 million viewers over the Sunday race. That is the largest ever live audience for an F1 race on the U.S. market and is double the audience of last year’s Austin Grand Prix in Texas (1.23m.)
The race wasn’t just popular on TV, the circuit’s 85,000 capacity was met each day, with thousands of extra fans descending on local bars and hotels.
Celebrities also turned up in style, with Michelle Obama, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, David Beckham, and many more spotted mingling with the biggest names in F1.
Formula 1 has not always been this popular and the huge influx of celebrity names into the paddock was a little more than Sky Sports reporter Martin Brundle could handle.
Martin Brundle is famous for walking up and down the grid before each race and badgering drivers and celebrities for interviews. This has led to some incredibly awkward moments, including when Brundle was pushed out of the way by bodyguards working for U.S. Rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
Brundle was on top form again at the Miami Grand Prix. Not only was he rejected by David Beckham on multiple ocassions, but he also managed to confuse NBA star Paolo Banchero for NFL star Patrick Mahomes.
The awkward exchange was a hit on social media, with Brundle trending on Twitter for hours after the event had finished.
The Sky journalist even took to Twitter to express his embarrassment about the mix-up:
While most people enjoyed the extravagant - and slightly awkward - Miami Grand Prix, the event wasn’t completely free of controversy.
Some fans, especially those who paid for luxury packages worth over $30k, complained of bad logistics, poor service, and disappointing food.
‘For what was touted as a world-class experience came away feeling like the Fyre Festival of F1 races,’ explained one fan to the NY Post. ‘“I’d say just the lack of the true marina circuit cheapened the whole experience, It was thousands for a ticket to a track that was basically a parking lot.’
Ironically, other fans complained of difficulty parking and incredibly confusing tickets that directed them to the wrong seats.
‘The parking pass we purchased with our ticket didn’t match up with the gate we were closest to for entry,” explained another fan to the NY Post. “The fun of the race was a little overshadowed by logistics.’
The costs involved with fixing these small issues look to have sent this year’s event into the red, with Miami Grand Prix boss Tom Garfinkel explaining that the 2022 race will not turn a profit.
“It’s very important for us to deliver a great event. The expenses far exceeded our expectations but that was because we were trying to do everything first class, to be on-brand with what Formula 1 is and the kind of event we want to deliver.”
Teething problems are to be expected at a brand new circuit, but the overall event must still be considered a success. In fact, demand is so high that they plan to increase the capacity to 100,000 fans per day next year.
While F1 bosses will be slightly relieved that their gamble of bringing more races to the U.S. seems to be paying off, it’s not as if they didn’t already know that American fans were willing to spend big on F1.
Merchandise sales on the official F1 store have increased by 135% since 2021, with the U.S. becoming the largest market for the first time in history.
Liberty Media, the company that owns F1, has also seen a major boost in revenue thanks to U.S. fans.
From F1-related activities alone, the company pocketed $360 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2022. That is exactly double the revenue of the same quarter last year and is mainly down to new sponsorship deals signed with the likes of Salesforce and Lenovo on the back of F1’s meteoric rise in the U.S.
In some ways, the Miami Grand Prix could mark either the rise or fall of Formula 1. It is arguably the first time that the off-track elements of a race, from awkward interviews to fake marinas, have completely taken the attention away from the racing.
This appears to have been intentional. No one can say the race was a classic, and the drivers were not particularly fond of the layout of the circuit. The organizers clearly wanted to make the Miami GP a showpiece and placed greater emphasis on making sure that the event had an atmosphere of excitement and entertainment, with the spectacle of racing becoming an afterthought. This is not uncommon in American sport, after all, there is a reason that the Super Bowl has a halftime show and the Champions League doesn’t. This is not an attack on American sporting culture and we understand that there are plenty of U.S. sports that create their own atmosphere. But, Formula 1 does not normally operate like it did in Miami. In 2021, it was Hamilton and Verstappen that provided the entertainment and not a fake marina. If Formula 1 is serious about riding this U.S. wave, then fans should expect more events where the racing takes second place behind the atmosphere. Whether the core fanbase will accept this new reality is a question for the future…
Naomi Osaka Starts Her Own Agency 📈
According to Sportico, Naomi Osaka only earned $1.2 Million from prize money in 2022 but made $52 Million from sponsorship deals. That is more money than Lionel Messi or Tom Brady received from sponsorship in the same period.
Clearly, Osaka has an incredibly strong brand image that allows her to stay relevant despite not winning on the court. With that in mind, it might be a little surprising to hear that she has decided to part ways with IMG, her image management agency.
In fact, Osaka, alongside her longtime agent Stuart Duguid, has decided to set up her own brand management company called Evolve.
This new entity will be responsible for handling Osaka’s image and business dealings, although they may bring on new clients in the future.
This is not a completely unprecedented move for an athlete. In recent years, both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have left IMG to start their own agencies with their agents. Although Osaka is the first major female athlete to make the move.
So, why has Naomi Osaka decided to dump the management agency that helped her build such an impressive brand?
"I've spent my career doing things my way, even when people told me that it wasn't what was expected or traditional, Evolve is the natural next step in my journey as both an athlete and businesswoman," Osaka explained to Sportico.
But, what does she mean when she says ‘natural next step?’
First off, Osaka has an incredibly strong brand. Her links to both Asia and North America, the two biggest markets in sport, make her attractive to sponsors. Her talent coupled with her determination to make mental health a greater priority in tennis has earned her an army of loyal fans. To put it simply, it doesn’t take much to convince brands to partner with Naomi Osaka, and she might have realized that she doesn’t need to give a commission to an agency to close deals she could easily conclude with her agent.
But this move isn’t just about saving commission. She has taken inspiration from her personal mentors such as Lebron James and Kobe Bryant and plans to invest in companies and help them grow
In recent years, Lebron made almost $100 Million dollars through investment in Liverpool Football Club. Osaka is looking to make a similar sort of return, with her agent claiming her business will grow from $50 Million to $150 Million in the next few years.
Osaka even plans to reduce the number of sponsors she has on her tennis outfits in favor of purchasing stakes in companies and growing them using her brand.
But just because other athletes have followed similar paths does not guarantee that Evolve will be a success. Osaka is still young and has an entire career in tennis ahead of her. With IMG she had one of the biggest agencies in sport on her side, now it’s just her and her agent.
When an athlete goes it alone, especially in the context of marketing and branding, it is the small things that count. That’s what made the announcement of her departure from IMG a little odd. Not only was the post that Osaka uploaded to Instagram in a low definition, but the company was also announced before a website or social media page had been created.
Then there is the agent. With IMG out of the picture, Stuart Duguid will play a far greater role in managing Osaka’s image. Therefore, you would hope that Duguid has a clear understanding of who his client actually is…
In an interview on Wednesday, Duguid is quoted as saying:
“She’s [Naomi Osaka] not someone who likes to play video games and binge Netflix all day,”
This is despite the fact that Osaka has come out on multiple occasions to express her love for playing video games. That includes a Vanity Fair article where Osaka quite literally said “Gaming has always been such a huge part of my life.”
While we are sure the agent simply made an error, it is in the little details that these sorts of ventures succeed or fail.
That being said, if Naomi Osaka takes the same approach to business as she has with her tennis and mental health over the last few years, there will be no stopping Evolve.
Sports Business Bites 🍎
A quick summary of the other important news from the world of sports business:
🎮 EA and FIFA have officially announced the end of their video game partnership. From 2023, the FIFA series will be re-branded EA Sports FC. This comes after EA rejected FIFA’s demands of $1 Billion to use their name for the next four years. FIFA plans to sell the naming rights to another gaming company in the near future.
🏈 Tom Brady has signed a $375 Million ten-year deal to be an NFL presenter on Fox Sports. The partnership will begin when the NFL star, who famously unretired himself earlier this year, finally retires from sport.
💰 Forbes has announced its annual top 10 highest-earning athletes list, with Lionel Messi taking the top spot ahead of Lebron James: