Why YouTubers are the Perfect Football Club Owners
Plus Amazon reveals Newcastle's secret and are Nike shoes cursed?
Welcome to Athletic Interest.
YouTubers have just purchased a Premier League football club.
When we saw this headline, we thought…Finally, Manchester United has accepted our generous offer of a free video shoutout and a pair of limited-edition Athletic Interest socks*.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the offer is still being considered alongside the offers from Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe (wish us luck!)
In reality, it is the YouTube trick-shot group Dude Perfect that have purchased a stake in Premier League side Burnley.
While slightly less crazy than the idea of the Glazers giving us the keys to Old Trafford, this is still somewhat unexpected.
Why would some YouTubers who gained fame and fortune through videos of insane trick shots now want to take the big step of becoming part owners of a Premier League club?
Well, the answer becomes clearer when you look a bit closer at Burnley Football Club.
For years, Burnley were outsiders in the Premier League. A traditional underdog that insisted on playing an aggressive style of football and avoided the excessive transfers and fancy players.
That was until 2020 when the club was purchased by the U.S. investment fund ALK Capital. The new owners wanted to modernise the club but didn’t really get much of a chance before the club was relegated to the Championship.
What is typically a financial curse for a football club has actually proven to be a huge blessing. A moment away from the lights of the Premier League, and a switch from underdogs to favourites allowed the club to reinvent itself. The owners brought in former Man City defender Vincent Kompany as manager and the club transformed into an exciting and modern team that was promoted back to the Premier League with ease.
So, where does Dude Perfect fit in?
ALK Capital is not done modernising the club and wants to promote Burnley to a younger audience in the hope that the club can grow its international fanbase (which is essentially non-existent.)
For this, Dude Perfect is…perfect.
They boast a 91m strong audience across social media, with 60m followers on YouTube. This audience is not only global but also very young, with the five to 16-year-old demographic being the channel’s most significant and most loyal audience segment.
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For Premier League clubs, this is gold. Young fans, especially those in America, are just now starting to pick up Premier League football and will look to their favourite influencers for help deciding who to support.
Burnely’s new association with Dude Perfect should not only guarantee new fans but also boost the club’s wider profile making it more attractive to sponsors.
This all seems like good news for Burnley, but what do Dude Perfect get from this?
Well, in theory, any boost to Burnley will increase the value of their investment, but the details of the size or cost of Perfect’s stake in Burnley have not been released.
It is therefore possible that Dude Perfect have reached a deal in which they were given an extremely small percentage of the club (for free) in return for their services promoting the club on social media.
This actually fits a recent trend in sports, with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney recently being given a stake in the Alpine F1 team in return for help promoting the team.
In the situation of Burnley and Dude Perfect, the club gets access to a young international audience and the Youtubers have a piece of a Premier League club, an asset class that is rising in value.
You can learn more about Dude Perfect in this video we made:
👕 Newcastle Documentary Accidentally Reveals Deal With Adidas.
Amazon has just released a documentary about Newcastle United. While the series does still feel like the typical PR puff piece, it does have one moment that the club wishes we could forget.
By accident, Amazon left in scenes in episodes three and four, which describe how Newcastle have signed a kit supply deal with Adidas. The only problem is that this deal has not been made public yet, and Newcastle are still wearing kits from their recent supplier Castore. Apparently, Amazon released the series earlier than expected and forgot to edit the scenes out. Those episodes were quickly deleted from the Prime Video service.
This news may come as a surprise, with Newcastle only signing their $6m per season deal with Castore in 2021. The deal was supposed to run until 2027, but Newcastle were able to trigger an exit clause.
While the specific finances of the new deal have not been made public, despite Amazon’s best efforts, it is believed that Adidas will give Newcastle substantially more than they were given by Castore.
👟 Nike Shoes Involved in Triumph and Failure…
It’s the World Athletics Championships at the moment and there are some strange things going on that have captured the world’s attention.
Unfortunately, it’s not impressive sprints or magnificent jumps but rather some unfortunate fails that have gone viral.
In the space of about half an hour, The Netherlands had two runners fall over in the final meters of their respective races while in the lead.
How did this happen? Is the Netherlands cursed? Was it the shoes?
While we can’t comment on witchcraft, we do know that the shoes weren’t to blame.
One of the runners, Sifan Hassan, was wearing Nike’s new ZoomX Dragonfly shoes.
These bright pink shoes are extremely popular at the Championship and one of the most successful shoes in long-distance events.
Ironically, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, who overtook Hassan and claimed the gold in the 10,000m, was wearing the Dragonfly shoes. Meanwhile, the podium finishers in the men’s 10,000m – Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo, and Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega – all looked to be wearing the Dragonfly too.
Apparently, the Dragonfly is so popular because it’s incredibly light at just 125g (normal running shoes can be double this). It also uses Nike’s carbon plate technology encased in the much-appreciated ZoomX foam.
⚽️ The Women’s World Cup Surprises FIFA
For the first time ever, the Women’s World Cup was not a financial loss for FIFA.
According to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the World Cup generated $570m in income, a result that allowed the tournament to break even.
This is despite FIFA raising the Prize money from $30m in 2019 to around $110m this year.
Most of this income increase can be traced to a strong campaign by FIFA to maximise TV revenues before the start of the World Cup. With more games at this tournament, Infantino even threatened to black out TV coverage in Europe’s Big Five countries if the broadcasters didn’t improve bids for the coverage. The lack of these blackouts suggests he was successful.
FIFA also sold more advertising packages than before, selling out of available slots before the tournament started.
🇪🇸 It has not been a good time for fans of Malaga recently. Not only has the once La Liga club been relegated to the third division, but the club has also failed to make any major signings.
As a show of their frustration, Malaga’s fans decided to wait outside their local airport and greet complete strangers as if they were new signings…
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* You can purchase your own pair of these gorgeous socks from our online store.