🏟️ NIL March Madness Begins

Welcome to this week’s edition of Sports Industry Weekly as we share insights from the top business headlines from across the sports industry.

💰 LSU women’s basketball star Flau’jae Johnson has announced an NIL partnership with Experian to collaborate on a relief campaign aimed at eliminating $5 million of debt for 5,000 families in Louisiana.

🇺🇸 Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg has activated his Instagram for a series of sponsored content with brands like Jersey Mike's Subs, Uber Eats, New Era, and New Balance—posting more this week than he did from all of November to February.

🎓 Stephen Curry makes history as the first active athlete to take on an administrative role in college athletics by being named the Assistant General Manager at his alma mater, Davidson College.

📈 The New York Yankees reported a franchise record of $411.7 million in sales from tickets and luxury suites last season.

👟 Ahead of the March Madness tournaments, Under Armour Basketball announced a few new athlete signings, including WNBA's Nika Mühl and their NIL class of college athletes, featuring UCLA's Lauren Betts and Auburn's Tahaad Pettiford.

🏈 Twitter/X experienced a social media outage at the worst possible time for football fans, as the platform encountered technical issues during the start of the NFL's free agency period.

🎙️ Tom Brady (Fox Sports, $37.5m/year), Charles Barkley (TNT, $21m/year) and Stephen A. Smith (ESPN, $20m/year) lead the industry as highest paid sports broadcasters.

🏆 League One Volleyball (LOVB) has teamed up with Tiffany & Co. to design its inaugural league championship trophy, inspired by sketches and ideas from LOVB Club junior athletes.

🏀 Detroit has officially entered a bid for a WNBA expansion team with an ownership group that includes Pistons owner Tom Gores, Eminem, Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Jared Goff, and General Motors CEO Mary Barra.

⚾️ While the Athletics will temporarily play in West Sacramento for the next few seasons, the franchise unveiled a new Las Vegas jersey patch that they will wear for the upcoming 2025 season.

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🏟️ Manchester United announced they’ll be leaving Old Trafford for a 100,000-seat stadium in a new proposal that was unveiled this week. This proposed arena would surpass Wembley as the largest in the United Kingdom.

🏀 The Charlotte Hornets will begin construction on a new practice facility HQ that includes 100,000 square feet of training, practice, and recovery space for players. Charlotte will contribute $30 million to the project, and the Hornets will cover an expected $70 to $100 million.

⚾️ A new behind-the-scenes documentary, "The Clubhouse: A Year With The Red Sox," will be coming soon to Netflix, providing unprecedented access to the franchise during their 2024 season.