Vanderbilt, inspired by soccer’s Premier League, trying to get ahead of revenue curve

Sports

add

Notre Dame’s athletic director previously served as the chairman of NBC Sports. The University of Kentucky recently became the first school to convert its athletic department to a limited-liability holding company, Champions Blue LLC, which the school said will allow it to find new revenue “through public-private partnerships and potentially other transactions, such as real estate.”

These are two examples Vanderbilt chancellor Daniel Diermeier gave Wednesday in explaining his school’s creation of a strategic initiative called Vanderbilt Enterprises, with longtime hospitality industry leader Markus Schreyer hired as CEO. The professionalization of college athletics goes well beyond athlete compensation. Vanderbilt is the latest, but won’t be the last, school to take a creative approach.

But Diermeier’s real inspiration wasn’t too far from where he was speaking Wednesday, in London, before hosting an event for Vanderbilt donors. He studied several professional sports franchises, some in the Premier League in England, including Manchester City FC.

“Manchester City built next to its stadium the second-largest concert venue in the United Kingdom, the biggest one outside London, so you can have concerts there and create a whole kind of weekend there for people going to a Manchester City game,” Diermeier said of a complex that also includes a hotel, museum and fan zone. “Well, we don’t have to build a concert venue. We’re in Nashville.”

This is not the first time a Vanderbilt official has mentioned the idea of capitalizing on the tourism haven that bustles just outside the walls of the university. But this is the first time such words have been accompanied by actual strategy and investment.

The idea, Diermeier said, is for Vanderbilt athletics to be part of the equation for tourists. And visitors who are in town for business conferences. And young families and young professionals who aren’t necessarily alums or longtime fans. As Vanderbilt Enterprises CEO, Schreyer will essentially be “chief revenue officer” for Vandy athletics, Diermeier said, and the hospitality background is key.

“How does it translate into resources? How can you enhance the fan experience?” Diermeier said. “If you run a hotel or a type of event venue, or anything on the hospitality side, you want to create new experiences and new value for people, just like they do at Disney or the Grand Ole Opry.”

The timing relates to upheaval in college athletics, with schools preparing to share millions in revenue directly with athletes as terms of a lawsuit settlement that could be approved any day. Diermeier compared this time period to the late 1970s in the airline industry, after federal deregulation dropped prices, allowed upstart brands to emerge and actually helped the industry flourish despite doomsday predictions.

“Everybody has to get ready for the new world, and you have to set aside all paradigms and develop new ideas,” he said. “It’s going to be an era where disruption will be needed and will be rewarded.”

The timing also coincides with a strengthening of the Vanderbilt product to embolden such pursuits.

“Beating Alabama and whole goalpost thing? That didn’t hurt,” Diermeier said of a 2024 football win that ranks among the greatest in school history.

In five years under Diermeier and athletic director Candice Lee, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised, facilities have been transformed and the most important teams have gained momentum.

The 2024-25 school year has a case as the best in modern history — the Bama-beating football team won a bowl game and both basketball teams made the NCAA Tournament — especially if Tim Corbin’s baseball team can make a big run in the next few weeks.

Lee celebrated her fifth anniversary on Wednesday and was one of five finalists for Athletic Director of the Year, given at the Sports Business Awards in New York. Tennessee’s Danny White won the award. Lee was previously named Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of College Directors of Athletics.

“If you’re the AD of Vanderbilt, all you have ever wanted is for the university to strategically invest in athletics,” said Lee, who wasn’t able to attend the awards ceremony because of a recent knee surgery. “In my five years (as AD), I’ve had that. This chancellor, everything he’s said we’re going to do, we’ve done. Every single thing I’ve asked Daniel Diermeier for, he has said yes.”

Vanderbilt has unique challenges and advantages. But finding new revenue streams, thinking more like pro franchises and riding through inevitable industry storms ahead are widespread experiences.

“I do think this can be a trailblazing model,” Lee said. “But everyone’s going to have their own way of doing it.”

(Photo: Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Incredible but true: a player finishes Pokemon Diamond in 17 minutes without a single battle

Gaming - English

Next

trending_flat

Luka Modric announces Real Madrid departure

Sports