SBJ Unpacks: TJ Adeshola proud of sports legacy at Twitter

Tonight in Unpacks: When TJ Adeshola announced he was leaving Twitter this week, the outpouring from well-wishers showed the amount of respect he’d built up with sports executives and companies, writes SBJ’s John Ourand.

Other headlines:

• F1, local officials celebrate progress on Vegas paddock facility
• NYCFC chooses HOK, Turner for MLS stadium project in Queens
• Sportfive's Steve Loy savors Masters performance of clients Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson
• Full Swing’s tech products prepped Jon Rahm for Augusta
• Upper Deck gets USFL license, plans NHL activation ahead of playoffs
• Josh Harris would bring different style of ownership to Commanders
• Cloud9 owner welcomes fresh blood for League of Legends esports
• NHL attendance up 8% headed into final games
• PointsBet seeing rise in figures around golf wagering

In this morning's Buzzcast, SBJ’s Abe Madkour ends the week opining on:

• All the angles on Josh Harris buying the Commanders
• The WTA Tour bringing events back to China
• HOK, Turner being selected to design/build the new NYCFC stadium
• USFL Season 2 gets underway -- up against the XFL
• The Browns in the market for a new stadium naming rights sponsor

TJ Adeshola reflects on tenure with Twitter Sports

TJ Adeshola in recent years has been the Twitter exec tasked with forging and maintaining relationships with sports properties. That has helped him become one of the most well-liked and well-respected execs in the business. 

But Adeshola, a member of SBJ’s Forty Under 40 class in 2020, announced last week that he had left his role as head of global content partnerships at the social media platform. News of his departure did not come as a huge surprise. After all, Twitter’s executive ranks have been in upheaval since Elon Musk bought the platform nearly six months ago. During that time, Twitter’s full-time employee count has dropped from nearly 8,000 to 1,500. Defections included execs who worked in sports such as Sarah Rosen and Maggie McLean Suniewick.

But Adeshola’s decision had more to do with growing his career, he said, than anything else. “This is a story about a new challenge,” he said. “I’ve been at the Twitter for 10 years and had an incredible run. We built something that never existed before in 2016.”

Adeshola chatted with SBJ's John Ourand about his work at Twitter, and what's next. Check out an Early Access look at the article appearing in next week's SBJ.

F1, local officials hold topping-out ceremony for new Vegas paddock facility

Leaders from Las Vegas, Nevada and F1 on Thursday celebrated the progress being made on the new mixed-use paddock facility, with the venue quickly being built via 20-hour shifts by 400 construction workers, reports SBJ's Adam Stern.

Liberty Media President & CEO Greg Maffei, whose company owns F1, was among those in attendance, alongside F1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm and CCO Emily Prazer, F1 President & CEO Stefano Domenicali and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

It was a “topping-out ceremony” at the site of the paddock on Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue, where F1 spent $240 million  to acquire 39 acres of land.

NYCFC chooses HOK, Turner for MLS stadium project in Queens

NYCFC selected HOK and Turner as the architect and contractor for the MLS club’s $780 million soccer stadium project in Queens, reports SBJ's Bret McCormick. The stadium, which would be the first built in N.Y. specifically for soccer, is tentatively scheduled to be open and ready ahead of the 2027 season.

The project will include mixed-use development. NYCFC is working with Queens Development Group (QDG) to include 2,500 units of affordable housing, a new 650-seat public school, a hotel and open space around and near the stadium. The plan is for NYCFC’s stadium to sit at Willett’s Point, adjacent to Citi Field and a short distance from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

HOK and Turner have completed more than 400 projects together over the course of the last five decades, but they pursued the NYCFC project separately, not in a joint bid.

Sportfive's Steve Loy savors Masters performance of clients Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson

The sports business in general and the athlete representation business are fueled by relationships, and Sportfive President of Golf Steve Loy, Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm have long and deep ties.

Loy has repped Rahm since June 2016 when he was the No. 1-ranked amateur coming out of Arizona State. Loy was the head golf coach at ASU, where he coached Mickelson, but he quit coaching to become Mickelson’s agent when he turned pro in 1992. Mickelson’s younger brother, Tim, later became the golf coach at ASU and coached Rahm before he turned pro. Sportfive’s Steve Koski is Rahm’s day-to-day manager.

Rahm's win at the Masters comes at an opportune time. “He has some contracts that will be up for renewals or extensions or replacements at the end of this year,” Loy said. “We are in a very good place to optimize those opportunities.”

Mickelson, meanwhile, is in a different place, as he lost multiple blue-chip sponsors after controversial statements he made about the Saudi government became public last February. Callaway paused its sponsorship with Mickelson after his comments last year. Loy said Mickelson has stayed loyal to the company and still plays Callaway clubs. He said he didn’t want to make any comments on Mickelson’s sponsorships.

SBJ's Liz Mullen went deep on the relationship between Loy, Rahm and Mickelson. Check out an Early Access look at the piece that will appear in Monday's SBJ.

Full Swing’s tech products prepped Jon Rahm for Augusta

Leading up to his four-stroke victory at Augusta last weekend, Jon Rahm relied on a trio of tech-savvy products from Full Swing, reports SBJ’s Tom Friend, including actuator modules, infrared line-scan cameras and proprietary apps.

"I had been looking into the best way to practice all aspects of my game at home," Rahm said of his decision to install Full Swing’s devices. As a result, his sprawling house in Arizona is now one of the epicenters of golf.

In one corner sits an approximately 4x8 foot sliver of sophisticated turf that is actually a high-tech "Virtual Green" simulating the quick 12 to 14 breaks of Augusta National. Immersed with dozens of actuator modules -- which move to re-create, right breaks, left breaks, crests, valleys and hills -- the interactive putting green enabled Rahm to zero-in on one of his main concerns heading into the Masters.

Upper Deck gets USFL license, plans NHL activation ahead of playoffs

Upper Deck has obtained an exclusive license with the USFL to produce physical and digital trading cards featuring the league’s current players, reports SBJ's Alex Silverman. Upper Deck launched a 16-card preview set featuring players from all eight teams and will make three-card packs available for purchase. The collectibles company plans to release a more extensive USFL box set this summer featuring 25 player cards and five cards capturing major highlights from the 2022 debut season.

Meanwhile, Upper Deck on Saturday will celebrate National Hockey Card Day across the U.S. and Canada for the 14th straight year by making free packs of cards featuring current and former NHL stars available at hobby shops in both countries. Major retail stores in Canada, including London Drugs and Toys R Us, will also be offering free sheets of nine NHL trading cards.

Tim Hortons, an NHL sponsor in Canada, will also release a set of Upper Deck cards on Monday as part of its longstanding biannual promotion. Upper Deck renewed its exclusive license with the NHL in 2021 shortly after Fanatics gobbled up the future rights to produce MLB, NFL and NBA cards.

Upper Deck President Jason Masherah told SBJ that while the sports card industry has cooled in the aftermath of COVID-19, the category is “still definitely up" from pre-pandemic years. “What we've seen is a healthy movement in the industry because there were a lot of people coming in during the pandemic that were here just to make money and they weren't in it for the joy of collecting and the joy of that the hobby itself,” Masherah said. “The speculators, like in many industries, have moved out and moved on to other things at this point."

Despite the dramatic decline in the marketplace for NFTs since the boom in 2021, Masherah said Upper Deck remains committed to offering digital collectibles. The company soft-launched a new digital trading card platform called Evolution this week, which it plans to roll out broadly within weeks.

Josh Harris would bring different style of ownership to Commanders

For the Commanders, the probable exchange of Daniel Snyder for Josh Harris as owner could hardly be a bigger shift, writes SBJ’s Ben Fischer.

Snyder is famously difficult to work with and never found much success on the field. Harris brings humility, wisdom and a proven track record of turnarounds to the league, said Chris Heck, who worked under Harris for nine years with the 76ers, including the last five as president of business operations.

Heck said he expects Harris to do with the Commanders what he did with the Sixers, and more recently, the Devils: Take a long-struggling, nearly forgotten team with a strong history and bring them back to the top tier of the leagues in wins and revenue.

This week’s SBJ Football also covers:

• Chiefs targeting possible ‘secondary’ fans at draft
• NFL Draft to host BBQ cook-off during the picks
• XFL, USFL finally go head-to-head

Cloud9 owner welcomes fresh blood for League of Legends esports

Riot Games’ League of Legends Championships Series (LCS) may be on the verge of reinventing itself, and none too soon, writes SBJ’s Kevin Hitt.

Cloud9 co-founder & CEO Jack Etienne, whose squad just captured the LCS Spring Playoffs championship this past weekend, tells SBJ he was waiting for a long time for something to shake loose like it did late last week, when the former Sacramento Kings co-owner Andy Miller’s NRG announced its acquisition of CLG from MSG -- and its LCS slot.

One immediate change Miller wants to focus on with his return to LCS is getting the broadcast to focus more on players or coaches.

• Razer feels viral Valorant moment shows how brands need to lean in with individuals
• Wilf-backed Version1 is ‘beginning to explore alternative paths forward’

• Heading into tonight's final two regular season games (at the Blue Jackets and Predators), the NHL is averaging 17,100 fans per game, up 7.9% over last season, reports SBJ's David Broughton. Check out SBJ on Monday for the final team-by-team breakdown.

• The Devils this season set an organizational record for ticket sales revenue, growing its business 32% versus last season and hitting 125% of last season’s single-game ticket sales -- ninth-best in the NHL in terms of gross dollars, notes SBJ's Bret McCormick.

• As Chase Elliott returns to NASCAR action this weekend, NAPA Auto Parts says it’s satisfied with the way that Hendrick Motorsports handled his absence after breaking his left leg snowboarding, reports SBJ’s Adam Stern.

• Nike will now be the presenting sponsor of Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, MLB’s youth initiative aimed at providing baseball and softball playing opportunities for young people in underserved communities, reports SBJ's Erik Bacharach.

• When comparing the 15 PGA Tour events that have been played thus far to the 2022 season, and within the 12 markets that PointsBet was live in at this time last year, the betting brand has seen a 40% increase in total handle, a 35% increase in bet count, a 50% increase of live betting proportion of total handle, an 81% increase in unique bettors, a 533% increase in live betting markets and a 233% increase in pre-tournament markets, notes SBJ's Josh Carpenter.