Golin Launches New Sports Agency | Gatorade Wins Gummy Lawsuit

Get up to speed with latest news impacting the sports business landscape in Chicago and beyond. 🗞️ 

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🎾 Amer Sports Earnings Soar On 'Strong Pricing Power' Amid Trump Tariffs. The Stock Is Jumping. Some businesses have taken big hits to their stock prices during this period of tariff uncertainty. Thick-skinned Amer Sports, parent company of Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods, is bucking that trend and reaching new heights. Revenue grew nearly 23% when compared to last year’s earnings. It beat its projections on the back of strong sales of Wilson equipment. Even when accounting for the impact of Trump’s 30% tariffs on Chinese goods and 10% tariffs on other countries, Amer Sports projects a growth of 15%-17% this year. It credits its position as a market leader and its mitigation strategies to deal with the tariffs as key to its strong earnings. Timing is key for context with any of these earnings reports, though. If the US and China were still escalating their tariffs against each other at 130% or 145%, it would be tough to imagine Amer Sports sounding just as hype about its projections. To see the new record-high stock price Amer Sports reached, check out this information from Investor’s Business Daily.

⚾️ Wintrust buys naming rights for New Lenox Crossroads Sports Complex; grand opening set for June Ahead of the grand opening this summer of its new sports complex, New Lenox is partnering up with a local staple for naming rights. The $70 million facility will open just a little over a year after construction began. Phase one will introduce full-size baseball fields, two auxiliary concession buildings, a Coors Light Chill zone, and more on the 100-acre complex. Phase two will feature a 140,000 square foot indoor fieldhouse, which will cost $40 million and be paid through hotel and retail tax revenue. In the naming rights agreement, Wintrust will have its logo appear throughout the complex and on an I-355 billboard. The sports complex will be a huge boost to Southland and quickly become a go-to host for all types of sporting events. The Tribune details more terms in the naming rights agreement and how much revenue New Lenox can bring in with the complex.

🍬 PepsiCo's Gatorade defeats banned sprinter's lawsuit over 'recovery gummies' Move over, weed gummies. So-called recovery gummies could get you in a lot more trouble for a dirty urine test. At least, that’s what sprinter Issam Assinga claims happened to him en route to a 4-year doping ban. Gatorade, using plenty of firepower from its W Monroe St headquarters, won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Assinga. He claims the gummies he received from Gatorade in 2023 were tainted with a banned substance. It doesn’t look good for him, even though his lawyers spoke out against the decision and are vowing to fight it. These banned substance cases are typically murky until the very end, sometimes years later, when all the hidden details finally come out. More on the name of the drug Assinga tested positive on and how the case was settled can be found here.

📺️ Golin Unveils New Sports Specialty to Transform Fan-First Campaigns Consuming sports today looks nothing like the way it did for your parents and grandparents. It’s no longer a passive, ‘build it and they will come’ setup. Tech-savvy consumers want to attend a live sporting event, pull out their phone, and be able to blend their live experience with enhancements and insights from their smart device. With its global headquarters at The Mart, Golin is a veteran marketing agency with a penchant for cutting-edge services. Its new SPORTSYNC offering will integrate social media and a data-driven newsroom to provide a new type of experience for fans. The sports sponsorship industry will grow to $160 billion by 2030. Golin’s innovative spirit will be crucial to brands and teams looking to connect with fans better than ever. We’ll be here waiting for the technology that will allow fans to make GM decisions for their team when their team can’t seem to get it right. Hawks fans would line up in droves for it. Golin’s press release dives into all of the juicy details of its new sports specialty function.

🏀 Trail Blazers announce intent to sell team, with all proceeds going toward philanthropic endeavors The late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and worth $20.3 billion when he died, stated in the directive for his estate to eventually sell all of his sports holdings and donate the proceeds to charity. His estate owns the Trail Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks, and has a 25% stake in the Seattle Sounders. Those other teams won’t be for sale now, but they’ll follow the directive when they do. Allen truly believed in giving back after donating more than $2.5 billion of his wealth to philanthropy while alive. Whichever foundations receive the proceeds after the sale will transform their financial landscape overnight with NBA teams selling for billions. Here’s more info on how much the Trail Blazers are estimated to be worth and background info on Paul Allen’s estate.

🤖 Epoxy AI Partners with LG Electronics to Launch Sports Playbook The LG Sports Playbook will present a dynamic and personalized sports experience for fans, similar to Golin’s strategy from an earlier headline. The partnership brings Epoxy’s technology to LG customers with an LG smart TV. Starting with the NBA, fans will be able to track their favorite teams on the road, for example, using advanced data visualizations. Epoxy AI has been around since 2020 and offers AI tools to deliver tailored user experiences. It’s the era of hyper-personalization within sports tech. Fans at home or in person will be able to order food, place bets, track stats, and more without having to switch apps or get up. More partnerships like this will be common as companies like LG see what companies like Epoxy AI are doing and look to stay ahead of their competitors. This press release covers more on what Epoxy AI does and how the technology will work.  

📺️ New ESPN Streaming App Marks Major Shift in Disney Strategy ESPN spent months and months building up hype around its supposedly transformative “Flagship” app coming out later this year. According to CEO Jimmy Pitaro, “This is going to redefine our business”. But…now they're scraping the plans to change the name and keeping ESPN. The logic in keeping the name makes sense since it’s so recognizable worldwide. But it could be a tough sell to consumers. ESPN+, ESPN’s only standalone service requiring a monthly subscription, is now $11.99. The new app will launch around the return of football and will cost more than double that. Networks know people have been ditching cable for years, so streaming apps have become a necessity for them to stay in business. But ESPN may have an uphill battle in proving the value of this all-in-one “new” app with the same old name we’re all used to seeing. Front Office Sports talks about how much the new app will cost and what it will offer.

👟 Dick’s Sporting Goods is buying Foot Locker for $2.4 billion Could this be a rare lose-lose deal compared to others at this scale? Dick’s Sporting Goods (DSG) dominates the sporting goods market with over 700 stores nationwide. It believes buying Foot Locker, with its 2,400 stores internationally, will help it expand its global footprint. Foot Locker has been a sinking brand for a while, having lost 40% in its stock price over the last year. Many of its stores are in shopping malls, which have been dying a slow death for years. And in the backdrop of all of this are Trump’s tariffs. Most shoes sold in the U.S. are imported, and many come from China and Vietnam. DSG’s stock price dropped 13% after the announcement, showing its investors were skeptical of the move. But that’s why CEOs get paid big bucks to make these types of decisions. Maybe he sees something everyone else is ignoring and will navigate the tariffs and the decline of Foot Locker with grace and come out of it a hero. See the percentage of shoes imported and other details on Foot Locker’s recent performance here.