This is Buying Sideline — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of sports hospitality.
In the email today:
The rooftops in Wrigleyville are famous for their unique, birds-eye views of the Cubs game. One business owner is battling with the team over his an inside look from ESPN details.
The owner of the four-story Wrigley View Rooftop, Aidan Dunican, claims the Cubs previously operated under an agreement requiring 17% of his gross revenue. That deal ended in 2023 and Dunican claims when he offered 20%, the Cubs countered with 30% for regular season games and 40% for the postseason. He also claims their proposal included first rights of refusal on sales of his rooftop building and the property he owns within a mile of the stadium.
On September 30th a federal judge ruled with the Cubs and forced Dunican to stop selling tickets. Its reasoning centered on the rooftop commercially benefitting from a product the Cubs invested in to produce as well as other trademark issues. The Cubs called his operation “parasitic”.
Dunican says he charges anywhere between $100-$300 for the 200-person venue; ticket comes with inclusive catered F&B, seat access on an open-air roof, and climate controlled indoor spaces. Dunican says the business typically generates annual revenue of $1 million. The team has recently added obstructions limiting some patron sightlines, but Dunican says ticket demand still remains.
The Ricketts Family, who owns the Cubs, participate in the rooftop business themselves having purchased 11 surrounding buildings and rooftop businesses while cutting rev-share agreements with other properties in the past.
Our Take: Whether the Cubs should receive compensation and whether their proposed terms are commercially workable are separate questions.
In my opinion, the Cubs most definitely deserve a cut when another business sells a hospitality package around a direct view to your games. These are hospitality businesses and in commercial terms this is closer to an all-inclusive suite experience than just a guy putting a lawn chair on his roof. Also, existing rooftop rev-sharing deals show there’s already a model for compensating the Cubs.
We covered similar tensions with Eagles fans a couple weeks ago, which begs the question for the foreseeable future as teams look to maximize underutilized real estate all around the stadium, how much control should teams and venue operators have over the gameday experience outside the gates, especially if that experience includes seeing the game?
🎥 Chiefs Are Using IP to Sell More Than a Game
As teams look to generate revenue 365 days a year in the most creative ways possible, some are looking at Hollywood to bump up the bottom line. Front Office Sports reports the Chiefs will start making movies and “the project has nothing to do with football”.
The Kansas City Chiefs ventured into movies with Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, which became the #1 cable movie for 2024. The Cubs released in September Nine Innings to Love, a 17-part scripted series about someone who finds love in the Wrigley bleachers.
The Chiefs launched Foolish Club Studios in 2025 post-Hallmark collaboration, and UTA announced they were repping the studio in September. In an interview with The Wrap, Foolish Club’s Gelsomina Picariello pointed to the limited number of seats and home games when explaining why the Chiefs need to reach people nationally and globally through entertainment.
Picariello also sees an opportunity to be “the NFL team that owns Christmas”. Alongside entertainment the club operated Kingdom’s Greeting, a holiday pop-up bar in a luxury space at Arrowhead — they’re recreating that again this year. The team also has an OpenTable listing which describes a private suite experience for up to 15 guests for $1,250 with dedicated service, sparkling wine, and charcuterie called “The Nice List”.
EVP of Marketing & Comms, Jennifer Martindale, said the Cubs responded to interest in two subcultures from women in their TikTok audience: RomanceTok and BookTok. Instead of constantly showing highlights on the platform they hoped to attract fans to Wrigley another way.
The NHL tried to cash-in on the popularity of Heated Rivalry and Off Campus with a “Hot for Hockey” campaign, a romance-themed podcast series on Spotify tied to real players like Connor McDavid, which faced intense scrutiny from fans. Those episodes are now gone from Spotify, though the NHL claims they were always going to be used for a limited time as a start-of-season marketing push.
Our Take: We've been talking about the Disnification of sports for a while.
From Front Office Sports:
"As streaming and digital platforms multiply, teams and leagues are increasingly operating like year-round entertainment companies. The opportunity is rooted in something sports organizations already possess: world-class intellectual property, recognizable talent, built-in audiences, and passionate communities."
Ironically, modern media businesses are best when content supports products and experiences (see Disney's Parks revenue compared to recent content struggles as an example). Here, you have organizations that sell products and experiences thinking about content as new revenue lines. I'd treat it more as marketing spend — furthering demand for experiences, and increasing the value of their IP.
But branching out into standalone content unrelated to the product? I’m not so sure.
🎰 Fisher Brothers Propose New Vegas NBA Arena/District
Fisher Brothers, a New York-based real estate firm, wants to make a future NBA franchise and proposed new 18,000-20,000 arena the centerpiece of a 50-acre mixed-use entertainment and retail district next to its existing AREA15 entertainment complex in Las Vegas.
The proposal has attracted the backing of some key Las Vegas political players, including Mayor Shelley Berkley, as the city continues to pursue an NBA franchise.
AREA15, which opened in 2020, gives the proposal an established entertainment base. Its existing offerings span immersive attractions, interactive experiences, live events, retail, restaurants, and bars, which combine to provide an existing draw around which the proposed district could take shape.
“Fisher Brothers owns 80 acres of land in Las Vegas,” Fisher recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We built and own AREA15. So 30 of the 80 acres we have developed into this entertainment campus district. The balance of the space, we’ve always looked at as part of our master plan and continued multifamily as well as entertainment development.”
According to FOX5 Las Vegas, key points strengthening the project proposal include:
The site is ready for construction to begin immediately
Municipal support brings $140 million in economic benefits through a Tourism Improvement District program
Existing site infrastructure and $18 million in recent improvements
Convenient accessibility with close proximity to several main corridors
In the end, Fisher envisions a build-out similar to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
“The good news is it can be bigger or smaller depending on what somebody wants, but the idea is very much inspired by things like SoFi Stadium, other sports-anchored developments around the world where you have an area, you have high-quality food and beverage experiences that support the area,” Fisher told the Review-Journal.
Fisher has had discussions with both the NBA and at least one of the three finalist groups bidding for a franchise. The winning bid is expected to reach upwards of $13 billion.
✈️ FanHaus’ $999 Charter Flights Sellout for White Out
FanHaus sold out three charter planes in three hours at $999 per person for Penn State’s White Out Game last weekend. The exclusive travel packages dubbed “White Out Air” bundled flights from Manhattan with helicopter transfers into State College.
Co-founder Tim Hayes, who co-created the original Lollapalooza, says fans want more than your traditional tailgate setup:
"The Masters at Augusta National and the U.S. Open demonstrate people want more than a tent and a folding table. We build event day experiences that set a new standard in affordable luxury while growing revenue for our clients."
The startup says its business model combines travel, tailgating, sponsor activation, and hospitality, and that it can share up to 50% of revenue with athletic departments.
More importantly, the experiential travel company is solving State College’s biggest pain point every fall — lodging. After new renovations this summer, Beaver Stadium can now hold up to 114,000+ on gameday while hotel availability doesn’t trend north of 4,000 rooms. FanHaus claims they had customers home in NYC before fans were out of the parking lot.
That’s totally believable:
FanHaus has also identified another demo with tailwinds - sober experiential. “We've engaged more than 2.2 million people celebrating without alcohol across our suite of event companies. The sober experiential space presents a huge opportunity for our partners.”
Fortuitous timing as the NHL just inked a multi-year partnership with its first NA beer company.
🛩️ Elsewhere in Airline and Sports Hospitality Updates…
On the heels of bringing American Airlines on board as its first-ever official airline partner and a founding partner of NU Stadium and Miami Freedom Park last month, Inter Miami CF announced plans for an American Airlines theme night on Oct. 14, when the club hosts New York City FC.
The matchday activation will feature fan experience and AAdvantage opportunities, including flyaway trips and field access. The theme night is part of a broader partnership that also gives the airline naming rights to the American Lounge, connecting the brand directly to the premium hospitality offering.
In other airline and pro sports partnership news, Kraft Sports + Entertainment unveiled the JetBlue Loft at Gillette Stadium last week. The 15,000 square-foot premium hospitality space will host Patriots gameday tailgate parties, corporateve events and private gatherings.
Our Take: In case the natural fit wasn’t obvious, airlines and sports hospitality go hand-in-hand, making further partnerships between the two a sure bet. These deals show how airlines can elevate beyond traditional sponsorship assets to become part of the hospitality experience itself. As sports venues increasingly position themselves as destinations for premium experiences and corporate gatherings, travel becomes an integral part of the broader experience.
🔗 Sports Hospitality Links
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