This is Buying Sideline — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of sports hospitality and premium experiences.
First up, a quick poll:
What do you view as the biggest opportunity for pro and college teams to grow revenue?
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In the email today:
🏈 Big 10 Teams Get Creative with Premium Experiences
via Ohio State Athletics
This week Ohio State gave reporters a first-look at the new amenities coming to the 103-year-old Horseshoe this season. That included 9 field-level premium suites which hold 20 people (12 seats, 8 standing room only) and will cost $142,700 for the entire season. That averages out to $20,385.71 per game to watch the #1 Buckeyes.
On the other hand, Penn State, fresh off a $700 million stadium renovation and reports the athletic department is $535 million in debt, is clawing that money back any way they can through a new apparel deal, raising season ticket prices, and bringing premium gameday experiences to Happy Valley.
Our very own Kyle Pagan broke them all down:
Our Take: The price of the suite is the part making the headlines, but what’s on top of the suites deserves its own call out. OSU maximized their premium real estate by adding an additional 400 seats. The already sold out seats, which are the widest in the entire stadium, retail for $6,000 for the season and come with access to the prestigious 1922 Club.
Combine the potential revenue of these two premium experiences and OSU is looking at ~$3.7 million in revenue. The going rate for a 5 star QB prospect right now according to ESPN is anywhere between $1.5-$3 million. There were A LOT OSU fans in the comments of our TikTok railing against prices and the band relocating. The smart people calling the shots know all that anger subsides when they land a generational talent at QB who propels them to a National Championship.
The U.S. Open got underway this week, and the latest episode of JohnWallStreet’s The Sports Advisors Podcast offered plenty of insights into the event’s premium hospitality strategy.
Like many major sporting events, the U.S. Open has placed an increased emphasis on luxury hospitality, an approach that has helped fuel significant renovations to Arthur Ashe Stadium and rethinking of corporate relationships.
But with the USTA leaning into more courtside seating, expanded concourses, and premium food and beverage, it led JWS to point out 3 trends we’re seeing in hospitality:
1) Access
DIRIGO Advisory, LLC Founder John Brody offered up a suggestion on where the USTA (and other leagues and teams) could turn next:
“They're doing what they can to deliver for the audience that is demanding it… Can they do concerts? Can they do other things to make it that next level of experience? They probably can,” Brody said. But “the best thing they can do for the fans is [provide more] access to the players.”
“Getting [fans] closer to their idols, to the ones that they want to touch and feel.... Get the players to be more accessible and give more specialty opportunities to fans [willing to pay for them]. That's a U.S. Open opportunity, but that's an opportunity throughout sports.”
2) Sponsors As Partners
The panel noted the U.S. Open benefits greatly from brand partners creating sought-after access to lounges and other unique experiences.
Encore Sports and Entertainment CEO Nick Kelly explained the key role tournament partners play in adding to the experience.
“Everything that Amex does, Chase does, Heineken; they [each] create another elevated experience. The dwell time is unparalleled to any other sporting event. People show up at the Amex lounge and never leave. So, as [other properties] look around, and it's a tough conversation, but [they might want to consider taking] less money potentially from one of [their] partners if [that company is] willing to [invest in] elevating the experience.”
Our Take: There are 2 topics to tackle here:
1) We’re heading for a world where better seats, suites and food and beverage are table stakes in the premium hospitality game. While increased access isn’t exactly a novel part of the equation, athlete access remains a largely untapped play for event organizers, teams and leagues, and as Brody suggests, this is the logical evolution of the premium experience. Expect teams and leagues to leverage athlete access and unique player-driven experiences as a way to differentiate from an increasingly common premium playbook.
2) The U.S. Open teaches a good lesson in how rights holders should view sponsors and partners. With Amex, Chase and other partners playing a key role in the U.S. Open hospitality ecosystem, it may be increasingly important for teams and leagues to find partners who will do more than simply pay for brand visibility or activation, but actually meaningfully add to the experience.
🏟️ BEYOND Hospitality Head Gives Market Insights Ahead of UEFA 2028
BEYOND Hospitality is tapped to be the Official Hospitality provider for UEFA 2028, which will be held in the UK and Ireland. In a Q&A with Sport for Business the head of BEYOND, Jaime Byrom, offered a look into the changing consumer habits of fans, the international visitor opportunity, and where the industry is heading.
Some insights:
Hospitality has become a core pillar of event revenue: “Hospitality has become a significant slice of the overall commercial pie, sitting alongside media rights, sponsorship, ticketing, and other revenue streams, and its importance has increased as the cost of staging major events has risen and service-level expectations have grown over the last 20 years in particular.”
BEYOND is seeing a change in consumer buying habits. Hospitality has historically been reserved for the corporate client. Now they’re seeing more affluent fans willing to purchase hospitality themselves.
BEYOND also plans to build a “hospitality ladder” of sorts. There will be your traditional ultra-premium private skyboxes and elite entertainment, and also family spaces, business-class spaces, and team-themed Supporters Clubs where super fans can watch their favorite team together.
Byrom also specifically called out international visitors as a growth opportunity as these tentpole events tend to become a part of their larger vacation plans. The article cites the 2025 NFL Dublin game, which contributed $104.5M economic impact. Irish eyes are smiling.
Our Take: There are a lot of call outs we can get into from this Q&A.
Lets start with the main one, hospitality has a seat at the adult table. Premium hospitality is increasingly becoming to live events what luxury cabins are to airlines: a relatively small portion of capacity capable of producing a large portion of revenue. The best part? Airlines don’t need to take inventory away from economy buyers like stadiums don’t need to from ordinary fans.
The premium consumer is now just as much you or I as it is (insert Fortune 500 company here). That could lead to a major TAM expansion. Hospitality is no longer B2B, but now B2B2C or B2C. And that consumer is a high-end one. Look no further than On Location’s record breaking hospitality sales at this year’s World Cup.
The industry also has two significant opportunities Byrom mentioned. One is in the middle of the market where those $300-$1,000 premium experiences live. The other is the international visitors turning these events into “sportscations”. How do companies start to own the entire trip? From flight to hotel to tickets all the way to tourism, dining, nightlife, and more. The possibilities to connect a premium curated experience through one brand are endless.
⚽️ Nike-Backed ‘Experiential Soccer Platform’ Launches ExperienceXI
ExperienceXI says it is “designed to connect players, coaches and club leaders with elite training environments, coaching education, global competitions and the game's most meaningful moments.”
The Atlanta-based platform will work with Nike-affiliated youth clubs and offer “turnkey programming” across several areas:
• Experiences at U.S. Soccer’s new national training center in Atlanta
• Match day activations tied to USMNT and USWNT; global events activations
• International programs, tournaments at Nike-aligned European academies
• Domestic, international coaching education through licensing pathways
• Custom programming for Nike’s top youth clubs
ExperienceXI said it has already had two events at the NTC with the local Concorde Fire Soccer Club. Additional planned events include symposiums tied to international matches in Atlanta and an 11-day U.S. Club Soccer training program in London.
The company is “also building an operating model designed to extend the same framework to additional sport categories over time, with soccer serving as the foundation.”
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