Source: ModernRetail, Julia Waldow
Photo: Ivy Liu

With 48 participating nations, 104 matches and 16 host cities, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the biggest one yet — and brands and retailers want in on the hype.

While the World Cup is more than seven months away, tickets are already on sale, and companies are getting involved now. Adidas, one of the official partners of the games, debuted its official Trionda game ball in October and rolled out home kits for 22 partner federations — including Italy, Mexico and Spain — this week. Nike is putting the finishing touches on “an exciting new apparel innovation platform” and “several football streetwear collections,” CEO Elliott Hill announced on a Sept. 30 earnings call. Coca-Cola FEMSA — the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola trademark beverages in the world, by sales volume — is finalizing World Cup marketing campaigns around Coke Zero.

Small businesses are making plans to get in on the mania, as well. A local taco joint in Philadelphia is developing its own World Cup jersey, though it’s not an officially licensed product. And bars in Boston are planning World Cup watch parties for next summer.

The upcoming World Cup will run from June 11 to July 19, 2026. As with past World Cups, the event is a chance for brands and retailers to get their products in front of as many eyeballs as possible, while also making sales. When the last World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022, Adidas said sales of accessories and gear were up 19% that year. It attributed this to “increased demand in football” stemming from the games. Meanwhile, a World Cup marketing campaign that Coca-Cola ran in 2022 prompted customers to scan 28 million Coke product labels, per the company.

Excitement this time around is particularly high, as 2026 will be the first time the World Cup will be hosted by three countries: the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The World Cup will also make its first return to North America since 1994. FIFA expects World Cup viewership of some 6 billion people — 73% of the world’s population — giving brands a huge opportunity, in terms of selling products like jerseys, hats, flags and other merchandise.

2026 will also be the first time that organizers in each of the 16 host cities can raise funds through local sponsorships, giving more organizations a way into the World Cup, per Sports Business Journal. So far, these include Nestlé Purina PetCare, for Kansas City, and NAPA Auto Parts, for Atlanta. There will also be 16 more participating countries than before — including Jordan and Uzbekistan, which have never previously appeared at the tournament — paving the way for even more reach.

Paired with increased viewership of soccer, in general, all of this is leading brands and retailers to “amplify that excitement,” Sam Margetts, senior creative adviser to the retailer Soccer.com, told Modern Retail.

“If we look back to the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup, in 1994, that was a huge moment for the sport, in terms of getting eyeballs on the game,” Margetts said. “I sit in on a lot of planning meetings about the World Cup, and I can tell you that, internally, all eyes are on June. [We’re doing] everything we can to promote product and excitement among fans.”

A piece of the pie

Per FIFA’s website, there are three tiers to the official World Cup corporate partnership hierarchy. The first tier, “partners,” includes Aramco, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai-Kia, Lenovo, Qatar Airways and Visa. The second tier, “sponsors,” includes Michelob Ultra, Bank of America, Hisense, Lay’s, McDonald’s, Mengniu Dairy, Dove Men and Verizon. The third tier, “supporters,” includes Airbnb, Diageo, Rock It Cargo and The Home Depot. The average sponsorship package for the 2022 World Cup cost $63.26 million over a four-year cycle, per GlobalData.

Outside of deals with FIFA, some brands have sponsorships with national teams in the process of trying to qualify for the World Cup. Nike, for instance, is sponsoring the national teams of Brazil, England and Uraguay, among others. Adidas — while a larger FIFA partner, too — is sponsoring 22 teams, including Argentina, Belgium and Germany. Puma is sponsoring the Portugal national team. As with the Olympics, properties that don’t ink official sponsorships will likely look to take advantage of the hype through marketing campaigns and soccer products.

Adidas has been one of the earliest partners to release official merchandise. Its Trionda game ball went on sale on Oct. 2 for $22-$322, depending on size. Adidas held launch events in New York, Toronto and Mexico City, and also projected images of previous World Cup Adidas balls onto the exterior of the Sphere in Las Vegas. An Adidas TikTok of the activation has more than 1.1 million views. “I can report to you that the sell-out of the ball has been fantastic,” CEO Bjørn Gulden said on an earnings call last week.

On Thursday, Nov. 6, Adidas will start selling home kits for 22 federations. These have the brand’s CLIMACOOL+ technology and were designed with each nation’s colors and history in mind, Adidas told members of the press at an event on Oct. 1. For instance, the Argentina shirt has blue tones from three previous tournament-winning shirts (1978, 1986 and 2022). The Mexican shirt says “Somos México” (“We are Mexico”) on the back of the neck.

“Every jersey tells a story — blending cultural heritage with modern aesthetics — and is built using our most advanced technologies to keep players cool and comfortable on football’s biggest stage,” Thomas Mace, vp of design at Adidas Football, said in a statement. “This collection represents the future of football jersey design.”

Meanwhile, at Soccer.com, sales of Adidas merchandise are spiking, said Margetts. The company mostly caters to North American customers, although it also ships worldwide. On Soccer.com, sales of Adidas’s official Trionda ball are outpacing sales of previous World Cup balls. Sales of the ball are also 219% more than sales of Adidas balls at this time last year, Margetts said.

“We’re seeing a lot of early interest happening so far out from the tournament,” Margetts said. “It just goes to show that World Cup fever has well and truly hit North America already.” He added that the retailer, which sells brands like Nike and New Balance, expects “a lot of activations, not only from the affiliated sponsors, but also from other sportswear brands and brands that want to have a slice of the pie.”

’47, the hat brand, is one of these. Although not listed as an official sponsor or partner of FIFA, ’47 is looking to take advantage of the hype around the World Cup, its vp of marketing, Patrick Cassidy, told Modern Retail. The brand already has a place in soccer with deals with Arsenal FC and West Ham United FC of the Premier League. “We play in every major sporting event and have the right to play in every major sporting event around the world,” Cassidy shared. “The World Cup is not different. We will have our own way of showing up on that stage.”

Nike, meanwhile, is still trickling out details of its World Cup plan. On Sept. 30, Hill said, “Our global football team is preparing for the energy of the 2026 World Cup and is ready to move forward.” He mentioned rolling out a new “apparel innovation platform that will later be leveraged across other sports” and said that new football streetwear will “connect with a younger consumer.” In an interview with Modern Retail, Nike’s senior creative director of retail and experiences, Tim Rupp, confirmed that “retail is going to be front and center” in the brand’s World Cup experience.

Until Dec. 4, Coca-Cola is holding a promotion with FIFA that it’s calling “Group Guess.” People can enter online to guess the results of the Final Draw for the World Cup, which is a ceremony that determines which teams will compete against each other. They then have a chance to win tickets to a match, as well as flights, ground transportation, a hotel stay and gift cards.

Meanwhile, Ian Marcel Craig García, the CEO of Coca-Cola FEMSA, has said that his company plans to promote Coke Zero. “It’s going to be a hero product there [at the World Cup],” he said on an earnings call on Oct. 24. “It’s going to be highlighted in all of our publicity and marketing campaigns.”

He added, “We anticipate a positive impact on brand equity, due to the World Cup.”

https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/brands-and-retailers-are-already-rushing-to-capitalize-on-world-cup-fever

Source: MSN (Associated Press)
Photo: Rushing the Field Podcast

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is proposing a bill that would rewrite a 1961 law prohibiting college sports conferences from banding together to sell their media rights, a move she says is designed to protect athletes, Olympics sports and smaller leagues that could be getting priced out of the increasingly expensive business of name-image-likeness deals.

Cantwell, the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee that deals with college sports, said she will introduce the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement Act on Tuesday to give lawmakers an alternative to a bill on the House side that has yet to come up for a floor vote.

“We take a broader approach of: How do we solve the fundamental problem of implementing NIL rights, but also keeping revenue for women’s and Olympic sports and an environment where everyone feels like they can compete?” Cantwell said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. “And we’re maximizing for consumers and the public the amount of content available.”

Conferences currently sell their media rights separately, with the Big Ten, for instance, distributing around $958 million to its schools from the proceeds while the Big 12 number is at around $558 million — a 52.7% difference. All conferences are part of the $7.8 billion ESPN deal for the College Football Playoff, though the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference get more money from it.

Cantwell has previously said she wants to prevent college sports from turning into a “Power 2,” featuring those leagues, with everyone else contending for scraps.

Under terms of the landmark House antitrust settlement, schools as of July 1 are allowed to share up to 22% of their revenues — or around $20.5 million — from TV and other proceeds to pay players for their NIL during this school year.

It has left some in the non “Power 2” conferences wondering how they can draw top talent in football and basketball — the main revenue drivers — while maintaining smaller sports that form the pipeline for the teams America sends to the Olympics.

Cantwell’s proposal, which would offer schools the same antitrust protection it does for the NFL and other pro leagues regarding their TV rights, is what billionaire Texas Tech regents chair Cody Campbell has proposed, going as far as running 30-second TV ads devoted to the topic on college football broadcasts.

“I think he thinks this is a way to even out the resources among all schools so that we can still have ‘Any Given Saturday,’” Cantwell said.

Investors have floated ideas of super leagues, estimating it could drive up to a $15 billion increase in revenue.

Cantwell positions her bill as an alternative to the SCORE Act, which started with momentum but has recently stalled on the House side. Three key elements to that bill included provisions granting the NCAA limited antitrust protection, prohibiting athletes from becoming employees of their schools and pre-empting state laws with a larger federal law.

Cantwell’s bill keeps the pre-emption idea but does not include the other two.

It also offers strengthened protections for athletes from losing scholarships or health care. It would limit the number of times an athlete could transfer schools to two. It would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general authority to go after parties who violate rules written to oversee third-party collectives that now fund and oversee many of the NIL deals.

The bill calls for football and basketball games to not be behind a paywall in local markets, a provision similar to how the NFL operates and that National Association of Broadcasters president Curtis LeGeyt said would strengthen ’the unique connection between universities, their communities and the student-athletes who inspire them.”

The bill would also call on schools to use extra revenue generated from the new pooled media rights to maintain scholarships and roster spots for Olympic and women’s sports at the same or greater levels than they were in 2023-24.

“We’re trying to be creative in how we can help some of these non-revenue sports grow in the future,” Cantwell said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/college-reform-bill-could-generate-extra-billions-by-allowing-conferences-to-pool-their-tv-rights

Source: ModernRetail, Julia Waldow
Photo: NBA.com

Foot Locker is hoping to score a win with shoppers by teaming up with one of the biggest teams in the NBA.

On Tuesday, the company announced it had formed a multi-year partnership with the Chicago Bulls. The two will host a pre-game event before the Bulls play the Orlando Magic on Oct. 30 that involves “photo opportunities, skills and drills activities and giveaways,” per a press release. Foot Locker’s president and CEO, Mary Dillon, will present the game ball, and Foot Locker employees will be named as honorary team captains.

Beyond that, Foot Locker will sponsor a three-on-three youth tournament called “Bulls Fest,” host players and influencers at a Bulls-themed experience at its State Street store in Chicago, install Foot Locker signage in the athletes’ tunnel walk at United Center and hold a “Suite Night” at the stadium to celebrate the Jordan 4 RM sneaker. Foot Locker held a youth tournament similar to “Bulls Fest” in September.

Foot Locker chose to work with the Bulls because Chicago was an inspiration for Nike’s Jordan Brand and is “a critical market in sneaker culture,” Foot Locker’s chief customer officer Kim Waldmann told Modern Retail in an interview. Foot Locker carried the original Air Jordan 1 in the 1980s, and “it’s a huge part of our legacy,” Waldmann said. But the partnership is also indicative of Foot Locker’s bigger emphasis on basketball.

In the last year, Foot Locker launched a partnership with the NBA as a whole, introduced a basketball concept called “Home Court” into stores and paired up with Nike and Jordan Brand on “The Clinic,” a series of basketball clinics and community events. Foot Locker also hosted two events at the WNBA All-Star Game in July. Foot Locker plans to operate 100 “Home Court” experiences globally by 2026, the company confirmed to Modern Retail.

Foot Locker isn’t new to selling basketball shoes, but they’re becoming a bigger part of the company’s plan to bounce back from slowing sales. In March 2023, Foot Locker announced a strategy called “Lace Up” to invest in its core banners, close 400 underperforming stores and open more store formats like “House of Play,” which are large in size and cater to toddlers and kids. One element of this plan, per Foot Locker’s PowerPoint presentation at the time, was to “expand sneaker culture,” an area that incorporates basketball shoes. After several quarters, in August 2024, Foot Locker reported that it had “returned to topline growth,” with sales up 1.9% year over year.

With the WNBA playoffs underway and the NBA season set to start on Oct. 22, Waldmann shared more about Foot Locker’s plans to court basketball fans. Here are some highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

Why Foot Locker is focusing more on basketball

“Basketball is a key part of our overall ‘Lace Up’ strategy in that we want to continue to expand sneaker culture and reach a broader set of consumers… Customer centricity is the forefront of what we do, and we see that our customer is not only more likely to play the game but also more likely to be inspired by the fashion of the game than the marketplace at large. Foot Locker has a very young, diverse customer that is increasingly connected to basketball culture, and so it’s important for us to continue to be a part of that.

It’s also a reinforcement of our brand DNA. Basketball has been at the heart of what we do for the last 50 years, and so continuing that legacy into the next 50 years through partnerships like this, through our in-store experiences like our ‘Home Court’ basketball destination and through continuing to invest in community and bringing local hoopers together with athletes and our Foot Locker family Stripers is going to be incredibly important…

Basketball is a growing business. It’s absolutely a focus area for investment for us. But I would really characterize [these efforts] as a ramp-up from what has historically been a position of strength, as well.”

How Foot Locker is encouraging basketball fans to pick its stores over direct brands

“We have an overall basketball portfolio, and that’s going to involve some franchises that are exclusive to us. I’d point to the AE 1 with Adidas, which we launched in partnership with them as an exclusive franchise… We’re going to have those exclusive moments, and then we’re going to have moments where we can uniquely storytell and bring to life product that is more widely available. The [Nike] Ja Morant 1 is a great example of that.

We also have a huge fleet of stores, and I think that is a key differentiator when we partner with partners like Nike. We can connect them directly with young basketball consumers on the ground in a way that nobody else can.”

How Foot Locker is continuing its work with the WNBA

“We continue to be inspired by the rise of the women’s game. And not just players as players, but really players as influencers and style icons in their own right, when you think about Caitlin Clark [of the Indiana Fever] or Angel Reese [of the Chicago Sky] and how they’re able to influence women’s style and sneaker culture. And so we’re excited about continuing to get behind that, continuing to bring best-in-class go-to-market against shoes like A’ja Wilson’s [of the Las Vegas Aces] upcoming signature shoe launch. I think you’ll see a lot more from us in that realm.”

https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/absolutely-a-focus-area-for-investment-how-foot-locker-is-courting-basketball-fans

Source: Fast Company, Joe Berkowitz
Photo: Marius Christensen/Unsplash

An attorney specializing in sports broadcasting rights weighs in on the implications of Amazon’s NBA deal, and how WBD’s lawsuit will likely shake out.

It was not exactly a fast break. When the NBA last week officially spurned Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempts to continue a 40-year partnership between the league and WBD subsidiary, TNT Sports, opting instead for a deal with Amazon Prime, it was the end of a long, slow, unusually public negotiation. Well, not quite the end.

The NBA’s rejection of WBD’s offer to match Amazon has only intensified what may well be one of the most contentious rights disputes in sports history. It now appears headed for a different kind of court than what NBA games are typically played on, with WBD filing a lawsuit against the NBA in New York’s Supreme Court. No matter how the lawsuit shakes out, though, what’s at stake here is more than just one company’s right to a fair negotiation, but rather the very idea of a future in which live sports continue to air on linear cable at all.

“The last rights deal between the NBA and Warner was done in 2014,” says Corey Martin, a managing partner at entertainment law firm Granderson Des Rochers. “Since then, the landscape—specifically as it pertains to streaming—has evolved significantly.”

As a corporate transactional attorney, Martin has represented media companies as they acquire rights to air NBA, NFL, and English Premier League games in the Caribbean and Latin America. He’s been familiar with these deals, and the way they’re structured, for long enough to have witnessed the ongoing evolution of streaming’s relevance in the sports media landscape.

Under WBD’s 2014 deal with the NBA, TNT aired 64 regular-season games, including a spotlight Thursday night doubleheader, while also covering significant portions of the Playoffs. Basketball was as central to the network’s identity as its tendency to air franchise action movies in the afternoon. Once the period of exclusive negotiation between WBD and the NBA ended in April with no deal in place, however, it was clear that the league had something other than TNT in mind for its future. According to Martin, it should have perhaps been obvious earlier.

On some level, even with the proliferation of cable networks over the past 30 years, there was always a ceiling to the number of broadcasters available to sports rights owners, and only so much competitive tension between them. With the rise of streaming, though, a fresh crop of nontraditional players entered the space in the past decade—and it’s an extremely well-capitalized crop. Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Apple TV+ have all dipped their toes into live-sports broadcasting, and the competitive tension between them has dramatically increased the value of those coveted live-sports rights. In just about every way, it’s a whole new ball game.

“If you’re a rights holder like the NBA in 2024, and want to align yourself with partners that can fully exploit your content in a manner that reaches the widest possible audience, streaming’s gotta play a major role in any partnership from this point onwards,” Martin said.

The NBA ended up signing an 11-year media rights deal with Disney, which will continue airing games on ESPN; NBC, which will resume its relationship with the NBA for the first time since 2002 and also air games on its streaming platform, Peacock, for the first time; and Amazon Prime Video, who will bring more games to an international audience. The deal is reportedly worth $76 billion. After the NBA’s board of governors approved it recently, WBD had a contractual five days to match Amazon’s offer, which is valued at $1.8 billion per year. But although WBD claims to have matched the offer, the NBA went with Amazon anyway.

This is where things get a little foggy. Although parts of the paperwork have entered the public domain, they are heavily redacted, making it unclear whether WBD truly matched Amazon’s offer—or at least matched it in ways the NBA would most prefer.

“[Warner Brothers Discovery] may have said they’ll pay $1.8 billion for those rights, but the more you hear, the more it appears they didn’t really match all the terms,” Martin says. For example, he says, it was widely reported that Amazon’s offer was for both NBA games and WNBA games, and then reports surfaced that Warner Brothers Discovery was offering a bit less because it only wanted NBA games. “If that’s true, that’s a material deviation from the agreement between the NBA and Amazon,” says Martin. Plus, Warner Brothers Discovery has indicated it wanted the right to broadcast certain games on linear cable on TNT, as it has done since 1988, as well as other games exclusively on Max for streaming. “Well, the Amazon deal that they matched is a streaming-only deal—another material deviation,” Martin says.

The fact that all these negotiating terms have played out in public ever since the deal expired in April makes this a rather atypical rights jump-ball. That the NBA and WBD will now have to continue their current business relationship until the new deal kicks in at the top of the 2025-2026 season, perhaps while in active litigation against each other, makes it unprecedented.

According to Martin, here’s how that litigation will likely play out. WBD filed its complaint last week, and now the NBA will eventually file a formal written response, addressing each allegation—and likely seek a motion to dismiss, claiming that the complaint has no merit. That motion to dismiss will itself likely be rejected because some of WBD’s allegations may be difficult to prove or refute without moving forward at least to the discovery phase—that’s “discovery” with a lowercase “d”—of a potential trial. At this point, Martin indicates, the NBA will likely settle the case for a monetary amount, rather than any future broadcasting rights. The only alternative is going to trial, which could potentially cost far more in legal fees than whatever amount WBD would accept as a settlement.

What will be more fascinating to watch, however, is what happens beyond this lawsuit, as other parent companies with linear cable subsidiaries attempt to ink future deals. While streaming continues its aggressive move into live events—the last remaining stronghold of how TV worked in the 20th century—a lot of the traditional media players will likely have more existential considerations on their hands than whether they can make a competitive offer to air live sports.

“I would say it’s a fairly safe bet that, by the time these rights deals come to a conclusion in 2035, linear cable may not exist,” Martin says. “And if it does exist, it will probably be in such a diminished form, it’ll be equivalent to our grandparents’ televisions with bunny ears on top.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91165360/what-amazon-nba-deal-means-for-the-future-of-sports-media-rights

Source: Fast Company, Associated Press
Photo: Jean-Daniel Francoeur/Pexels

A federal judge overturned a jury’s $4.7 billion verdict in the class-action lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers against the NFL and has granted judgment to the NFL.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez ruled Thursday that the testimony of two witnesses for the subscribers had flawed methodologies and should have been excluded.

“Without the testimonies of Dr. (Daniel) Rascher and Dr. (John) Zona, no reasonable jury could have found class-wide injury or damages,” Gutierrez wrote at the end of his 16-page ruling.

On June 27 the jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to residential and commercial subscribers after it ruled the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.

The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package on DirecTV of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons.

“We are grateful for today’s ruling in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the NFL said in a statement. “We believe that the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with an array of options to follow the game they love, including local broadcasts of every single game on free over-the-air television. We thank Judge Gutierrez for his time and attention to this case and look forward to an exciting 2024 NFL season.”

Calls and emails to the attorneys representing “Sunday Ticket” subscribers were not returned.

The jury of five men and three women found the NFL liable for $4,610,331,671.74 in damages to the residential class (home subscribers) and $96,928,272.90 in damages to the commercial class (business subscribers).

Because damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could have been liable for $14,121,779,833.92.

Gutierrez did say in his decision that if he did not rule for the NFL as a matter of law, he would have vacated the jury’s damages verdict and conditionally grant a new trial “based on the jury’s irrational damages award.”

Rascher’s models were variations of a college football model. Rascher, an economist at the University of San Francisco, said during his testimony that “they figured it out in college sports, (so) they would certainly figure it out at the NFL.”

Gutierrez said Rascher’s testimony “was not the product of sound economic methodology” and that he needed to explain how out-of-market telecasts would have been available on cable and satellite without an additional subscription.

Gutierrez also found flaws in Zona’s “multiple distributor” models because it predicted consumers would have paid more if another service besides DirecTV offered “Sunday Ticket” and there was an unsupported assumption that another distributor — either cable, satellite or streaming — would have been available.

“Without knowing what “direct-to-consumer” meant, it is impossible to determine if it would have been economically rational for consumers to purchase “Sunday Ticket” from an alternative distributor at a higher price,” Gutierrez said. “And, that definition was necessary for determining whether a viable alternative distributor even existed during the class period. Without that information, the Court cannot determine whether the but-for worlds without exclusivity were modeled reliably.

The jury’s amount also did not conform to Rascher’s model ($7.01 billion) by Daniel Rascher, or the model ($3.48 billion) by Zona, who was an expert witness in the case.

Instead, the jury used the 2021 list price of $293.96 and subtracted $102.74, the average price actually paid by residential Sunday Ticket subscribers. The jury then used $191.26, which it considered as the “overcharge,” and multiplied that by the number of subscribers to come up with the damages amount.

Gutierrez said the jury did not follow his instructions and “instead relied on inputs not tied to the record to create its own ‘overcharge.’”

It is not the first time the NFL has won a judgment as matter of law in this case, which has been going on since 2015.

In 2017, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell dismissed the lawsuit and ruled for the NFL because she said “Sunday Ticket” did not reduce output of NFL games and that even though DirecTV might have charged inflated prices, that did not “on its own, constitute harm to competition” because it had to negotiate with the NFL to carry the package.

Two years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case.

It is likely the plaintiffs will again appeal to the 9th Circuit.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91166962/4-7-billion-verdict-nfl-sunday-ticket-lawsuit-tossed-out-u-s-judge

Source: Dezeen, Starr Charles
Photo: Paris 2024 Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have been billed as the most sustainable ever. As part of our Olympic Impact series, we look at how the organisers have sought to limit emissions.

While media depictions of Paris 2024 as the greenest ever Olympics are arguably overblown and some have accused the organisers of greenwashing, there can be little doubt that these games are pursuing an ambitious sustainability agenda.

A target has been set to emit no more than 1.58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – around half the footprint of London 2012 or Rio 2016.

Meanwhile, Paris has sought to use the Olympics as a vehicle to accelerate longer-term environmental policies for the city.

In order to achieve these goals, a set of measures were put in place with a particular focus on construction, transport, energy and consumption.

Here are eight sustainability initiatives at Paris 2024:

Focusing on renovation and reuse

The most significant sustainability move by Paris 2024’s organisers has been to limit new construction to a minimum. As a result, 95 per cent of the venues are existing buildings or temporary facilities.

For example, the Stade de France will act as the main athletics stadium, while scaffolding-based structures have been erected at the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde and the Palace of Versailles.

The strategy has also involved the renewal of existing landmarks, including the Grand Palais (pictured), which has been revamped by French studio Chatillon Architectes in time to host fencing and taekwondo at the games.

Cleaning the Seine

Arguably the most ambitious of Paris’ environmental initiatives has been the €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion) cleanup of the River Seine, where the 10-kilometre swimming marathon and Paralympic swimming event are set to take place.

Swimming in the city’s river has been banned since 1923 due to severe pollution levels, with wastewater from domestic and industrial sources being the predominant pollutant.

Newly updated infrastructure has contributed to a 90 per cent decrease in wastewater into the river over the last two decades. Significantly, a large underground basin came online in May that stores excess rainwater in a bit to prevent wastewater from flowing into the river when sewers are overwhelmed.

But there is still uncertainty regarding the river’s cleanliness, and organisers have warned that heavy rain could raise E-coli levels in the water to unsafe levels and force the swimming competitions to be held at a backup venue.

Using low-carbon buildings materials

Where permanent construction has been deemed necessary, the Paris 2024 organisers have taken steps to ensure that associated emissions are limited.

For example, the Aquatics Centre (pictured), designed by VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4, features a wooden structure and large solar array on its roof, while spectator seating is made from recycled plastic waste. Across all venues including temporary stands, around 11,000 seats will be made from recycled materials.

The nearby Olympic Village, which will accommodate 14,250 athletes during the Olympic Games and a further 8,000 during the Paralympic Games, has also been developed according to an environmental strategy.

The use of bio-sourced materials is expected to result in a 50 per cent carbon footprint reduction over the buildings’ lifecycle compared to conventional construction.

Among the new structures are a trio of hybrid timber and concrete apartment blocks completed by Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés, which feature facades lined with loggias and finished with terracotta tiles, and a mass-timber office building by local architecture studio Dream.

Smaller details include bed bases made from recycled cardboard and street lamps made from salvaged building materials.

A geothermal water system was intended to negate the need for air conditioning, though some Olympic federations are bringing their own.

Building cycle lanes

Targets were also set out to optimise mobility across Paris during the games in order to reduce transport emissions, partly by using many venues in the city centre.

Improving bike routes has been key to this transport strategy, with cycling targeted to be one of the main legacies of Paris 2024. A network of more than 400-kilometres of cycle lanes now links all the competition venues, including 55 kilometres of newly added routes.

In addition, 3,000 self-service bikes and 10,000 extra bike rack spaces have been made available across the venues.

Extending the Métro

Another aspect of Paris 2024’s mobility strategy has been ensuring that all venues are accessible by public transport.

Planned extensions to the Métro intended to help with transporting the 15 million expected visitors were scheduled to be finished in time for the games. However, as a result of major delays linked partly to the covid-19 pandemic, almost none of the proposed lines have yet reached completion.

Line 14, which has been extended to connect Orly Airport to the new Saint-Denis – Pleyel station designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates (pictured), is a key transport route that has been completed on time.

For the athletes and their teams, Paris 2024 will use non-fossil-fuel vehicles including 500 hydrogen-fuel cell cars and buses from Toyota, though some experts have criticised this decision, calling it “scientifically misaligned with net-zero” in an open letter.

The major transport-related sustainability challenge for the games remains people flying in from around the world. Carbon accounting firm Greenly has estimated that aviation emissions for Paris 2024 could hit 837,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – more than half the 1.58 million overall carbon budget.

Using renewable energy

The energy initiative set out by Paris 2024 has aimed to supply all Olympic venues through entirely renewable electricity and retractable electrical terminals – an approach that is expected to save around 13,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions through a reduction in use of diesel generators.

On-site solar or geothermal generation at locations such as the Olympic Village and the Aquatics Centre will also help to meet their energy requirements.

As part of the games’ legacy, each of these new grid connections will remain beyond the event and will contribute to reducing fossil-fuel-based energy consumption in Paris after the Olympics.

Furthermore, a floating solar power plant on the River Seine will also produce renewable energy during the games through its 400-metre-square array of photovoltaic panels.

Encouraging lower-carbon catering

France may be famous for its rich, meat-heavy cuisine, but Paris 2024 will take a different approach as it seeks to limit the carbon footprint of the 13 millions expected to be served during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Under the Food Vision initiative, the amount of plant-based food on offer will be double that of London 2012 and Rio 2016, while 80 per cent of ingredients will be French-produced including all meat and dairy.

Combined with efforts to limit food waste, the organisers hope that each meal served will carry a carbon footprint of 1 kilogram of CO2, compared with the French average of 2.3 kilograms.

The impact of all this will be relatively small, with catering anticipated to account for only 1 per cent of the games’ overall carbon footprint – and spectators are still likely to throw away large amounts of food.

And while the games have pledged to half the amount of single-use plastic used in catering compared to London 2012, the event’s main drinks sponsor, Coca-Cola, has been accused of greenwashing amid claims that most drinks sold to spectators will still come from single-use plastic bottles.

Using carbon offsetting

Paris 2024 has committed to offsetting 100 per cent of unavoidable carbon emissions related to the games. According to market intelligence agency S&P Global, it will rely on offsetting to hit its 1.58 million tonnes target despite the measures outlined above.

A programme set up to fund projects aimed at reducing or capturing carbon emissions has already purchased nearly 1.5 million tonnes’ worth of carbon credits from overseas. The biggest of these include a forest-preservation project in Guatemala, a conservation initiative in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills and the installation of clean cooking stoves in Kenya and Nigeria.

In addition, Paris 2024 will fund four forestry projects within France.

However, carbon offsetting projects are controversial, with many climate activists claiming that they are ineffective at mitigating pollution and enable large organisations in wealthy countries to shunt the problem of reducing emissions to the Global South.

Olympic Impact

This article is part of Dezeen’s Olympic Impact series examining the sustainability measures taken by the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and exploring whether major sporting events compatible with the climate challenge are possible.

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/07/26/paris-2024-sustainable-olympic-impact

Source: People, Skyler Caruso
Photo: Athletes shop at a souvenir store inside the 2024 Paris Olympic Village. (ZHAO WENYU/CHINA NEWS SERVICE/VCG/GETTY)

Between the alcohol ban and the cardboard beds, Team USA’s Olympic Village Director tells PEOPLE the rules athletes must follow during the Olympics

Olympic athletes must play by the rules both in and out of competition.

The iconic Olympic Village returns to Paris a century after the first athlete accommodations were built for the 1924 Summer Games — but understandably, many changes have been made to the housing since the small wooden huts were originally constructed.

When competing against the best in the world and living in the same quarters, it comes as no surprise that rules and guidelines are enforced to ensure the safety and well being of each country’s competitors.

Team USA’s Olympic Village Director Daniel Smith spoke with PEOPLE exclusively about the dos and don’ts athletes must abide by in their temporary home away from home located in St. Denis, just north of Central Paris and right on the Seine River (with a view of the Eiffel Tower, of course!).

Meet Caity Simmers, Teen Surf Phenom Who ‘Wasn’t Set on Being Pro’ but Qualified for the Olympics (Exclusive)
It is important to know, though, that every delegation has its own set of guidelines in place. “There are other countries who have different rules,” Smith tells PEOPLE. “Every delegation manages it differently,” he explains.

The same goes for who is allowed to enter the Olympic Village. While athletes are allowed to mix and mingle with other countries, there are strict policies regarding non-athlete entries on the grounds.

When creating these rules, Smith says the Team USA Olympic Committee has a “primary goal” in mind for their athletes. “We call them Village briefings,” he notes of the meetings when they discuss “expectations” of Team USA.

“So really our primary goal is to create a healthy and safe environment focused on high performance — and us, as staff, our primary function is to make it as distraction-free as possible,” Smith adds.

The Olympic Village officially opened on Tuesday, July 18. That means all qualifying athletes are now allowed to move into their country’s residences. However, they do not have to move in on that exact day.

Athletes must reside with the team they’re representing, so Team USA must live with Team USA. “We can’t share an apartment with another country,” Smith makes clear.

“There are different residential zones in the Olympic Village,” he explains. “They call them legacy. These are built and they will be given to the community or sold in the community after the games, so they are apartment buildings that eventually will be individual towers.”

For the Olympics set up, Smith says the residence halls resemble “clusters of buildings.” The amount of housing a country is allotted depends on the “size of the delegation,” he explains, noting that Team USA has four buildings for its delegation of 593 athletes.

“We are in the Bastille cluster. We have 90% of this cluster. It’s technically four buildings,” he breaks down, clarifying they don’t have the top floor of one of the buildings. “Two of them are 11 stories high, and the other two are eight stories high. It’s just under 600 individual sleeping rooms… Every building has a completely different configuration.”

Family and friends aren’t allowed in the Olympic Village

While every delegation manages entry into the Olympic Village differently, Smith makes clear that Team USA only allows athletes and select staff into its quarters. “Based on your team size, you’re allotted a certain amount of accreditations,” he explains of the access pass equivalents.

Typically, Smith says the accreditations are distributed to “team leaders, staff, medical personnel and sometimes security.” He adds, “They want all their coaches in, but we don’t have the space for them.”

That means, family and friends of the athletes’ aren’t allowed entry into the Olympic Village. Smith explains the reasoning behind that decision: “Our primary goal is to create a healthy and safe environment focused on high performance,” he says. “Our primary function is to make it as distraction-free as possible.”

If athletes do want to connect with their family and friends, though, they are allowed to — just not in the Olympic Village. “Athletes can leave the Village and go out to meet with their families out in the city of Paris, but families are not allowed to come into the village,” he clarifies.

Nursing athletes are allowed to bring their infants into the Olympic Village

There is “one exception” to the family and friends access limitation in the Olympic Village, Smith notes. That is, athletes who are nursing mothers are allowed to bring their infants into the Village Nursery.

“There’s a specific nursery that’s run by P&G and they have a specific allotted time where they can go in and breastfeed,” he explains of the accommodation that’s being introduced for the first time in Olympic and Paralympic history.

Pampers will offer access to “high-quality diapers and wipes” while providing an environment for playtime and family bonding, per the official Olympics website.

“It is very helpful for both parents and infants to be able to spend time together, especially at such an important moment in an athlete’s sporting life,” IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair Emma Terho said in a statement.

With the amount of high-profile athletes that are residing in the Olympic Village, it’s understandable why many would want the extra support from their personal security guards.

Since the accreditations policy is so limited, Smith says security is allowed entry “at specific times.” He listed the Olympic Opening Night Ceremony as one example.

Of the athletes who “come with their own private security,” Smith notes Team USA men’s basketball players. “They’ll go to the dining hall with their security,” he notes.

Smith makes clear: “Their security is not living in, but they’ll come in for specific moments.”

It’s important to note that the Olympic Village prioritizes safety, with firearms and other weapons being prohibited. “There’s a very large security perimeter around the Village,” Smith says. “Entering the Village is almost like going through airport security!”

Each sports team decides an athlete’s roommate

When it comes to roommates in the Olympic Village, Smith says “the sports make that decision.” The number of people in a room depends on the size of the team.

Smith gives an example: “They have 16 athletes on a field hockey team. So we’ll say, ‘Okay, you have four apartments. Each apartment has X number of beds. It’s two people to a room.'”

Then, Smith says the team will “decide who they want rooming with who” once their allocation has been given. “We’ll tell them how many beds they have, how many apartments and how many rooms in each apartment,” he explains.

“The team leader will come back and say, ‘Okay, here’s our rooming list. These are who we’re going to have room with who,'” he says. “Every sport will make that decision on their own, it’s not us as Team USA who decides for the specific sport.”

Athletes who are minors must room with minors

Not all athletes who qualified for the Olympics are of legal age, including Team USA’s 16-year-old gymnastics phenom Hezly Rivera and 17-year-old swim star Alex Shackell.

“There is a chaperone accreditation that is provided,” says Smith. “So if a team leader sees it fit that they want a parent to be in the Village with their minor, it is possible — but again, it is a bed that they could allocate to a coach… So it really depends on how they want to manage it,” he explains.

Smith says the USOPC has “very strict guidelines” in place regarding who underage athletes are allowed to room with, noting they “really try to keep minors in rooms with minors.” He adds, “So we don’t mix folks that are under 18 with folks that are over 18, except for very specific circumstances.”

Even under those specific circumstances, Smith says “a lot of check boxes need to be checked before we allow those one-offs to happen.” For example, he notes, “There has to be a parent permission involved, team leader permission involved, NGB permission involved.”

Athletes are allowed to customize their mattresses

During the 2020 Tokyo Games, the infamous cardboard beds in the Olympic Village made headlines and they’re returning again for the 2024 Summer Olympics, with Smith admitting “these beds are hard as rock.”

“They’re so stiff,” he adds. “They are literally cardboard that are pieced together. They’re like three pieces of cardboard… they come apart in different sections. A lot of ours have bed extensions on them that are also cardboard.”

As for the mattresses? Smith says they’re “pretty stiff” too. However, athletes — who presumably need the best sleep ahead of the biggest competition of their lives — can customize their mattresses to fit their personal preferences!

“There’s a space here in the Paris 2024 Village where they give you education on the mattresses — so based on your sleep type, they can show you how to flip the mattress,” Smith explains. “Each side has a different comfort level based on your preference of firmness and so they’ll educate you on how you can flip the mattress.”

Smith adds, “Based on all these different ways that you can maneuver the mattress, you can make it more firm or less firm!” In addition, he says one of Team USA’s policies includes “covering the costs for any mattress toppers” for extra comfort.

There is “one exception” to the cardboard beds, however, and Smith says it’s “for our Track and Field throwers.” He explains, “USA Track and Field ships in larger beds specifically for them… the athletes, just their size, they’re big individuals, so they ship in… just for comfort.”

Athletes must abide by Olympic Village quiet hours

To ensure the athletes are getting a good night rest, Smith says Team USA sets quiet hours in its Olympic Village residence halls. Quiet hours are enforced from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. local time.

“This is a distraction-free environment,” he stresses. “We want to be very respectful — not only of our athletes, but of other athletes.” However, there isn’t necessarily a curfew.

“[Athletes] can do as they please. It doesn’t mean they have to be in their rooms by 10:00 p.m.,” he clarifies. “We just can’t have music blaring out of an apartment at 10-11 p.m. just to make sure people are getting their rest and recovery and they’re ready to train or compete the following day.”

Alcohol is not allowed in Team USA’s Olympic Village

Alcohol is not allowed in the Olympic Village for Team USA’s delegation, specifically. “It is a dry Village for Team USA,” Smith makes clear.

“There’s no alcohol permitted in our buildings, pre-competition, during competition or once competition has finished,” he explains. “And that’s where it gets a little tricky,” he says of the ruling once athletes are done competing.

Smith cited the Team USA rugby team for example, noting that tournaments begin on July 24 and run through July 30. After that, “they still have another 12 days in the Village,” he says, noting that they may want to “go have fun” and celebrate now that they’re done competing.

“So we have to set some specific guidelines so that there’s just a general level of respect across the board,” Smith adds. “Everyone is in competition mode until the games finish on Aug. 12. So that is why we put those parameters in place.”

While the ruling may sound like freshman year of college, there are no RA-equivalents necessarily enforcing the ban. “We’re not going through apartments and checking,” Smith says. “It would have to be very blatant for us to really get involved.”

He adds, “At the end of the day, a lot of these folks are adults. The majority of them are adults, and they’ll make their decisions. But within this space, we have to be very high performance focused.”

Athletes are allowed to mingle with athletes from other countries in the Olympic Village

Although athletes must reside with the country they’re representing, they are allowed to mix and mingle with other teams in the Olympic Village. “That’s the coolest thing about this place. The coolest thing about this place is it’s this big mix or melange of cultures and ethnicities,” Smith says.

“It’s a very healthy competition and this Village provides that atmosphere of camaraderie. People are hanging out together,” he continues. “And at the same time, we’re finding that a lot of athletes from different countries may go to US universities.”

Smith adds, “So the athletes know each other from university. They know each other from competition. And so yeah, there’s a lot of mix and mingle in the Village.”

Athletes are allowed to have sex in the Olympic Village

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics infamously made headlines when a sex ban was placed on the Olympic Village, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic that enforced social distancing. This year, the ban has been lifted and Team USA is doing what they can to promote a healthy environment for its athletes.

In fact, Smith confirmed that around 600,000 condoms have been distributed to the Paris Olympic Village. “And the packaging is quite spectacular!” he says.

“They have some really quirky packaging,” he adds. “They are distributed and we hold them in our athlete resource center, which is a space that does it for athletes only — and obviously, they can take as they need.”

The condom packaging includes the Paris Games’ mascot — the Olympic Phryge — which is shaped as a soft red conical bonnet or Phrygian cap that is a symbol of freedom. On social media, a few athletes have shared the condoms they’ve found in their toiletry gift bags as they settle into their bedrooms.

In a TikTok video showing off the Olympics-branded condom packaging, sailor Sarah Douglas from Canada held up blue and pink condom holders emblazoned with messages such as “On the field of love, play fair [and] ask for consent” and ”No need to be a gold medalist to wear it.”

As for whether athletes from different countries are allowed to be intimate with each other, Smith says, “we try to avoid that.” He clarifies, “It’s not so much for the sex, it’s more for security reasons.”

Smith says athletes from other countries “can come into a common area,” but he says, “we try to keep athletes from other countries out of our residential space… out of our sleeping rooms.”

Athletes are allowed access to different resources in the Olympic Village

A view of the gym during the media visit of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic village on July 02, 2024 in Paris, France.

There’s more to the Olympic Village than just the residence halls! “We got it all,” Smith says of Team USA’s resources, specifically.

“We have a full sports med clinic with 22 providers, massage therapy, cold tubs, the works. We have an athlete resource center, which is an athlete-only space, which is really for them to hang out, decompress, mingle with other athletes. We have big screens on watching competition when competition starts,” he lists.

“We have mental health providers in-house. We have sport dietitians in-house who are making smoothies and providing all types of dietary, nutritional supplements to athletes,” Smith says.

“For the first time, we have a Team USA-only strength and conditioning space here in the Village,” he continues. “When some of the teams finish competition, it’s very late at night and so getting up really early in the morning to go to our high performance center may not be so realistic… We’ve put together a great setup for athletes who need a quick lift early in the morning.”

A salon is also provided to Team USA in the Olympic Village! There’s also one in the Village’s Main Plaza in addition to other shops like a P&G store and a gift store with Paris 2024 memorabilia.

“They have an athlete center with video games and big screens and the works,” Smith adds. “It’s quite extensive. It’s a really dynamic space. The athletes love it!”

Dietary products are allowed to be shipped to the Olympic Village

Curious about how the athletes fuel their bodies for competition? While athletes are allowed to bring their own food into the Olympic Village, there are a plethora of options for them to choose from within the grounds.

“The dining hall has six food stations in it,” Smith says. “Everything from world food, Asian food, Latin American food, halal, vegetarian section… There’s also a quick grab and go.”

In fact, Smith says the grab-and-go spot has a French bakery that includes full coffee bars “with every type of coffee drink you could think of.” Plus, there’s a station that “teaches [athletes] how to make baguettes!”

Should athletes require specific dietary needs, Smith says “a number of sports ship in food products” to the Village. “There are certain products that sports will decide to ship in terms of dietary products.”

Athletes can leave and re-enter the Olympic Village

Athletes who live in the Olympic Village are not required to stay for the duration of the Games. If they choose to exit the premises, they are required to go through the entire security process again.

“All your bags go through scanners… There are metal detectors, there’s physical security, there’s undercover security, there’s everything,” Smith says. “So it’s a very secure space in the city.”

Sorry, no pets are allowed in the Olympic Village. “We tried,” Smith says. “Unfortunately that was not possible — and it wasn’t because of the Paris 2024 regulations, it was more of French governmental regulations around certification of therapy dogs.”

“To make it simple, no pets allowed,” he makes clear.

Athletes are allowed to ride bikes in the Olympic Village

Whether an athlete wants to conserve their energy or warm up their muscles, there’s transportation of all kind offered to them within the Olympic Village.

“They have 600 communal bikes within the Village that you can just grab and go,” Smith reveals. “They have electric shuttles all throughout… There are electric vans that can transport people or luggage equipment.”

Plus, the Olympic Village has routes throughout its grounds!

“You can pretty much get from one end to the Village to the other in a couple of minutes,” he says. “It’s a very compact Village. It’s beautiful. It’s right on the river, so you can run down the river. Great workout area if you’re a jogger to go for a run.”

Athletes can decorate their country’s zone in the Olympic Village

Team spirit and national pride is bursting throughout the Olympic Village. “Connection” is one of Smith’s favorite parts about living in the same vicinity as so many people from different countries.

“People decorate their buildings. It’s a competition!” he reveals. “Who decks out their buildings the best, who provides the most flair in terms of their space, all the way to the field of play competition.”

Smith says “seeing that healthy and hubris competition between countries is always great.” He adds, “It’s a very healthy and competitive environment from the look and feel.”

Athletes do not have to stay in the Olympic Village

While the Olympic Village is offered to all qualifying athletes, it isn’t mandatory that they live there for the duration of the Games — or at all!

“Every team gets to choose whether they want to stay in or not,” Smith says. The USA Basketball Team “does not stay in the Olympic Village,” for example.

If a sport decides not to stay on the grounds, Smith says “they have to find their own arrangements.” Opting not to reside in the Village comes with its own set of challenges, however.

“Basically you’re outside of the bubble at that point, so Paris 2024 won’t provide you transportation from your specific hotel,” he explains. “All of the meals, all of those additional pieces that come along with logistics that athletes in the Village get, you stay out, all of that is on you.”

https://people.com/olympic-village-rules-athletes-must-follow

Source: Business Insider, Tiara White
Photo: Braden Fiske at the 2024 NFL Combine (Grady Sports Agency)

Braden Fiske is a defensive tackle for Florida State projected to be drafted by the NFL.

He shares his experience trying to make the most of his name, likeness, and image.

He advises students to network and learn to say no to offers.

Until recently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association barred student athletes from being compensated despite the billions of dollars their efforts were earning for their universities.

That changed on July 1, 2021, when the US Supreme Court ruled that students could be paid through the use of their name, image, and likeness.

Students still cannot be paid by universities, but they can sign deals that allow them to participate in one-off marketing campaigns in exchange for free products, gift cards, or cash payouts. College athletes can also receive money by autographing signs, creating or sharing branded content, making guest appearances, and being a spokesperson for a company or brand.

We’re now seeing college athletes from several sports score so-called NIL deals ranging from five to seven figures. For example, the son of LeBron James, Bronny James, is the highest-paid student athlete with an NIL valuation of $4.9 million, according to On3, a college sports news and data company.

But receiving NIL money is not easy and not every college athlete will score a big payout — or any payout in some cases.

To learn more about making the most of the NIL opportunity, Business Insider sat down with Braden Fiske, a defensive lineman at Florida State University who is projected to make millions if he is drafted to the NFL in April, according to news articles and reports.

He has signed several NIL deals since joining the Florida State Seminoles in 2023, and other deals are in the works. He shared what he has learned and what he would have done differently so younger athletes can learn from his experience. He advises college athletes to maintain a steady social media presence, build a team of advisors, invest the earnings wisely, and learn to say no.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Fiske that has been edited for length and clarity.

My life-changing deal

I grew up playing football and decided to go to Western Michigan University for the start of my football career. The school was not a major football school, so I transferred to Florida State University for a better opportunity to make it to the NFL. It was a challenging transition, the culture was completely different, I was away from my family and I dealt with shoulder injury when I arrived. But looking back it ended up being one of the best decisions of my life because I signed my first NIL deal through The Battle End, a website that raises money for Florida State University football players.

That 6-figure NIL deal changed my life. I remember a time when I was down to my last $20 and had to decide if I was going to spend it on gas or food. The money I received gave me a peace of mind I did not have previously. It also allowed me to give back to the community by attending guest appearances as well as charity events.

I’m 24 and making the most of the NIL opportunity has been a learning experience, so, I came up with a few tips to help younger athletes get started.

Use social media

I think the biggest thing for guys and gals looking for NIL deals is to start building your brand. Get yourself out there even if it’s an uncomfortable situation to post, which it was for me.

Social media is the one thing I didn’t really take advantage of early on in my career. I am not really into that type of stuff so it was new ground for me. But my marketer, Nicole, explained how important it is because if you have nothing posted on your Instagram, what are brands supposed to work with? If you don’t have a face on your page, how are they going to put your face on their brand?

Building my brand is something I’ve really started to pick up on this past year. And now I am starting to see the long-term benefits. You start building with a bigger following and once it starts to build, the more attention you get, the more brands want to come work with you.

Build a team

Because I signed my NIL deal through the collective, I did not need to hire an NIL expert to help me with the contract. But some guys definitely have NIL agents to help guide them through that process.

But if you want branding deals, you have to build a team to guide you. Currently, I have a team around me: I have my marketer and agent Nicole Kotler, publicist Daniel Flores, financial advisor Didier Occident, and NFL agent Joshua Grady. I mean, it’s a lot of work to find these opportunities, so you need somebody in your corner that’s reliable and ready to work. The PR and the marketing side of things is hard work. There’s going to be a lot of nos, but once they get that one, yes, any door can open.

Learn to say no

I would say, just stay true to yourself. I know some of these big brands or these big people can kind of try to sway or persuade you in different directions and tell you what you need to do. But I mean, for one, do your own research. Know what your worth is. Don’t let somebody put a dollar amount on your head because, at the end of the day, you know what your worth is and you’ve got to have the ability to say no.

I think for me, early on — even sometimes now — I can admit to it that I’m a people pleaser and it’s hard to say no sometimes. But it’s only two letters, man! A hundred percent stay true to yourself. Don’t let anybody try to sway you.

Invest and spend wisely

A lot of guy’s first instinct is to spend, go be the big baller, to go take care of family more than they’re financially able to. But next thing they know, they’re out of money or tax time comes and they don’t have any money to pay back.

I definitely think there needs to be more financial literacy taught to student athletes, especially when they are receiving large amounts of money. It doesn’t matter how much you make, even if you’re only getting five grand. Whatever it may be, $5,000 or $500,000, you still need to have an understanding of how to manage your money and work with your money and give yourself a plan. That’s the biggest thing guys don’t have is a plan.

In my case, I used a lot of my NIL money for investments. I put much of that money into a brokerage account in the stock market to set myself up for retirement.

Definitely early on I made a few mistakes. I saw the dollar sign and hit the mall up to go shopping. I love buying shoes, that’s one red flag about me. But other than that, I was actually pretty smart with it all and kept my head on straight. It did help that I was already 24 when I got my NIL not 18. If I was 18, I probably would be broke by now.

Get out and meet people

There’s so much opportunity in the world, especially when you talk about name, image, and likeness on a deeper level than just making money. The hands I’ve gotten to shake, the amount of business cards I’ve gotten to take and just the relationships I made are the biggest takeaways from it all. NIL can open so many doors for people more than just building your pockets up.

The more people you get to meet, the more opportunities are going to arise and doors are going to open. So that’s definitely for me, the biggest takeaway is just what people can you meet?

I know whenever I walk into a room, I will introduce myself and start building those relationships right away because you never know how important they will be later in life. You never know who’s going to be in a position to help you that they’re not in yet.

Tiara White is a fellow with Business Insider’s finance team. Previously, she was an editorial intern at Ad Age and attended the Craig Newmark School of Journalism for her master’s degree in New York City.

https://www.businessinsider.com/branden-fiske-how-to-get-paid-college-athlete

Source: People, Becca Longmire
Photo: Sailor Cole Brauer on board her yacht. (COLE BRAUER OCEAN RACING)

“Thank you to everyone that came together and made this process possible,” Brauer wrote on Instagram on Thursday

Sailor Cole Brauer is making history!

On Thursday, Brauer, 29, from Long Island, New York, shared a post on Instagram marking her big finish after she became the first U.S. female to race solo around the world.

“Amazing finish!!!! So stoked! Thank you to everyone that came together and made this process possible. ,” a post on the account was captioned alongside a pic showing her standing on the side of her yacht First Light while waving sparklers in Spain.

Brauer popped a bottle of champagne in another Instagram Story photo, which the Regatta Rescue account captioned, “She’s back!!”

Brauer’s media manager Lydia Mullan also kept followers updated on Instagram, writing on the sailor’s account while documenting the historic finish, “Cole’s back on dry land!! THANK YOU ALL for tuning in, for being here with us for the past four months, for being such amazing supporters of this campaign. We love you.”

“To make it out here as a hundred-pound girl is a dream come true,” she told PEOPLE last month.

Brauer and First Light set sail from A Coruña, Spain, on Oct. 29, 2023. She traveled down the west African coast, rounding South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, before heading to the Indian Ocean, where she rounded Cape Leeuwin in Australia before setting out across the Pacific toward South America. Brauer covered 27,000 miles in the race in just over four months.

On Jan. 26, she hit what is considered the “Everest” of her career by rounding Chile’s Cape Horn, surviving the notoriously deadly Drake Passage, the turbulent strait connecting the Pacific and Atlantic between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands, just above Antarctica.

While speaking to PEOPLE last month, Brauer recalled the moment 15-foot waves crashed over the deck of her 40-foot racing yacht in the Indian Ocean.

She explained how the usually trustworthy boat’s autopilot feature had broken down, forcing her to steer the shaky tiller with her legs while also manning the lines of two sails with each arm. “I’m trying to get rid of the sails because I can’t control the boat,” Brauer recalled of the harrowing experience in December.

“But I can’t leave the helm,” she went on. “It’s like driving a car on the highway and you don’t have an accelerator or brakes. All you’ve got is this loose steering wheel. I was free-falling down waves, going so fast, I hit the maximum speed I’ve ever hit on this boat, just flying and then free-falling.”

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The incident became more challenging due to her suffering a possibly cracked rib.

“Every movement is this shooting pain,” she remembered, adding that it took her “two days to resolve the issue,” but she “fixed it” eventually.

“It’s not like you can quit,” she said. “You’re in the middle of the ocean. There is no quitting. No one’s going to come and save you. So it’s like, ‘Suck it up. Fix the problem.’ In the end, it’s just you. You have to keep moving forward.”

https://people.com/sailor-cole-brauer-first-american-female-race-solo-globe

Source: Fast Company, Jesus Diaz
Photo: Courtesy of Wilson

The price tag for the 3D-printed ball is staggering, but there are fewer than 200 available.

Fewer than 200 Wilson Airless Gen1 basketballs will exist in the world. The first commercial version of Wilson’s Basketball that Doesn’t Need To Be Inflated Because It’s Already Full of Holes will cost $2,500. And, no, there are no extra zeroes in that price. The airless basketball is available Feb. 16 exclusively from Wilson’s website, and I suspect they will all be gone in seconds.

There’s a few reasons why the price is so huge and the number is so limited, and most of them come down to manufacturing challenges, explains Nadine Lippa, Wilson’s Innovation Manager. Wilson worked on the Airless prototype for years before first showing it off at the 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend. The 3D-printed prototype featured a latticed pattern of hundred of hexagonal holes. There was no inflated bladder inside to help the ball bounce; instead, its shape and materials allowed it to bounce like any other ball, minus the air.

Lippa’s team had to transform the 3D-printed ball from a prototype into a consumer product, while using largely the same tools. “We’re still using the same printer, we’re still using the same type of smoothing and dyeing,” she says. To scale up, Wilson brought some of the ball’s production into a third-party external facility.

The new ball will have the same architecture as the prototype, but with a few refinements to allow for the bigger production run. “We have created some holes in the channels of the ball, which are like the black stripe that you would see around a conventional basketball,” she says, adding that the holes will release the powder gathered during the printing process. “Adding those holes, it can be more easily removed,” she says.

The Airless ball will come in three colors: black, a broken leather hue, and an “undyed” off-white, which is the natural color of the polymer used in the printing process. The balls will also have a customization panel that, in addition to bearing a Wilson logo, will identify each ball individually as part of a limited run.

A COLLECTIBLE ITEM FOR BASKETBALL LOVERS AND NERDS

According to David Picioski, Wilson’s Director of Partnerships & Collaborations, this exclusivity factor was a necessity that has been turned to an advantage. “We feel like the amount that we have currently is really suitable for us and Nadine and the R&D team,” he says. As they grow the product with future generations, he says Wilson will likely be able to increase the production. But until the technology catches up, it’s going to be a very expensive product, which automatically leads to a very specific type of potential buyer.

“We’ve thought a lot about this and we feel like the target audience for this product is a confluence of a few different groups,” Picioski says. The first is sports fans who love basketball. Then there’s collectors, specifically. “We see this a ton with art, with fashion, with sneakers . . . People who really enjoy limited-edition, rare products and love to be in this very small minority of people who can actually own them,” he says. Finally, he sees this ball appealing to tech enthusiasts, who covet the latest innovations in technology and engineering. “There’s all these new inventions and creations that come out every year, and there’s always this group of folks who want to be the first to get their hands on it,” he says.

The rest of us will have to wait—probably a long time. Lippa says the 3D-printing industry and the sports industry are both still learning how to scale from making one prototype ball to hundreds. Plus, she adds, it’s unclear how well the Airless will perform in a real sports scenario. Despite having tested it hundreds of thousands of times in the lab, the ball has yet to be treated like any other ball that’s just hanging around the gym.

“From a technical standpoint, we still don’t have a full grasp on how they would perform in that setting,” she says. “Any material scientist would say the best way to test a product is put it out in the field and hear back from the people that are actually using it.”

We will see what happens in a year or so. I can’t wait to get my hands on one and see how amazing that first bounce of such a strange and counterintuitive object is. And, as Picioski tells me, that’s what they want, too. To start bouncing this ball in the real world. “We look forward to creating this new audience and then growing it, nurturing it, iteration over iteration, as we look to develop the ball and make it even bigger,” he says. “This is just gen one.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91024753/wilsons-new-airless-basketball-costs-2500-but-it-will-sell-out-in-seconds