Month: February 2022

Legends to Serve as Presenting Partner of The National Sports Forum’s Business of Diversity in Sports & Entertainment Program

Posted on by Kristin Mortensen

Partnership Furthers Legends Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion & Growth

Legends, a global premium experiences company, will serve as a presenting partner of the National Sports Forum’s Business of Diversity in Sports & Entertainment (BDSE) program. The multi-year partnership starts with the 2022 National Sports Forum that begins today through March 2 in Austin, Texas.

BDSE, in conjunction with the National Sports Forum, recognizes the need for more programs supporting the importance of diversity in the front office. The program aims to increase the opportunities for up-and-coming ethnic minority and/or women sports professionals to have access to the senior-level best practices of revenue generating responsibilities within the industry and networking opportunities. Each year through an application process, 31 individuals that are early in their sports career from around the world are selected by the BDSE committee to receive a scholarship to attend the National Sports Forum. This provides them with full day workshop and access to network with 1,000+ sports business professionals over the 3-day conference.

The year-round partnership between BDSE and Legends builds on Legends’ commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and provides a unique platform for the company to offer current employees professional development opportunity through the BDSE program at the National Sports Forum. Beyond the onsite conference, BDSE members will have access to quarterly speaker sessions, to attend National Sports Forum Virtual Summits, networking sessions and mentorship program.  Since 2013, BDSE has had over 250 leaders go through the program and continue their rise within the sports and entertainment industry.

Legends will work with the National Sports Forum and BDSE to integrate employees into the BDSE’s annual programming, workshops, events and mentorship program. The company’s employee resource groups – BE Collective and The LEAGUE of Legendary Women – will be key partners in the program. BE Collective’s mission is to promote a culture of inclusion, which specifically ensures Black team members are engaged, empowered, and treated equitably in efforts to grow professionally and personally. The LEAGUE of Legendary Women seeks to create an empowered, best-in-class network committed to the advancement and development of women at all levels and foster values of inclusion and respect.

To learn more about National Sports Forum’s BDSE platform visit https://sports-forum.com/bdse/. For more information about Legends’ commitment to Diversity, Inclusion & Growth, visit https://www.legends.net/diversity-inclusion.

Legends Announces Record-Breaking Sales for Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium

Posted on by Kristin Mortensen

Highest Overall Per Cap in History for Full Capacity Super Bowl

Legends, a global premium experiences company, today announced record-breaking sales for food and beverage, as well as merchandise for Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Legends operates hospitality, which includes concessions and premium spaces, at SoFi Stadium and is partnered with the NFL to execute on-site retail for the Super Bowl and other NFL tentpole events.

The overall per cap for Super Bowl LVI, including general concessions, premium dining and merchandise sales, was $167.37, the highest overall per cap in history for a full capacity Super Bowl. This marks a 14% increase over the previous record at Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco. The number is for Super Bowl game day sales at SoFi Stadium only.

In total, Legends generated over $18 million in revenue for all NFL related activities (Feb. 5 – Feb 13), including SoFi Stadium sales, NFL Shop presented by Visa at the Super Bowl Experience, additional Super Bowl retail pop-up and hotel locations throughout Los Angeles, and on-site merchandise for the 2022 Pro Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Our team was incredibly proud to be a part of Super Bowl LVI, turning up the spotlight on Los Angeles and celebrating the diverse culture of the area through our food and beverage program at SoFi Stadium and unique merchandise partnerships with local artists,” said Dan Smith, president of Legends Hospitality. “The buzz around the game and the city was incredible, with the home team playing and back to a full capacity Super Bowl. Our team worked around the clock to ensure an expedient, first-class experience for fans inside the stadium and at the retail locations throughout the city.”

“SoFi Stadium was built to host world-class events like the Super Bowl. We collaborated with Legends on our point-of-sale infrastructure from day one. For the Super Bowl, we added additional point-of-sale locations and provided multiple types of access points throughout the building and across the Hollywood Park campus for food, beverage and merchandise. This allowed us to operate for the NFL at the highest level and create an unforgettable Super Bowl experience for guests at SoFi Stadium,” said Jason Gannon, managing director, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park.

Throughout the stadium there were more than 900 concession points of sale (fixed and handheld), making for easy access for fans to get food and beverages without having to wait in long lines. There were 24 merchandise locations inside the stadium, including the main team store. Outside the venue there were 12 portable retail trailers.

Legends was the NFL’s official retail merchandise concessionaire for Super Bowl LVI. The NFL Shop presented by Visa at the Super Bowl Experience was open for one week from Saturday, February 5 through Saturday, February 12 and covered 30,000 square feet. The store offered the largest collection of Super Bowl merchandise anywhere, with the majority of the product mix being exclusive. In addition to the main NFL Shop presented by Visa, there were five pop-up locations throughout Los Angeles and 30 hotels carrying merchandise, all operated by Legends.

Legends manages on-site retail at NFL tentpole events, including the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, NFL Draft and NFL Combine. In addition, Legends and the NFL partnered recently to open NFL Las Vegas presented by Visa, an innovative NFL-themed store located in the renowned Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

SPORTBUSINESS: Legends extends record hospitality run at Super Bowl LVI

Posted on by Kristin Mortensen

Via SportBusiness

The National Football League’s Super Bowl LVI followed up a strong domestic media showing with record-setting hospitality totals.

Legends, the league’s official retail merchandise concessionaire for Super Bowl LVI, said that it generated per capita spending of $167.37 (€147.25) across concessions, premium dining, and merchandise sales, marking the highest such figure for a full-capacity Super Bowl. 

Last year’s Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida, generated a comparable spending average of $212, marking an overall event record. But that game was limited to about 25,000 attendees, less than half the capacity of Raymond James Stadium, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The total for Super Bowl LVI, a comeback victory for the Los Angeles Rams, beat by 14 per cent the prior full-capacity mark of Super Bowl 50 six years ago in San Francisco, California.

Legends is the concessionaire at SoFi Stadium, home of the Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, and the company in 2020 completed a deal with the NFL to handle event merchandise for the league’s marquee events including the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and Draft.

Overall, Legends generated more than $18m in revenue for nine days of activities this month that included the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada, the run-up to Super Bowl LVI, and gameday itself on February 13. In addition to selling merchandise on site at SoFi Stadium and Allegiant Stadium, Legends also managed the official merchandise shop at the Super Bowl Experience fan attraction in downtown Los Angeles, and pop-up and hotel locations around the city.

“Our team was incredibly proud to be a part of Super Bowl LVI, turning up the spotlight on Los Angeles and celebrating the diverse culture of the area through our food and beverage program at SoFi Stadium and unique merchandise partnerships with local artists,” said Dan Smith, Legends Hospitality president.

“The buzz around the game and the city was incredible, with the home team playing and back to a full-capacity Super bowl. Our team worked around the clock to ensure an expedient, first-class experience for fans inside the stadium and at the retail locations throughout the city,” Smith said.

In addition to an early-arriving crowd for the game, the totals were also boosted by more than 900 concession points of sale at SoFi Stadium between fixed and handheld locations, with temporary locations such as portable trailers installed to help manage the heightened demand. 

Legends Launches New Growth Enterprises Division

Posted on by Chris.Pereira

Focus on Leveraging Integrated 360-Degree Solution for High-Growth Sports and Entertainment Properties, Attractions, Events and Platforms

Acquisition of Maestroe Sports & Entertainment Fuels New Division

Legends, a global premium experiences company, today announced the launch of Legends Growth Enterprises, a new business unit focused on leveraging the company’s intelligence-fueled 360-degree service solution to support sports and entertainment properties, attractions, events and platforms positioned for accelerated growth.

Legends Growth Enterprises will bring a unique and differentiated approach to supporting high-growth ventures backed by the company’s industry leading service divisions – Global Planning, Global Sales, Global Partnerships, Hospitality, Global Merchandise and Global Technology Solutions. Legends Global Technology Solutions division, which recently expanded its robust technology, analytics and digital service offerings with the acquisition of 4FRONT, will play a key role providing actionable insights to help drive revenue for Legends Growth Enterprises clients. In addition, Legends Growth Enterprises will provide broadcast and media rights partnership support for clients.

To accelerate the launch of the new division, Legends has acquired Maestroe Sports & Entertainment, an agency focused on emerging sports and entertainment property development, sponsorship, global growth strategies and revenue creation for fast-growing sports and entertainment properties and platforms.

“The launch of Legends Growth Enterprises, and acquisition of Maestroe Sports & Entertainment, is a natural progression of the work we are already doing in this space using data and insights to deliver our innovative and impactful solutions to drive business and accelerate expansion for sports and entertainment ventures that are at a high-growth stage,” said Shervin Mirhashemi, CEO, Legends.

Sports and entertainment industry veteran Gabby Roe, founder and President of Maestroe Sports & Entertainment, will join Legends as President of Legends Growth Enterprises. Roe has more than 30 years of experience in high-growth ventures including at Beach Soccer Company, Major League Lacrosse, Pro Beach Volleyball and ASA Entertainment.

“High-growth sports and entertainment properties are gaining an ever-stronger foothold within the industry, delivering top entertainment to fans and terrific returns to participants and owners,” said Roe. “We see these properties as the ‘tech stocks of the sports and entertainment industry’ and are proud to continue to be the flag bearer for this attractive segment of the industry. We could not be more excited to now be a part of Legends whose global resources and expertise will bolster the growth and create even more value for all aligned properties.”

Added Mike Tomon, Co-President and COO, Legends: “The sports and entertainment landscape is expanding and evolving at a rapid pace. We are excited to bolster our expertise with the addition of Gabby and his team and their successful track record of building, operating and driving revenue for high-growth ventures. Legends will continue to leverage its entire global platform and provide the operational capabilities, as well as strategic capital, to help propel emerging sports and entertainment properties to next level growth and success.”

The launch of Legends Growth Enterprises is part of the continued growth of Legends. In January 2022 the company announced the acquisition of 4FRONT, a global data and analytics, innovation, and digital media agency, that now operates as part of Legends Global Technology Solutions division, building on Legends’ expertise in data consulting and digital activation.

FORBES: Legends Acquires Maestroe Sports & Entertainment, Launches New Division

Posted on by Kristin Mortensen

Via Forbes

Since graduating from the University of Virginia in 1991, Gabby Roe has devoted his professional career to launching, helping lead and consulting for niche sports properties. Roe’s experience includes founding a beach soccer league, serving as an executive for Major League Lacrosse and the AVP beach volleyball league and running his own sports consulting company for the past 10 years.

That firm, Maestroe Sports & Entertainment, has worked with dozens of clients to achieve and exceed their business objectives. And now, Maestroe is taking the next step in its evolution, as the company has been acquired by Legends, a company founded in 2008 by the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys that initially focused on running the concessions at their stadiums and others at sports venues and entertainment complexes.

Since then, Legends has grown to become a major advisory firm working with clients in professional and college sports and entertainment, helping them with business plans, sponsorship sales, arena naming rights deals, merchandising and other areas. Last year, Sixth Street, an investment firm with $60 billion of assets under management, acquired a majority stake in Legends in a deal that valued the company at $1.3 billion. The Yankees and Cowboys continue to hold a significant minority stake in Legends.

Mike Tomon, the co-president and chief operating officer of Legends, would not disclose financial details of the Maestroe deal. But he said the addition of Maestroe helps Legends expand into what he calls “growth” sports leagues that are in their early stages or have the potential to become a bigger part of the industry. As such, Legends has launched a new division, dubbed Legends Growth Enterprises, that will be led by Roe.

The division will continue to work with Maestroe’s existing clients, which include the International Axe Throwing Federation, Spikeball, USA Pickleball and Karate Combat. It will also pursue other sports clients as well as those in the entertainment industry.

“The underpinning (of Legends) has always been about growth for our clients,” Tomon said. “As we looked to further expand that approach, we saw Gabby and Maestroe as uniquely positioned to not only further that but to be a key differentiator on how they approach some of these earlier stage opportunities. As Gabby likes to coin them, they’re the tech stocks of the (sports) business.”

Roe describes Maestroe as “the unofficial but self-proclaimed flag-bearer of these emerging sports properties” that are overshadowed in the United States by the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball and other established leagues. The company’s work through the years has included helping new leagues get off the ground with their business plans, helping leagues secure venues and media rights deals and aiding with sponsorship sales. 

A few months ago, Roe was talking about a new sports league with Shervin Mirhashemi, a longtime friend and the chief executive of Legends. The two had those types of informal conversations on a regular basis, but this time Mirhashemi brought up the idea of Legends acquiring Maestroe.

Roe said he was not looking to sell the company and had not hired an investment bank to pursue suitors. But the more he spoke with Mirhashemi, the more the idea of a sale made sense. By becoming part of Legends, Maestroe will expand their capabilities in sponsorships and other business lines while expanding to areas where they had not been active, including data and analytics and merchandising.

The new Legends division may also acquire equity stakes in up-and-coming sports leagues, something Maestroe had not previously done.

“I have loved and respected the Legends brand since it was launched,” Roe said. “It’s a dream come true for me to be able to join up with Legends and Shervin and Mike Tomon and the whole team.”

He added: “We see ourselves as the advocate for these (niche sports). Even more than the personal side of it, it’s showing these emerging sports are real and there’s a place for them in the sports hierarchy. We’ve been sticking up for the little guy for many years. It’s nice to have a large, extremely reputable company (in Legends) that believes alongside of us and is now going to pump as much of their expertise and resources into these sports properties. I think it’s awesome for the industry.”

The Maestroe acquisition is the latest deal for Legends. Late last month, the company announced it had bought 4FRONT, a data and analytics and digital media firm whose clients have included the UFC, Chicago Bears and New York Mets. Tomon noted that Legends will use 4FRONT’s technologies and capabilities to help clients that Maestroe has worked with and attract new business. He also expects Legends will complete more deals in the coming months, as well, thanks to Sixth Street’s investment.

“(Sixth Street) brings a ton of strategic and financial wherewithal to ultimately help the growth of the business,” Tomon said. “We are in growth mode. But we’re really focused on the right type of growth, to make sure it’s strategic and fits in with the overall vision. We’re aggressively pursuing that.”