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Welcome to Beyond The Sideline, the community resource for the next generation of sports business leaders.
Big Idea
For the casual sports observer, Christmas Day is synonymous with the NBA’s bright jerseys, star-studded matchups, and the unofficial "real" start of the basketball season. But for the league’s front office and its media partners, the holiday is a high-stakes inventory play that serves as a cornerstone of the NBA’s multi-billion-dollar media rights valuation.
What is now a five-game, 13-hour television marathon was once a desperate attempt to fill a quiet arena in Manhattan. Understanding the origin of this tradition and its evolution into a massive commercial engine reveals the NBA’s long-term strategy of "owning" specific windows in the cultural calendar.
Sponsorships
Relegation schemes are rare in US sports, but could it eventually take hold for economic reasons?
All the major European football leagues, like the English Premier League and Germany's Bundesliga, as well as all domestic leagues in South America, utilize promotion and relegation. In that system, teams move up and down in the tier of leagues based on their performance. If the MLB had such a system, for example, the Scranton Railriders would be promoted to the Majors next season, while the Colorado Rockies would be relegated to AAA. In March of this year, the United Soccer League (USL) adopted a promotion and relegation system. While a foreign concept in more than one way to US fans, it would unlock economic gains and other benefits for those leagues willing to consider it.
Retirement Planning Made Easy
Building a retirement plan can be tricky— with so many considerations it’s hard to know where to start. That’s why we’ve put together The 15-Minute Retirement Plan to help investors with $1 million+ create a path forward and navigate important financial decisions in retirement.
By The Numbers
Numbers That Jumped Off the Page
84%- Despite the NFL’s growing presence on December 25th, the NBA saw a massive 84% year-over-year jump in Christmas Day viewership in 2024. Averaging 5.25 million viewers per game, it was the league's best holiday performance in five years. If the numbers can hold, it turns out there’s plenty of room at the table for both Christmas touchdowns and triple-doubles.
102- The Spengler Cup, held annually in Davos, Switzerland, between Christmas and New Year's, is the oldest invitational hockey tournament in the world, dating back 102 years to 1923. It is a massive commercial success in Europe, serving as a primary marketing vehicle for Swiss tourism and luxury brands, proving that hockey "holiday traditions" are a global business, not just a North American one.
133- It will have been 133 days since Netflix officially sold out all of its ad inventory for the 2025 NFL Christmas Day games when they air this Thursday. It seems brands are more than willing to follow the NFL onto a streaming platform, even on a Wednesday.
Pulse Check
Last week, we asked BTS readers, “Beyond scouting and player performance, where will AI have the most immediate impact on a team's bottom line?” Here’s what they thought.
Which league's regular season marquee game delivers the best product?
The Highlight Reel
Catch up on our most-read articles from previous weeks
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