Perspectives

Sport-anchored mixed-use development is the new playbook for professional sports. College athletics just gave it a whole new reason to exist.

Sport-anchored real estate is not a new concept. Not even close. Sports teams have been selling concessions and leasing parking lots for as long as professional sports has existed. So why are we talking about it now? Three forces have converged to change the economics of sports in ways that most real estate investors have not yet fully appreciated.

Sports betting has turned passive watchers into active participants; more than half of all sports bets placed today are in­-game wagers, meaning fans now have financial skin in every play, not just a seat in the stands. NIL ("Name, Image, and Likeness") has turned college athletes into personalities, creating year­round commercial relationships between fans and athletes that simply did not exist a few years ago. And women's sports is gaining attention, with new leagues, new venues, and audiences that were previously underleveraged. Together, these forces have fundamentally changed the economics of college sports. The game on the field hasn't changed. Paying for it certainly has. The real estate story follows directly from there.

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