Welcome back to Bucholtz Sports Media! We're going to try a bit of an experiment here, and as an independent publication with no gods and no masters, we can do just that. This particular experiment is a post, possibly to become a series, that will break down five different sports business stories I saw this week. As always, free posts like this one are brought to you by the generosity of our premium subscribers; join them here to support independent sports media and sports business content.

1. Icy Hot jumps on the "Icy Hot Bowl"

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Many brands engage with sports in a variety of ways, but something that's always stood out here is when brands quickly and appropriately react to external sports-related chatter about them. A great example of that earlier this year came from Ore-Ida jumping on announcer Roxy Bernstein's relaying of BYU basketball player Richie Saunders' family connection to Tater Tots (his great-grandfather Francis Nephi Grigg co-invented those delicious potato products and co-founded the Ore-Ida brand) and signing Saunders to a quick NIL deal, which Kraft-Heinz's Jackie Britva Sr. spoke to me about. And one this week came from pain relief brand Icy Hot embracing Steelers' DL Cam Heyward's branding of their Thursday Night Football clash with the Cincinnati Bengals as the "Icy Hot Bowl."

Heyward dropped that line Tuesday during a press conference for his quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. The "Icy Hot Bowl" line came because this game featured an unusual quadragenarian starting quarterback matchup between Rodgers (40) and the Cincinnati Bengals' recently-acquired pivot, Joe Flacco (41). Here's what Heyward said initially, via ESPN's Brooke Pryor:

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Brooke Pryor @bepryor In a fitting intro to Aaron Rodgers’ weekly scrum, Cam Heyward heckled the QB and called the game against Joe Flacco the “Icy Hot Bowl” Then Rodgers talked about the novelty of two 40+ QBs playing against each other. “I think it’s great for all the old guys.” 7:19 PM • Oct 14, 2025 457 Retweets 15921 Likes Read 52 replies

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Well, Icy Hot's marketing people were paying attention, especially after this took off on social media. And not only did they drop an "unofficial logo" (seen above, and presumably only "unofficial" to avoid the implication this was NFL-endorsed), they teamed up with Heyward for an endorsement. That's quick and nimble thinking, and it further enhanced the tremendous amount of on-broadcast and social media mentions of Icy Hot during the game (which the Bengals won 33-31).

The Icy Hot Bowl is another case in point for the value of flexible and reactive marketing in sports. Long-planned campaigns and official sponsorships have their own value, but there's so much earned media (from both media outlets and social media users) value that can be gained from quickly jumping on some unplanned in-game or press conference moments. We've seen that time and time again over the years, involving everything from horses in hotels to cornerback islands. So, well played by Icy Hot here.

2. Adam Silver gets two honors

Being a professional sports commissioner is an incredibly difficult job. In particular, with so much of the job involving keeping owners and league business partners happy, it often leads to commissioners facing massive criticism from fans. But the NBA's Adam Silver has done remarkably well in owner, business, and fan support in his 2014-present tenure in that role, and two announcements this week added to that.

The first is Silver's selection for the 2026 Edison Achievement Award, which will be presented in April in Fort Myers, Florida. The Edison Awards, set up in 1987 by the American Marketing Association and independent since 2008, look to honor innovation each year. As per a release, their Achievement Award is "presented annually to distinguished leaders who have made a significant and lasting contribution to innovation and human-centered design throughout their careers."

Past recipients of that Edison Achievement Award include everyone from Arizona State president Michael Crow to corporate leaders such as Steve Jobs (Apple) and John S. Hendricks (Discovery). But while some of those people, including Crow (a major figure in the eventual move of ASU and other Pac-12 schools to the Big 12), have made significant sports impacts, Silver looks to be the award's first specifically-sports honoree. From a release, here's more on why he was chosen:

The release specifically spotlights seven NBA areas for praise. Those would be global expansion, new media rights deals, "increased on-court competition" (the play-in tournament and the in-season NBA Cup), WNBA expansion and growth, creation of the NBA 2K League, "enhanced fan experience" (specifically noting the redesigned NBA app), and "a commitment to sustainability." Silver's particular influence on each of those areas can be discussed, but they certainly all happened under his leadership, and recent reporting illuminates him playing a significant personal role in some particularly thorny elements of these areas, such as the NBA's repair of its relationship with China with the new Macau series. Thus, he seems like a reasonable pick for an award featuring innovative corporate leaders. And it's particularly interesting to see him chosen for an award that hasn't really touched on sports in the past, and one that it's hard to imagine going to any other current major U.S. sports commissioner at the moment.

Another element of Silver's uniqueness amongst commissioners comes from the way he was featured at the first Puck/MoffettNathanson "In The Arena" sports business conference this week in New York City. That conference featured a who's who of broadcasting and business executives, as well as some executives from other leagues, but Silver was the only commissioner spotlighted in their recap email. And he had an interesting quote there:

In terms of specifics there, that actually ties into something where the NBA has been a real trailblazer. They've offered even partial game packages, such as $2 for a fourth quarter and overtime, since 2018. And they may have more to offer on this front down the road, especially with the recent increased efforts dedicated to their app (which has long been a content focus for them). But it's also interesting just to see Silver spotlighted at this conference, which is notable in its own right as an unusual partnership between a media outlet in Puck and a respected research firm in MoffettNathanson. The sports business figures at both of those companies know their stuff, and their selection of Silver for this event (and ability to persuade him to take part in it) speaks to that.

3. Sports Illustrated continues events strategy at Austin F1 race

One of the most fascinating media stories of the last decade has been around Sports Illustrated. While there's too much to explain, we can sum up with the publication being sold from Time Warner to Meredith, from Meredith to Authentic Brands Group, and (most crucially) switching its publishing license from Arena Group to Minute Media last spring (in a highly public move with a lot of surrounding litigation, which was finally resolved this year with no major payout either way). But, around those corporate moves, SI has also changed their own offerings and business models, and a big part of that has been around events.

An element many have missed in coverage of SI is the tremendous value of putting the SI brand on things. That gets more and more important as it becomes more and more difficult to make money as a traditional print/online publisher. And that's why Authentic, whose primary focus is striking branded opportunities for a whole lot of people and properties, bought the brand. Yes, not all SI-branded things have worked out great, but the events seem to be a notable success. And they're doing two more of them this weekend at the Formula 1 race in Austin, TX. Here's more on that from a release:

Over the last few years, SI has done a lot of these events, including "Club SI" at the Kentucky Derby and "SI: The Party" at various Super Bowls. I was on site for this year's edition of SI: The Party at the Super Bowl as part of a big feature on event organizing company Medium Rare (one of my past pieces I'm most proud of), and it completely illustrated why SI is going this way. Of the three Medium Rare Super Bowl events (which also included ones featuring Shaq and Guy Fieri), SI: The Party was the most focused on attracting athlete and content celebrities. I spoke to some of those figures on the red carpet, including NASCAR driver Joey Logano, who had a great quote about what SI meant to him:

Many people can, and do, debate the ins and outs of SI's current content. The view from this corner is that they still employ some great writers and still put out some great work, so the "SI is no more" crowd isn't being fully fair (and probably isn't reading what is there).

However, SI is also limited by today's publishing realities in terms of who they can employ and what coverage they put out. For every great in-depth piece, there are lots of less-valuable things clearly targeted at uninformed search audiences.

At any rate, the events strategy is interesting, and it seems like a smart way to use their brand to raise money and awareness, supporting the journalism they can and do still deliver. And it's notable to see it continuing with these Austin events (and to see those encompass both a premium event and an event targeted more at the average fan).

4. Club América teams with Tradable Bits on fan engagement

An underrated part of the sports technology space these days comes from the idea of connecting various streams of data around individual fans' engagement with teams (in person and digitally). I've previously covered that with companies including Two Circles and Tempus Ex Machina. Another interesting one is Tradeable Bits, which just struck a deal with Club América, the third Liga MX team they've partnered with. Here's more on that from a release:

This follows Tradable Bits' past Liga MX deals with Querétaro F.C. and Club Tigres. They're a player to watch in this increasingly important space.

5. DirecTV adds Gulf Coast Sports Network, Pelicans

There are notable shifts across much of the sports media landscape from cable regional sports networks to broadcast stations, and those generally improve access to teams' games. However, there remain a couple of caveats with that. While digital antennas to receive broadcast signals are increasingly cheap (many can be obtained for $10 or less) and common, they don't work well for everyone, especially those in more remote areas. There are also signal and convenience advantages for those who still have a multichannel video programming distributor package (such as cable, satellite, or a virtual MVPD such as YouTube TV or Fubo) from having broadcast stations in that package, and the retransmission revenue from those MVPDs is key to the operation of many of these stations. That makes some deals around these shifts quite significant, and the latest is the one DirecTV struck this week with Gray Local Media's Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network.

That network is an interesting venture. Launched last fall after Diamond Sports rejected their New Orleans Pelicans' contract in bankruptcy proceedings, this took Pelicans' local games to a selection of over-the-air digital subchannels associated with Gray's stations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. There's some other programming there too, including occasional MLB and MiLB games, New Orleans Gold rugby, and New Orleans Saints shoulder programming, but the main selling point is the Pelicans. And that's allowed this network to obtain distribution deals (in its region) with MVPDs, including with Fubo and now with DirecTV. Here's more on that from a release:

Another element of note here is that this represents DirecTV further doubling down on sports. They have the MySports skinny bundle package they launched this January, which they've continued to add to, and they keep emphasizing sports in their regular packages and their marketing as well. On the NBA front, they have each team's regional games available to fans in that region except for the Philadelphia 76ers (whose games are on Comcast-owned NBC Sports Philadelphia). And this deal with the Pelicans' unusual broadcast-based network adds to that.

Thanks for reading! As always, you can contact me at andrew@andrewbucholtz.com with tips, feedback, or anything else!