Free Agency Vol. 6📈 - Behind the scenes, but in front of the money: Why sports documentaries are always profitable

There are certain moments that are unprecedented in sports history.

Lionel Messi winning the world cup for Argentina.

Lebron James blocking Andre Iguodala.

Reggie Bush giving 513 yards to Fresno State.

I remember watching this dumbfounded. Reggie Bush was iconic in college, but 500 yards?!

What makes these moments special are the stories behind them.

But that's the thing about sports. Any day can be legendary.

Give Us Docuseries

Americans love a good biography. And if we love reading it, we tend to enjoy watching them. Documentaries are like living memoirs. They capture the moment something happened, and then can capitalize on everything around it.

I remember exactly where I was when The Last Dance dropped. I had gone home to check on my parents and was in their basement, back from an emergency run to Costco. I knew who MJ was, but I didn’t get to see him play in his prime. To watch him be described in vivid detail was incredible. To watch it with the rest of the world at the same time!? Unprecedented.

It’s still ESPN’s most successful documentary ever. It showed a different generation who Jordan was and revealed what he cared about while focusing on building the Bulls dynasty. 5.6 million people could not look away.
Netflix and its other streaming cousins found a golden market with sports docuseries because they can create franchises out of singular stories.

Do you want to cheer for an underdog against all odds? Last Chance U.
How about the life and reality of an NFL star? Receiver.
A mob boss running a hockey team with his 17-year-old son? Untold: Crime and Penalties.
How do the fastest people on the planet train? Sprint.
The rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) at a major university? The Money Game: LSU.
How about embedding yourself into a Premier League club for a year? All or Nothing: Aresenal

Your Alma Mater Wants Your Subscription

Few properties in the world have more access to sports media than a Division 1 University. You’re looking at all of the major sports (football, basketball, baseball, soccer, track and field).

Let’s pretend I’m a diehard Clemson football fan. I love it. The games, the giant paw print on everything, how orange everything is. I graduated, I’m doing well in my career, and I come back for homecoming. As part of the 189,000 alumni, I feel a connection. I want to know what’s going on when I want to. That’s why I happily pay $60 a year to get complete awareness of what is happening in our program—all original content, all the time.

Clemson+ is a complete media house, disguised as a college . Press conferences, practice vlogs, player profiles, podcasts, game recaps—you name it, it’s there. And I can stream it. If it’s athletic and you need a jersey to play, they are capturing it.

As a university, you need to find innovative ways to compete and drive attention. Clemson isn’t Ohio State, meaning they are a notable program but still a medium-sized operation. But if you can create a funnel for fans and alumni, you can entertain them year round. Everything is exclusive when you're not on campus anymore.

Games End, Moments Endure, Athletes Age

Sports are one of the only monocultural events we have left. Monocultural means a singular point of enjoyment for all kinds of people. If it’s big enough, people watch for the moments, the highlights, the analysis, the breakdowns. There is a built-in lack of predictability that we are drawn to: anyone can lose at any moment. It’s exhilarating because you do not know what will happen until it does.

But it’s almost always a safe bet. It combines celebrity, talent, behind-the-scenes access, action, drama, and intrigue—all at the same time. Sports documentaries can touch every single emotion within the scope of one episode or drag them through an entire season.

David Beckham is going live from his garden, Tom Brady is doing vlogs with his daughter, and Christiano Ronaldo is having is wife rate his outfits. We are in for an entirely new landscape of personality-driven content, where our nostalgia is persistently piqued by moments we were present for but did not know the story behind.As a generation of athletes enters retirement from the game we knew them for, they are shifting to telling their stories directly to the audiences that have followed them.

That’s maybe the best part, though. The stories we’ll get to watch later, that we’re living through today.

See you next week.

Jonathan