Sports Business
In a rare move for high school sports, Mater Dei High School, a private Catholic school in Santa Ana, Calif., signed a seven-figure, 10-year multimedia rights agreement with Playfly Sports, a media and marketing company.
According to Mater Dei, the deal makes the high school the first in the country to sign a third-party multimedia rights deal. The agreement aims to “enhance sponsorship opportunities, media exposure, and fan engagement,” the school wrote in a statement Wednesday.
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Playfly calls itself a “revenue maximizer” and said in a statement that the deal will bring “substantial” revenue growth and brand partnerships to the school — though neither Playfly nor Mater Dei have named any specific partnerships yet.
“High school sports remain one of the last frontiers of amateur athletics in the United States, trailing college sports by 15-20 years in terms of commercialization and structural development,” Kyle Gurganious, Playfly’s Director of Marketing and Communications, told The Athletic.
High schools in California cannot negotiate name, image and likeness deals on behalf of athletes; students must sign those on their own, and they have begun to do so in states that allow it.
Gurganious said that the agreement is not an NIL deal. “No funds will be directly allocated to student-athletes by Playfly, nor will student-athletes be required to participate in brand promotions on behalf of the school,” he said. “Instead, this initiative aims to foster meaningful connections between brands and the broader athletic community at Mater Dei High School.”
Still, the deal with Playfly is yet another way that opportunities to monetize sports — not just in college but also in high school — are booming in the world of NIL. With the Playfly deal, brand partnerships with Mater Dei could make their way to students.
“We don’t get involved in negotiation or creating opportunities specifically for any individual,” Mater Dei director of athletic development Khaled Holmes said. “Now, as we create these opportunities as a school or as an athletic department or as a program specifically, I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if there were parallel opportunities for our athletes.”
A private school known for competitive athletics, Mater Dei has produced a variety of professional athletes in its history — Holmes competed for the school before playing football at USC and in the NFL. He said he hopes the deal will grow a second source of revenue for the school beyond fundraising
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“Whereas coaches now are fundraising and spend a good portion of their time focused on fundraising, we’d ideally like to get that to the place where Playfly is executing and creating a healthy, sustainable financial situation for all of our programs so that the coaches can focus more on coaching,” Holmes said.
Holmes also expects the deal to bring an “elevated experience” for fans to the Santa Ana Bowl — where Mater Dei plays home football games — and other school venues and competitions.
“Having been to a number of college games, kind of seeing the opportunities you can create around different programs to get people more engaged, I think those opportunities are kind of endless in some ways,” he said.
The agreement comes after Playfly acquired Paragon Marketing Group, which has worked in high school sports marketing, events and social media.
“Mater Dei’s tradition of excellence, both academically and athletically, offers a full portfolio of compelling assets we can deliver to brands,” Playfly president Christy Hedgpeth said in a statement Wednesday. “This transformational collaboration is a testament to the growing opportunities in high school athletics.”
Those opportunities are expanding, as youth sports increasingly professionalize and some athletes build brands and sign NIL deals before even graduating high school.
“I think parents feel a lot of pressure, kids feel a lot of pressure and I view that as probably the biggest downside, the amount of pressure you see on families… to make it to all these tournaments regardless of the sport they’re in, all the time traveling, the travel stress, the financial stress it puts families in,” Holmes said.
But Holmes thinks the deal with Playfly will benefit students, athletes and the school — and that other high schools will follow suit in the future.
“I do think it will happen in more places, and yeah, absolutely, welcome to it,” he said.
(Photo: Andy Abeyta / USA Today via Imagn)
Rebecca Tauber is a Staff Editor on The Athletic’s live/breaking news team. Before joining The Athletic, she worked at Denverite and Colorado Public Radio covering Denver City Council and transportation. She grew up in the Philly suburbs and is a graduate of Williams College.
