🚨 The New York Jets Could Lose Their Logo

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: The Jets Could Lose Their Logo (And Millions of Dollars)

📉 Biggest Loser: You Can Now Buy a College Basketball Team — Yes, You

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The New League That Could Break Sports

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🗞 The Big Story

The New York Jets are being sued by an 81-year-old rockstar, and it could result in the team losing its logo and tens of millions of dollars.

Background: In 1973, Jim Pons left his career as a successful bass player and vocalist to work for the New York Jets as their film and video director. Five years later, the Jets were looking for a redesign - so Pons submitted this logo idea, and the front office loved it.

The team used it as its primary logo from 1978 to 1997 and twice again in 2023 on its alternate uniforms.

Then, earlier this year, the team announced they’d be using Pon’s design full-time going forward—they even filmed a mini-documentary with him in which he told the story of the original design.

Lawsuit: But then, just three months later, TMZ revealed that Pons was suing the Jets and the NFL for stealing his logo - claiming that he still owned the original design since it was created out of his original scope of work.

Logo-less? Pons claims that the team and the league are making millions off of his logo, so he’s suing for damages and asking a judge to cancel the Jets' trademark on his design—which the team has held since the 1970s.

Pons also requests that the team no longer use his logo on their uniforms and merch, at least not without his consent and compensation…

📉 Biggest Loser

You can now buy a piece of a college basketball team, yes, you. Let me explain…

Background: Howard basketball’s head coach, Kenny Blakeney, recently just offered up 33% of his program to any investor who’s interested.

Blakeney said that this money would be used to:

• Redevelop Burr Gymnasium (built in 1963)

• Upgrade the roster through NIL deals

• Leave the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference to (1) Go independent or (2) Join a larger conference

This is so that the school can make as much money on a TV deal as other schools do.

This investment would allow Howard, a school that has made back-to-back appearances in March Madness, to keep up with the top programs in the nation while also giving eager investors the chance to finally own a basketball team.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Blakeney says there are hundreds of private equity firms and wealthy people who want to own a basketball team but don’t have the billions to spend to get in with the NBA.

How Much: That’s why he’s offering 33% of his program for just $100 million, valuing the team at $300 million even though they only profited an estimated $1.5 million last year.

It’s also unclear if the school, much less the NCAA, would even allow this.

Blankeny says he didn’t ask the university about this idea before going public, but he seems optimistic that it could be legal, given recent court rulings against the NCAA.

And honestly, you can’t blame the guy for trying.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

This new basketball league has a model that will make NBA players jealous and WNBA players millionaires overnight.

Background: Since many WNBA players make less than $70,000 per year, it’s become common for these women to play overseas in the offseason to earn extra money.

Recently, these ‘offseason leagues’ have been popping up here in the U.S. - the most recent one being a 3-on-3 league called Unrivaled Basketball.

Model: The model for Unrivaled is different from that of almost every other professional sports league

• It will last just three months (starting January 2025)

• It will feature 30 of the top players from the WNBA, including Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart, and Angel Reese

The league’s salary cap will be at least $7.5M, making the average player's salary $250,000 - the highest in women’s sports history and over double the WNBA average.

But that’s not even the craziest part.

Because there will also be a 10-15% ownership pool for players to split, meaning everyone will get equity in the league.

For reference, no other major professional sports league uses this model of player ownership - even though countless NBA and NFL stars have tried.

I just wonder if this model will catch on?

⏱ In Other News

• The (Misunderstood) History of Skip Bayless

• The Polo Grounds are BACK (sort of).

• Colorado gets the last laugh.

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👋🏻 Happy Friday! I don’t want to jinx anything, but it looks like I’ll be sitting down with Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole in Des Moines in a month.

I’m curious what this community would like to hear him talk about. Leave a comment or reply with ideas!