⛳️ What the Hell Happened to Top Golf?

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I’m about to embark on a trip to Disney Land, well, my version of it, anyway—the Wilson Football Factory in Ada, OH. This is where every NFL game ball has been manufactured since 1955, and as if I couldn’t be more excited, I just found out that I’ll be stepping inside the ropes to make my own ball while I’m there.

Kid, meet candy store.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: The Truth Behind Joe Burrow’s New “High-Tech” Cleats

📉 Biggest Loser: What the Hell Happened to Top Golf?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Milwaukee Brewers Are About to Lose $3M/Yr (On Purpose)

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🗞 The Big Story

These are the most high-tech cleats in the NFL, and they could help prevent one of the league’s worst injuries.

Joe Burrow’s Injury: When Joe Burrow went down in Week 2 with a Grade 3 turf toe, doctors expected that between surgery and recovery, he’d be sidelined for at least three months. However, even after returning to beat the Ravens two weeks earlier than expected, fans started to wonder if it was a good idea to rush their franchise QB back from such a serious injury.

But luckily, thanks to these cleats, it seems like Joe Burrow will never have to worry about a foot injury ever again.

A special shoutout to Jaron May for his reporting on this, because we recently learned that Burrow actually worked with the NFL’s best foot doctor to be able to return from his injury in just 69 days.

May’s reporting also revealed that this same doctor described Burrow’s previous cleats as “the worst shoes in the entire league,” which, to be fair, was a sentiment shared by millions of fans back when he got injured.

Joe’s Special Cleats: See, in order to get Burrow back on the field quickly and safely, Dr. Jeff Englert underwent a complete overhaul of his cleats, which included using an in-shoe foot-mapping sensor to make a custom-molded insole to perfectly support his injured toe.

Now, while this insert may look like one that you can buy in the store, according to Jaron May, it’s actually made of a “proprietary padding” that’s meant to mimic the fatty tissue that we all have on the bottom of our feet, which Burrow likely lost while recovering from injury.

Still, that’s not even the coolest part of this cleat.

Because on the bottom of his left insole, Dr. Englert put a carbon-fiber plate that’s actually as thin as a piece of paper to make sure that the cleat doesn’t bend and potentially re-injure the ligament in Burrow’s toe.

The trade-off here is obviously that a rigid, non-bending cleat is extremely uncomfortable, which is why, between every drive, Burrow could be seen slipping into a second pair of shoes. Still, according to Dr. Englert, these new cleats, which he describes as “the safest in the league," should mean that Burrow “never has a foot injury again.”

How do I get these things on my favorite QB?

📉 Biggest Loser

What the hell happened to Topgolf? Because just two years ago, the company was on track “to become even bigger than actual golf,” but since then, it’s had one of the worst declines in all of sports; however, the reason why is actually a lot simpler than they want you to think.

Background: Topgolf was founded in the UK in 2000 by twin brothers who were tired of the same-old driving-range experience. And even though they didn’t expand into the U.S. until 2005, the concept quickly caught on here in America after Callaway made their first of three investments into the company:

• 2006: Callaway acquires a minority stake in Topgolf, which has four venues

• 2017: Callaway increases their stake in Topgolf to 14%

• 2020: Callaway announces its merger with Topgolf

By the time Callaway announced their $2.6 billion merger with Topgolf in 2020, the company already had 63 venues worldwide, with most of them here in the U.S.

Now, the rationale for a legacy golf brand like Callaway investing in a new driving-range concept like Topgolf seemed obvious at the time: it gave them the opportunity to reach more new golfers they could eventually sell their products to.

The Next Big Thing: Topgolf Callaway’s CEO even called the newly acquired company “the best thing to happen to golf since Tiger Woods,” saying “it’s going to be the largest source of new golfers” for the entire industry. A statement that was backed up by a 2022 study, which estimated that of the 41 million Americans who played golf that year, 15.5 million of them played exclusively at “off-course” places like Topgolf.

So if the company had such great momentum just a few years ago, then what happened?

Well, to answer that question, all we have to do is look at this chart, which shows us the five consecutive quarters of decreased same-venue sales.

The Issue: This basically outlines that once Topgolf expands into a city, it struggles to bring people back for a second or third visit. And the reason for this is actually pretty straightforward: according to a study conducted earlier this year, even though the brand is perceived positively by customers for “fun” and “atmosphere,” it’s seen sharp decreases in perceptions of “value” and “price.”

And honestly, they’re right.

Because even though Callaway will blame inflation and rising interest rates as the reason they had to sell Topgolf at a valuation of less than half of what they bought it at 5 years ago, the truth is, spending an average of $36 per person to go to a glorified driving range just isn’t sustainable.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

The Milwaukee Brewers are about to lose over $3 million per year (on purpose), but it could end up being one of the smartest moves in all of sports. Let me explain.

Flawed Design: Like most American sports venues, when it was built in 2001, the stadium previously known as Miller Park was designed to sit in the middle of over 12,000 parking spots. Which might fill up during the team’s 82-home games every season, but for more than 280 days a year, this sea of concrete sits virtually empty.

And that’s not even the worst part, because thanks to a deal with the state, the Brewers don’t even have to pay property taxes on their stadium or these parking lots, which means when there aren’t cars here, the 90 acres of concrete surrounding the stadium are essentially worthless.

That’s why the state is proposing an idea that could cost the team millions of dollars in the short term, but after digging into it, I think it’s totally worth it.

The Proposal: Essentially, what the state is proposing is a $762 million to $821 million development around the stadium that includes building:

• 600-1,000 apartment units

• 150-200 room hotel

• Up to 52,000 square feet of retail space

• 50,000 square feet of office space

In total, this new “ballpark district” would take up about 25-30 of the 90 acres of parking lot around the stadium, and even though this new development would include some parking ramps, the current proposal estimates that the team would still lose up to 3,000 parking spaces or 25% total parking capacity as a result of this plan.

For reference, at an average parking price of $15, across 82 home games, that’s $3.69 million the team would lose every year because of this new development.

And even though it’s unclear who, between the team and the state, would pick up the bill for major parts of this project, experts are hopeful that by bringing in a tax base of businesses and residents, they can turn a previously useless space into a revenue generator for both the state and the team year-round.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

⏱️ In Other News

• Why do pro athletes go broke?

• Babies born in March are 33% more likely to go pro

• The CFB Bowl Game with no name

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

After posting my video on how the Seattle Kraken collect rainwater to make their ice, I was informed that the Minnesota Wild actually used to accept water donations from fans’ lakes or ponds that they would use in their ice.

I hope they didn’t stop doing this, but I can’t find anything recent about it.