Sports Illustrated-Licensed Resorts Coming To College Football Towns, Starting With Alabama
Even decades past its peak circulation in the 1980s, the owner of Sports Illustrated is betting on the brand to drive the creation of a resort hotel chain.
The owner, Authentic Brands Group, has launched a joint venture with Experiential Ventures Hospitality and Kituwah called Sports Hospitality Ventures to open a line of Sports Illustrated Resorts locations in the U.S., CoStar reports.
Sports Hospitality Ventures' first U.S. location for the concept will be in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home to the University of Alabama, in partnership with magazine brand Travel + Leisure, CoStar reports. The Sports Illustrated Resorts location, which is also slated to offer sports fan entertainment spaces, condos and timeshares, is targeting a 2025 opening.
Kituwah, the business arm of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, agreed to invest $320M in the partnership, which is eyeing future locations near the University of Michigan and the University of Georgia, CoStar reports — two schools with football programs that, like the Alabama Crimson Tide, boast massive fanbases.
Sports Hospitality Ventures is targeting redevelopment prospects, rather than new construction, with a "sweet spot" of 150 to 200 rooms, CoStar reported. The venture is open to owning and managing the hotels itself or finding owner-operator partners.
Travel + Leisure purchased the rights to operate vacation clubs at all Sports Illustrated Resorts locations from Sports Hospitality Ventures, CoStar reported. Travel + Leisure and Sports Hospitality Ventures plan to jointly manage condos and timeshares at Sports Illustrated Resorts.
ABG subsidiary Sports Illustrated Resorts last year opened its first location, Sports Illustrated Resorts Marina & Villas Cap Cana, near Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, per CoStar. Sports Illustrated Resorts' website lists an unspecified Orlando resort as its second location with a 2024 opening.
ABG's strategy of owning and licensing brands touches real estate in different ways, depending on the brand. It launched a joint venture with Simon Property Group called SPARC to acquire retail brands like Forever 21 and JCPenney. SPARC sold a one-third ownership stake to fast-fashion e-commerce giant Shein in September.
As for Sports Illustrated itself, Arena Group operates the online and print magazine under a 99-year publishing agreement with ABG, though in the summer it was exploring a sale to ad licensing brand Group Black, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
