Travel + Leisure Co. and Sports Hospitality Ventures—the hotel and resorts licensee for the Sports Illustrated brand in North America and the Caribbean—have partnered to launch a network of sports-themed resort and lifestyle developments. The first properties under the agreement will open in college towns near universities with popular athletic programs and will expand to include beach clubs and experience parks.
“Just over two years ago, we repositioned the company to do exactly what we're [doing], which is being able to apply a great hospitality business model to different brands,” said Michael Brown, president and CEO of Travel + Leisure Co. “This is an incremental opportunity for us to work with Sports Illustrated to develop a Sports Illustrated Resort network across the United States.”
Much as Travel + Leisure expanded beyond its media origins when Wyndham Destinations acquired the brand, Brown said that Sports Illustrated is another established brand that is ready for expansion. “Hospitality is a clear way to do that because of the passion around sports [and] the passion around leisure travel,” he noted, adding that lifestyle hospitality is “going beyond traditional hotel brands into lifestyle experiences.” For example, the Margaritaville brand has a presence in restaurants, bars, hotels and resorts as well as vacation clubs that are part of the Wyndham Destinations umbrella. “Sports Illustrated has all the makings of that type of lifestyle experience,” Brown said.
Sports Hospitality Ventures, under license from brand development company Authentic Brands Group, launched Sports Illustrated Resorts last year, opening the debut property in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic. The next development is slated to open next year in Orlando.
With those two properties already set, leaders from Travel + Leisure Co. and Sports Hospitality Ventures started discussing opportunities “about six to eight months ago,” Brown recalled, “and beyond having complementary skills, we also found a common passion around sports and the concept of growing the Sports Illustrated name.”
Kituwah LLC, the business entity of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—part owner of Sports Hospitality Ventures—committed $320 million in capital to expand the Sports Illustrated Resorts brand. “They are a key component of the ownership structure that really is launching Sports Illustrated Resorts,” Brown said. The entity, he added, has provided “expertise in hospitality” beyond the capital investment.
Academics, Athletics and Hospitality
The first major Sports Illustrated Resorts college town destination under the partnership will be in Tuscaloosa, Ala., close to the University of Alabama. This property, slated to open in 2025, will include a hotel, vacation ownership club, SI Fit Health/Wellness Center and entertainment facilities. The selection was an easy one for the partners: The University of Alabama has been featured on the Sports Illustrated cover more than any other university, and Travel + Leisure named the city one of the 25 best college towns in the U.S. this year. The development will have about 135 hotel rooms, 65 condominiums and 200 vacation club units.
The company will announce additional college-town destinations in the future. Brown said this particular market is ripe for connecting the athletic atmosphere of these targeted schools—“which has a massive passion component”—with accommodation and entertainment facilities. By including a vacation ownership option in each development, he said fans will be able to follow their favorite teams on the road and use their allocated time to watch away games. Vacation club members will get flexible points-based currency to make repeat resort reservations and take advantage of deals from the Sports Illustrated Resorts portfolio as it grows.
The Travel + Leisure Co. team expects to use an asset-light development financing model for the new resorts. Most of the developments will be new-build projects that are customized for their location (although there “may be one or two conversions” in the pipeline, Brown noted), with a base line of about 150 hotel rooms, 50 to 75 condos and anywhere between 100 to 200 vacation club units.
“I would not expect our cost per key to be substantially different than what you would find in a normal hotel in each market,” Brown said of the hotel development costs. Developing vacation club units can cost anywhere between $500,000 to $1 million per key, he continued, with properties in urban hubs commanding the highest construction prices. “They tend to be that [price] per key because they're much larger units with kitchens and the like." Costs to develop the condominiums will depend on the market.
For the first few years of the partnership, Brown expects the development pipeline to lean “a little heavier” on the college towns and less on traditional leisure resort destinations. “Our agreement with Sports Illustrated allows us to get several dozen resorts completed, and we're well down the pipeline in a number of different markets,” he said. While he could not share future destinations beyond Tuscaloosa, he said the company is eyeing universities with especially popular athletic programs, and he expects more announcements by the end of the year.
Travel + Leisure Co. will not be involved in running the hotels, Brown said, adding that the decision on whether the hotels within each development will be franchised or managed is still “to be determined.”
While there is no immediate earnings impact for Travel + Leisure Co., the company expects this business to drive incremental growth starting in the second half of 2025.