New Playfly CEO expects 'profound change' in college sports as schools hunt for revenue

Assuming the role of Playfly Sports’ Chief Executive Officer is significant during any period in college sports. But to do so now, amid this unprecedented time of disruption and seismic change, represents both a tremendous responsibility and opportunity.

“It’s an incredible period – and advisement, and also activation of that advisement, has never been more necessary,” Craig Sloan, who will be officially elevated to the company’s CEO role effective Sept. 1, told On3. “Some of these programs across college are not only getting pressured for normal revenue growth, but now they are actually being pressured for keeping certain sports teams alive or to rebalance challenging budget parameters.

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“You can only do that so much by pulling down your costs.”

That means substantial responsibility falls to companies like Playfly, Sloan said, to help schools find innovative ways to create new revenue streams or new growth within existing ones. Assisting athletic departments to operate more like media companies has long been a focus of Playfly – which has 68 college sports partners – and founder and current CEO Michael Schreiber, who will move into a new role as Executive Chairman.

Playfly president: More change on the way

Over the past three years, since the dawn of the NIL Era, college athletics has undergone a dizzying transformation. But with a revenue-sharing model expected to take hold as early as fall 2025, with private equity poised to make a big splash on campuses and a potential employee model looming as well, industry leaders say there is a growing need for athletic departments to transition to a more business-minded strategy.

“I would argue that the most profound change in this will still happen in the next three years,” said Sloan, who has been Playfly’s president. “The next three years you’re going to see more business-oriented people, more business-oriented decisions about how they’re running their athletic departments that will take advantage of the real estate, take advantage of their IP, take advantage of this tremendous fan experience and fandom that is there, and the lifelong value of that fandom.”

Playfly helps schools find new revenue streams

Schools are seeking guidance and direction to navigate a new financial world. Questions abound.

What athletic departments need is not a one-off fundraiser, Sloan said, but rather the understanding of structures that will allow for sustainability. Exactly how revenue will be dispersed also continues to be a question weighing on schools, especially with uncertainty regarding how Title IX will apply.

As schools prepare to share as much as $22 million annually with athletes, tapping into new revenue streams is paramount. Schools can now put corporate logos on football fields and may in the future add jersey patches. But there’s more potential.

For comparison, if an NFL team is sitting on some $80 to $100 million in sponsorship revenue, Sloan said, we’re still not there yet on the college level. And yet for some colleges, he added, you have larger stadiums, more events that cross over multiple pockets of the year and sports that cross-gender audiences. 

“From that perspective, we feel like we’ve got a tremendous upside to start to do a marketplace correction on the perception of it,” Sloan said. “And then also the value that’s being achieved through it for brands that are investing in the sponsorship level.”

Whether it’s through additional content creation, enhancing in-venue premium experiences or other avenues, the one issue top of mind for Sloan and Playfly over the next year will be that universities possess more commercial value than merely through sponsorship. 

“What other new areas can be developed to extract more revenue for these athletic departments?” he said.