The new frontier of sports rights may emerge at the high school level, exemplified by a landmark deal between California’s Mater Dei, a leading high school sports institution, and Playfly Sports. According to a report by Front Office Sports, this first-of-its-kind agreement spans ten years and will provide Mater Dei with approximately $1 million annually.
Playfly Sports, a marketing and media company that positions itself as a “revenue maximizer,” is set to leverage this deal to sell Mater Dei’s media rights to potential partners, including those in television and streaming. However, specific details about these arrangements remain limited. The FOS report suggests that this agreement with Mater Dei may be the first of many that Playfly will establish with other prominent high schools nationwide.
It’s crucial to clarify that this is not a name, image, and likeness (NIL) agreement; California high schools are prohibited from negotiating NIL deals for athletes, although individual athletes can pursue such agreements independently. Additionally, Playfly Sports has recently acquired Paragon Marketing Group, a firm known for its extensive experience marketing high school sporting events, and it boasts a two-decade-long relationship with Mater Dei.
As high school sports can represent significant business opportunities in certain markets, it’s not unexpected that some schools would seek to take advantage of this popularity through multimedia agreements.
