Sep 15, 2023

9.18.2023 Jon Weinbach has joined Jesse Sisgold (below) in building Skydance Sports, which produced the scripted feature “Air” and has an upcoming Jerry Jones documentary on Netflix.getty images When Jon Weinbach joined production company Skydance Media to lead its newly launched sports division in late 2021, leaving Mandalay Sports Media after nearly a decade, he saw a “dream job” opportunity to build one of the industry’s leading sports studios from the ground up. Skydance Sports, the brainchild of Skydance Media President and COO Jesse Sisgold, was positioned to leverage its parent company’s blockbuster filmmaking expertise in sports, an area largely dominated by unscripted storytelling. That initial strategy had strong board support and has been particularly well capitalized since last October, when Skydance raised a $400 million investment round led by KKR and the family of Skydance CEO David Ellison, which were joined by RedBird Capital and Tencent. Weinbach’s early blueprint for Skydance’s sports strategy also included exploring a partnership with a major league. While leagues have increasingly leaned into original content, he felt they ultimately weren’t fully equipped to be serious players in the space. “It’s hard for them because they’re getting thrown a million projects by different people all the time, they don’t know where it’s coming from, they don’t know who’s attached and they have to be defensively reacting to all these projects,” said Weinbach. “And my thought was ‘Hey, what if we could partner with a league and go offensively into the marketplace?’” Little did he know, the NFL had independently come to the same conclusion and last year began testing the market for a studio partner. Though Skydance Sports was a relative newcomer, it had the edge of a parent company with a proven track record — the studio has produced the last four “Mission: Impossible” films and was behind last year’s “Top Gun: Maverick” — and, critically, the financial might to stand alone. getty images “What the NFL really was looking for was the independence. In other words, we were not tied exclusively to any of the platforms, so we could sell to everyone,” said Weinbach. “They could have done this directly with Amazon or directly with Apple, but then in a certain way they would kind of close off their selling opportunity. They wanted a studio that has the capabilities, that had precedent and that has resources to be independent and sell to everybody.” The league’s partnership with Skydance was announced last November, with the studio’s sports vertical being restructured as a joint venture with the NFL and NFL Films. The league backed the initiative through its 32 Equity venture investing arm. Skydance Sports has over 50 projects on its slate, with eight in various stages of production this year. Documentaries will be a near-term focus because the ongoing screenwriters strike has put scripted films on hold, though Weinbach suggested Skydance can hit the ground running with several scripted projects ready to go to market. And Sisgold noted that the long-term plan is for the company to release multiple scripted films each year alongside over 10 unscripted projects annually. Skydance Sports’ upcoming releases include a docuseries on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, which was acquired by Netflix for a reported $50 million, and an all-access series on the America’s Cup. Those follow recently released projects including a doc on Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce for Amazon, an NFL Draft feature for The Roku Channel, and of course theatrical release “Air,” the critically acclaimed retelling of Michael Jordan’s Nike shoe deal starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Viola Davis. That film served as both the first major feature film from Skydance Sports — “Good Rivals,” an Amazon doc on the national men’s soccer teams for the U.S. and Mexico was its first production — and a signal to the industry that it has the muscle to produce prominent scripted fare with A-list talent. Weinbach has a background in both documentaries — he directed “The Redeem Team” for Netflix and was a producer for both “The Last Dance” and “The Captain” that aired on ESPN — and as a journalist, having previously been a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. As for scaling the business, Sisgold said Skydance Sports will grow organically, so there are no plans to “go out and gobble up other companies.” And while the NFL’s involvement spans across all sports, its partnership with Skydance also has effectively positioned the production company as a gatekeeper to the league, a powerful position as more and more filmmakers rush into the sports content space. “Eventually it’s all going to come back to the same spot, which is Skydance Sports,” said Sisgold, who added that the company will be the main point of contact for filmmakers seeking NFL licensing rights, access to historical footage or even physical production resources. “We’re looking to be additive and be good partners for anyone that has a good football idea or needs certain IP from the NFL. And this is also a sign that, while always protective of the brand and the shield of the NFL, I think that there’s a need to have a Hollywood-based company involved in helping expand the football stories that are out there.” Chris Smith writes a monthly column on finance news and trends. He can be reached at crsmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com .