Sports Illustrated Resorts and Travel + Leisure Co. together are betting big on college towns with upcoming resorts focused on sports culture, entertainment, fitness, health, wellness and food and beverage.
In an interview with Hotel News Now about the recent partnership, Sports Hospitality Ventures CEO Chris Schroeder said his team describes the momentum of Sports Illustrated Resorts as a "rope around a rocket."
Sports Illustrated Resorts first launched in 2022 with the Sports Illustrated Resorts Marina & Villas Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will be home to Sports Illustrated Resorts and Travel + Leisure's first U.S. location in 2025.
"People are looking for experiential hospitality and entertainment, and the No. 1 experiential driver is sports. One of the things we really want to highlight is we're not just sports-centric, we're active lifestyle, health and wellness and entertainment," Schroeder said. "Sports Illustrated itself has become a major entertainment brand. They have some of the most iconic events at the Super Bowl, Formula One, and now they're launching off into some other events around the country."
Who the Players Are
Sports Illustrated Resorts is 100% exclusively licensed by Sports Hospitality Ventures across North America and the Caribbean. Sports Hospitality Ventures is a partnership among Experiential Ventures Hospitality, Kituwah and Authentic Brands Group.
Kituwah is the business entity of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which brings a capital commitment of $320 million to expand the Sports Illustrated Resorts brand.
Schroeder said Sports Hospitality Ventures will do everything from development to creating the brand to securing projects to ownership and sub-licensing.
Sports Hospitality Ventures has a joint-venture management company, but is also open to bringing on third-party managers for its hotels, Schroeder said, noting those partners must have significant experience in full-service hotels as well as food and beverage and conferences.
"One of our big focuses is rebrands. There's a lot of hotels out there that are looking to breathe some new life into them, and this is a great opportunity for rebrands. We are open to hotels that already are happy with their management company," he added.
Sports Illustrated Resorts will take an asset-light approach to financing development, Schroeder said, adding that a large network of investors make this an attractive strategy.
"Between ourselves and T+L, we don't have to own all properties. We'll have the ability to have other investors or owners," he added.
Cap Cana and Upcoming Properties
Schroeder said the Dominican Republic the ideal first location for Sports Illustrated Resorts because it is among the most active lifestyle destinations in the world.
The all-inclusive, 200-room Cap Cana resort near Punta Cana is home to a golf course, mountain biking trails and one of the top marinas in the Caribbean. The property is owned by Cap Cana Development, which Schroeder said is a strong partner.
All upcoming resort campuses will include a hotel, residential and vacation club offerings. For the latter, Travel + Leisure has acquired the rights to the Sports Illustrated vacation club business from Sports Hospitality Ventures.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, made sense for its first U.S. property due to being featured on the "Sports Illustrated" cover more than any other university. Travel + Leisure also named Tuscaloosa as one of the 25 best college towns this year.
Other locations that Sports Illustrated Resorts and Travel + Leisure are considering include Ann Arbor, Michigan, near the University of Michigan; and Athens, Georgia, near the University of Georgia. It also has a property slated for Orlando and is in talks with other major universities.
"I would anticipate over the next 12 months that you will see announcements for at least three or four major college [town] projects," Schroeder said.
The type of guests the company hopes to attract include sports teams, meetings and event-goers and locals who especially want to take part in watch parties and other entertainment on game days.
Properties will include a "Field of Dreams," which is a large area reminiscent of an indoor field with a food court, large TVs and space to gather.
In locations that experience cold-weather months, Schroeder said it's a plus to have that space built out for locals to get out of the house and still experience an indoor tailgate.
The sweet spot in terms of guest room count will be between 150 and 200, he added.
Schroeder hopes that having college-town resorts will serve as an advantage when staffing the properties.
"We really want to become part of the community and we're going to do a couple things, like tap into culinary schools and hospitality [schools], also into the schools of architecture and design," he said, adding this gives students the opportunity to work on an high-profile project.
Sports Illustrated Vacation Club, Condos
Travel + Leisure acquired the exclusive rights from Sports Hospitality Ventures in partnership to form vacation clubs at Sports Illustrated Resorts.
According to a news release, Sports Illustrated vacation club members will "receive flexible points-based currency to make repeat resort reservations and utilize offering from across the growing Sports Illustrated Resorts portfolio."
The release further states that Sports Illustrated residences will be fractional and wholly owned condos that are professionally managed through a partnership between Travel + Leisure Co. and Sports Hospitality Ventures.
"We work in partnership with them. Sports Illustrated Resorts will manage the hotels and all the amenities of the property. T+L will do their own sales and marketing for the vacation club. We all work very symbiotically; we'll have hotels and condos," Schroeder said.