Travel + Leisure Co. and Sports Hospitality Ventures, LLC Plan
Resort Campuses with Hotel, Residential, and Vacation Club
Offerings
- Travel + Leisure Co. acquired the rights to the vacation
ownership business of Sports Hospitality Ventures, LLC
- The most celebrated name in sports to deliver a tailored,
sports-centric environment, with immersive experiences, exciting
entertainment and cuisine, and unique accommodations, integrating
nearly 70 years of legendary content from Sports Illustrated
- Tuscaloosa, Ala., home to the University of Alabama, chosen as
the first location for Sports Illustrated’s line of college town
resorts with plans to open in late 2025
Travel + Leisure Co. (NYSE:TNL), the world’s leading membership
and leisure travel company, and Sports Hospitality Ventures, LLC,
hotel and resorts licensee for the Sports Illustrated brand across
North America and the Caribbean, introduced a new concept for a
network of future sports-themed resort and lifestyle complexes
located in popular college towns near universities with devoted fan
bases.
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the full release here:
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Every Sports Illustrated Resorts campus
is expected to feature a full-service hotel, a vacation club, and
residential condominiums – all of which will share a unique,
cohesive design that immerses guests and owners in iconic moments
from nearly 70 years of Sports Illustrated content. (Photo:
Business Wire)
Every Sports Illustrated Resorts campus is expected to feature a
full-service hotel, a vacation club, and residential condominiums –
all of which will share a unique, cohesive design that immerses
guests and owners in iconic moments from nearly 70 years of Sports
Illustrated content. All resort campuses will also include a host
of branded, one-of-a-kind attractions from live action sports and
entertainment to quality dining, wellness, and relaxation. In
addition to the planned university locations, the broader portfolio
of properties is expected to include chic beach clubs and
experience parks located in leading leisure destinations.
“Sports Illustrated Resorts are about hospitality, lifestyle,
leisure and entertainment where we celebrate not only the legacy of
Sports Illustrated, but the path it is on now, by immersing our
guests in sports culture and providing the best entertainment,
cuisine, fitness, health and wellness to our guests,” said
Christopher Schroeder, CEO of Sports Hospitality Ventures, LLC.
“People are seeking differentiated experiences that allow them to
be more active and participatory, and Sports Illustrated Resorts
are delivering the ultimate experiences for guests through the
hospitality destinations we are creating.”
Sports Illustrated Resorts
Sports Illustrated Resorts is developing a vibrant, exciting,
and interactive experience that celebrates the legacy of 70 years
of Sports Illustrated through several different product types to
meet a vast array of market interests. From its larger format
resorts complete with interactive experience parks, to college town
resorts, to chic, boutique beach clubs, Sports Illustrated Resorts
is focused on opening properties in major leisure destinations,
high traffic urban centers, university towns, and sports and
entertainment districts.
The first Sports Illustrated Resorts property opened in 2022 in
Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic. Cap Cana is located in one of
the largest and most exclusive resort developments in the Western
Hemisphere, offering an array of activities and area amenities,
including golf, sportfishing, scuba diving, snorkeling, horseback
riding, water sports, ziplining, biking, hiking and more.
The first major Sports Illustrated Resorts college town
destination will be in Tuscaloosa, the home of the University of
Alabama. This property will capture the essence of sports and
active lifestyle, complete with a full-service hotel, vacation
ownership club, signature SI Fit Health/Wellness Center,
world-class dining, entertainment and more.
Sports Illustrated Resorts vacation club
A brand-new product, the vacation club will bring loyal fans and
their friends and families together by elevating their
accommodation experience even further. For the cost of an initial
membership, Sports Illustrated vacation club members will receive
flexible points-based currency to make repeat resort reservations
and utilize offerings from across the growing Sports Illustrated
Resorts portfolio.
Travel + Leisure Co. is leveraging its expertise in managing
multiple brand partnerships for the development, distribution, and
management for the new Sports Illustrated vacation club
product.
“We’re excited to be working with the Sports Hospitality
Ventures team to create a custom club experience for passionate
sports fans,” said Geoff Richards, chief operating officer of
vacation ownership at Travel + Leisure Co. “Our vision for this
entirely new vacation club is to provide members a unique
opportunity to totally immerse themselves in gameday life with a
piece of their favorite college town, plus flexibility to travel
away with their team and beyond.”
Through the assistance of Wolfson Partners LLC, and in
partnership with Sports Hospitality Ventures and Authentic Brands
Group, a brand development, marketing and entertainment company and
owner of the Sports Illustrated brand, Travel + Leisure Co.
acquired the rights to the vacation ownership business for Sports
Illustrated and will develop and operate the sales and marketing of
the new Sports Illustrated vacation club, as well as certain Sports
Illustrated residential condominiums.
Sports Illustrated residences
Sports Illustrated residences will be fractional and wholly
owned condominiums professionally managed through a partnership
between Travel + Leisure Co. and Sports Hospitality Ventures, to
deliver the signature services and amenities offered by Sports
Illustrated Resorts to owners designed to support an active
lifestyle.
First resort planned at the University of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa
The companies also announced that the first location for the
line of planned college town resorts in the Sports Illustrated
Resorts network will be in Tuscaloosa, Ala., situated across the
Black Warrior River from the University of Alabama.
As an institution steeped in rich sports history and tradition,
the University of Alabama has been featured on the Sports
Illustrated cover more than any other university. This year,
Tuscaloosa was named by Travel + Leisure as one of the 25 best
college towns in the U.S.
Leveraging strong partnerships as the resort network
grows
Sports Hospitality Ventures, under license from Authentic Brands
Group (Authentic), launched Sports Illustrated Resorts in 2022 to
create new premium, lifestyle resort and entertainment
destinations.
Kituwah LLC, the business entity of the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians, a federally recognized tribe, bring a wealth of
hospitality, development, and market knowledge as partners of
Sports Hospitality Ventures, in addition to a capital commitment of
$320 million to expand the Sports Illustrated Resorts brand.
“The Cherokee cultural values have been at the core of our
mission at Kituwah LLC since the beginning of this exciting
partnership,” said Mark Hubble, CEO of Kituwah LLC. “We look
forward to sharing the concepts that have existed in harmony for
millennia to the world through the support of the experienced
partners we have assembled in this endeavor.”
As the companies begin work on the planned Tuscaloosa resort
campus, additional college town destinations are expected to be
announced in the future.
“This project is a tangible demonstration of our multi-brand
strategy to grow our business with new exciting partnerships,” said
Michael D. Brown, president and CEO of Travel + Leisure Co. “As the
world’s leading membership and leisure travel company, we are
uniquely positioned to be able to partner with brands and
hospitality companies to develop customized vacation club products
for their customers.”
The new resorts are anticipated to be developed using an
asset-light development financing model. It is expected that the
Tuscaloosa resort will open in late 2025. There is no immediate
earnings impact for Travel + Leisure Co., but the company expects
this business to drive incremental growth starting in the second
half of 2025.
To learn more about the Sports Illustrated Resorts portfolio,
visit https://travelandleisureco.com/si.
About Sports Hospitality
Ventures
Sports Hospitality Ventures is a partnership including
Experiential Ventures Hospitality, Authentic Brands Group, and
Kituwah, LLC, and is focused on expanding the Sports Illustrated
Resorts brand through sublicensing, rebranding, joint ventures and
development. Presently, Sports Hospitality Ventures has multiple
projects throughout the United States and the Caribbean.
About Travel + Leisure
Co.
As the world’s leading membership and leisure travel company,
Travel + Leisure Co. (NYSE:TNL) transformed the way families
vacation with the introduction of the most dynamic points-based
vacation ownership program at Club Wyndham, and the first vacation
exchange network, RCI. The company delivers more than six million
vacations each year at 245+ timeshare resorts worldwide, through
tailored travel and membership products, and via Travel + Leisure
GO - the signature subscription travel club inspired by the pages
of Travel + Leisure magazine. With hospitality and responsible
tourism at the heart of all we do, our 19,500+ dedicated associates
bring out the best in people and places around the globe. We put
the world on vacation. Learn more at travelandleisureco.com.
About Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated (SI) is an unparalleled and influential
leader recognized for shaping modern culture and uniting athletes,
teams and fans worldwide. At the intersection of sports, lifestyle
and entertainment, Sports Illustrated is a 360-degree enterprise
that delivers immersive content, innovative digital experiences,
unforgettable events, and original products. Its award-winning
media arm brings powerful storytelling to life through probing
profiles and up-to-date news on SI.com, across social media
platforms and through the monthly print magazine. The most trusted
name in sports transcends media through SI Tickets, a fan-first
ticketing platform, SI Sportsbook, a digital sports betting
platform, SI Studios, the brand’s home for film, TV, and long form
audio adaptations of SI’s thought-provoking storytelling, and more.
SI brings its unique and authentic perspective to marquee events
and captivating brand activations including The Sportsperson of the
Year Awards, “The Party”, SI Swimsuit Launch Weekend and the SI
Circuit Series.
For more information, visit SI.com.
Follow Sports Illustrated on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and
Facebook.
Forward looking statements
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” as that
term is defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Forward-looking statements are any statements other than statements
of historical fact, including statements regarding our
expectations, beliefs, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding
the future. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be
identified by the use of words such as “will,” “expects,” “plans,”
“anticipates,” “potential,” “future,” or other words of similar
meaning. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results of Travel + Leisure
Co. and its subsidiaries (“Travel + Leisure Co.” or “we”) to differ
materially from those discussed in, or implied by, the
forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a
difference include, but are not limited to, risks associated with:
the future prospects and plans for Travel + Leisure Co., including
our ability to execute our strategy to successfully identify,
develop and finance locations for Sports Illustrated Resorts
vacation club and residences on reasonable terms, at a reasonable
cost and on the timeline we expect, as well as successfully market
and sell the new products to consumers; our ability to compete in
the highly competitive timeshare and leisure travel industries,
including through Sports Illustrated Resorts vacation club; the
health of the travel industry and declines or disruptions caused by
adverse economic conditions (including inflation, higher interest
rates, and recessionary pressures), terrorism or acts of gun
violence, political strife, war (including hostilities in Ukraine),
pandemics, and severe weather events and other natural disasters;
adverse changes in consumer travel and vacation patterns, consumer
preferences and demand for our products; increased or unanticipated
operating costs and other inherent business risks; our ability to
comply with financial and restrictive covenants under our
indebtedness; our ability to access capital and insurance markets
on reasonable terms, at a reasonable cost or at all; maintaining
the integrity of internal or customer data and protecting our
systems from cyber-attacks; uncertainty with respect to potential
resurgences of the novel coronavirus global pandemic (“COVID-19”);
and those other factors disclosed as risks under “Risk Factors” in
documents we have filed with the SEC, including in Part I, Item 1A
of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on February 22, 2023. We
caution readers that any such statements are based on currently
available operational, financial and competitive information, and
they should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which reflect management’s opinion only as of the date
on which they were made. Except as required by law, we undertake no
obligation to review or update these forward-looking statements to
reflect events or circumstances as they occur.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230920473331/en/
Media - Travel + Leisure Co. Steven Goldsmith
407-626-5882 steven.goldsmith@travelandleisure.com
Sports Hospitality Ventures Jeff Cohen
jeffc@siresorts.com
Investors - Travel + Leisure Co. Christopher Agnew
407-626-4050 christopher.agnew@travelandleisure.com
Kituwah Global Marketing & Brand Management
Christopher McCoy, President chris.mccoy@kituwahllc.com
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