Ichiro's Favorite American Expression

Plus: Tony Romo in space, Fanatics economics, and a very very old signature

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. On Saturdays we hit the biggest stories of the week, and the news that left us scratching our heads….

The Sportico Story of the Week 📈: Four years ago, Fanatics was a profitable e-commerce business that was ubiquitous in sports and appeared on the verge of IPO. Instead of staying on that course, CEO Michael Rubin aggressively expanded into trading cards, sports betting (and for a short time, NFTs), all part of a push to become a one-stop platform for anything a sports fan might want to buy.

As a privately-held company, Fanatics doesn’t typically offer up much financial info. But in the wake of downgrades from credit agencies, company CFO Glenn Schiffman walked me and Brendan Coffey through a lot of their topline info. The company did $8.1 billion in revenue in 2024, he said, with about $400 million in outstanding debt and nearly $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet. Our story broke down the debt and profitability of its three main business units—trading cards, betting and e-commerce—and also IPO possibilities. If you’re curious about one of our industry’s most polarizing companies, I recommend it.

The Non-Sportico Story of the Week 🎙️: I loved this Awful Announcing story from Sean Keeley about internet creators that are making money impersonating sportscasters. It focuses mainly on Henry Marken, an aspiring play-by-play broadcaster who pivoted to comedy, then found a niche blending the two. This is him doing Romo and Collinsworth 👇

Marken, 25, has expanded the bit into what Keeley calls a Tony Romo-Cris Collinsworth Cinematic Universe (TRCCCU). Here’s the pair in the 2014 movie Interstellar 👇

Marken says he’ll get around $500 for a video that gets 500,000+ views. He has brand deals with HelloFresh, Max and Dr. Squatch soap, among others; does videos for pay on Cameo; and recently auditioned for Saturday Night Live. What a world.

What Made Me Laugh 🤡: This post 👇