What is BotGate?!
“KELLY: So this is bananas, this story.”
“FOLKENFLIK: Bananas.”
-NPR
Well.... Sports Illustrated recently found itself in a “bot” of trouble. The story, first reported by Maggie Harrison at Futurism, revealed that the magazine was using AI-generated authors and content for their articles. Writers like Drew Ortiz and Sora Tanaka were complete fabrications, with AI-generated profiles and headshots. The Arena Group, which manages Sports Illustrated, initially dodged the issue but eventually blamed AdVon Commerce, their content provider.
The Arena Group licenses the rights to Sports Illustrated content from Authentic Brands Group. Authentic Brands Group is named in the FOIA and was slated for a Sept 18, 2023 meeting in Clearwater, FL to review the proposed Kline Lot project. While no attendees list was provided, the confirmation of the schedule was signed off on by both Dohoney and Jones when on Aug 23, 2023 at 8:33 AM Dohoney emailed Khimberli Jones:
“It looks like our direction is taking shape. Let Odis know that I won’t be here Sept 6th or 7th but that meeting can go on with our dept reps. They know a date is coming, and we will secure a space here in City Hall for folks to talk once you confirm the date.”
For the meeting, the FOIA states:
Sept 18 – Meeting with ABG
Location: Clearwater
Goal to share proof of concept at Michigan
LJC (Lamar Johnson Collaborative) to fold in Massing, plans, renderings to EVH (Experiential Ventures Hospitality) deck
In June of 2022, it was reported that Clearwater, FL was to be the Global Headquarters of Sports Illustrated Resorts. Clearwater is also the headquarters of Chairman & CEO Chris Schroeder’s Experiential Ventures Hospitality and Sports Hospitality Ventures.
Additionally, ABG is listed as a development partner on EVH’s website, and on Nov 28, 2023 Santul Nerkar and Kevin Draper at the New York Times reported that, “In 2019, the media conglomerate Meredith sold Sports Illustrated’s intellectual property to the Authentic Brands Group. It also sold a 10-year license to publish Sports Illustrated to TheMaven, which has since been rebranded as the Arena Group. According to financial filings, Arena pays Authentic Brands $15 million annually for the right to operate Sports Illustrated.
Authentic Brands’ business model mostly involves buying fashion brands that are down on their luck or in bankruptcy — Brooks Brothers, Aéropostale, Forever 21 — and then shedding legacy commitments, cutting costs and operating the brand while banking on its name recognition.
The Sports Illustrated brand has been attached to nutritional supplements, and the chief executive of Authentic Brands once envisioned Sports Illustrated-branded medical clinics.”
On Oct 6, 2023, The Arena Group also finalized being acquired by the 5-Hour energy founder, and long time Farmington Hills, MI, resident Manoj Bhargava. After BotGate, he appointed himself interim CEO and, according to Front Office Sports, in an recent all-hands meeting told his team:
“No one is important,” Bhargava told staffers, per one source on hand for the presentation. “I am not important. … The amount of useless stuff you guys do is staggering.”
The meeting lasted more than 90 minutes, and Bhargava joked at one point, “Did anyone bring any 5-Hour [Energy drink]?”
Other highlights from Bhargava’s comments during the town hall:
A rant about recycling being “useless.”
He told employees they should “stop doing dumb stuff.”
He declared “PowerPoints are illegal” because such presentations are a waste of time.
In her article, Harrison also calls out, “But now that it's under the management of The Arena Group, parts of the magazine seem to have devolved into a Potemkin Village in which phony writers are cooked up out of thin air, outfitted with equally bogus biographies and expertise to win readers' trust, and used to pump out AI-generated buying guides that are monetized by affiliate links to products that provide a financial kickback when readers click them.”
Adding, “Basic scrutiny shows that the quality of the AI authors' posts is often poor, with bizarre-sounding language and glaring formatting discrepancies.” Read the rest of the article by Harrison on Futurism.
“Their Hard Rock Moment”
Other Investors: Kituwah, LLC & EBCI
On Feb 3, 2023, it was reported by Johan Lossiah in the Cherokee One Feather that:
“CHEROKEE, N.C. – Kituwah, LLC will be investing more than $300 million over the next four years in a deal that will see them become part owners and operators of Sports Illustrated Resorts.
The deal will see Kituwah, LLC invest $75 million per year for the next four years, with each of those installments going toward an individual new resort that will be built from the ground-up. The enterprise will also be investing $7 million in initial equity, giving them 37.4 percent in effective equity partnership and 50 percent control of Sports Illustrated (SI) Resorts. That percentage makes Kituwah, LLC the largest equity holder in SI Resorts.
The final part of the deal are two loans that Kituwah, LLC is offering to the business to assist with the launch of the brand. One is a $5 million loan that has a two-year grace period and a 12 percent interest rate. The other is $4 million and an 8 percent interest rate but has no grace period.
Mark Hubble, chief executive officer of Kituwah, LLC, said that this could be a watershed moment for the company and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).
“Since another tribe obtained a worldwide brand, which was the Hard Rock with the Seminole Tribe, this tribe has actively looked for a brand that they could develop. It’s taken a lot of connections and a lot of time, but I think this is their Hard Rock moment. I think our brand is at least as strong a brand as the other major brands that are out there, including Hard Rock. It is the most trusted name in sports…so, the brand name is Sports Illustrated Resorts,” said Hubble.
The primary partner in operation is Experiential Ventures. They describe themselves as ‘a team of hospitality, food and beverage, branding , retail, design, entertainment and real estate leaders who have worked with some of the most iconic brands in the world’. Those brands include Condé Nast, Emmitt Smith, and The GARAGE.”
Lossiah also reported on their End Goals stating:
“Sports Illustrated Resorts looks to build their brand as fast as possible. According to Hubble, the goal is to establish a significant base over the next three to five years. This is evidenced by the strategy of continuing to build and rebrand new resorts while other projects are under construction.
He said that one of the most unique aspects of this deal is the ability to go public. He said that even if Authentic doesn’t decide to go public with Sports Illustrated, SI Resorts will have the option. Hubble said that is quite unusual for a deal like this.
“We could take that public. If we do, that’s a multi-billion-dollar transaction. That’s probably going to happen within the first 10 years. I don’t like to use those forward-looking statements, but that brand will have so much value.”
Authentic will have the ability of exercising a warrant option in the case that SI Resorts does go public, and that would result in a 2 percent dilution. That number was reduced down from 5 percent in the final agreements. Authentic accepted 5 percent equity upfront as part of the deal to reduce their claim to warrants.
This deal greatly increases Kituwah, LLC’s footprint. In a report to Tribal leadership, the company stated that they will be making their first dividend distribution to the EBCI in the first quarter of 2023. That same report claims that those dividends are expected to grow to $5 million annually during this year.
SI Resorts will be looking to build every year and will likely be rebranding other resorts at a similar frequency. Hubble said that he is excited to announce each of these deals as they cross the line and will continue to offer updates as the company grows.”
Read the full article by Johan Lossiah in the Cherokee One Feather.
Travel + Leisure
(Wyndham Destinations)
Travel + Leisure Co. reports third quarter 2023 results:
October 25, 2023 06:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Travel + Leisure Co. (NYSE:TNL), the world’s leading membership and leisure travel company, today reported third quarter 2023 financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2023. Highlights and outlook include:
Net income of $110 million, $1.49 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, on net revenue of $986 million
Adjusted EBITDA of $248 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.54 (1)
Updates full year adjusted EBITDA guidance range to $900 million to $915 million
Repurchased $267 million of common stock in the first nine months of 2023, including $65 million in the third quarter
Management will recommend a fourth quarter dividend of $0.45 per share for approval by the Board of Directors
Executed $300 million term securitization on October 19, 2023, and renewed ABS conduit facility through September 2025
Acquired the rights to the vacation ownership business of Sports Hospitality Ventures to launch a network of future sports-themed resort and lifestyle complexes under the Sports Illustrated Resorts Brand
“The year-over-year growth of our cornerstone vacation ownership business continues to demonstrate the strength of our business model and the desire from our owners to vacation with us. Sales volume per guest was once again at the high end of our guidance range for the quarter and vacation ownership revenue increased 8% year-over-year,” said Michael D. Brown, president and CEO of Travel + Leisure Co.
“On the strategic front, our acquisition of the rights to the vacation ownership business of Sports Hospitality Ventures sets the stage for future growth as we build out a new network of sports-themed destinations in popular college towns and leisure destinations under the Sports Illustrated Resorts brand, starting in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.”
Sports Illustrated Resorts Agreement
On September 11, 2023, we entered into an agreement to acquire the rights to the vacation ownership business of Sports Hospitality Ventures, LLC (“SHV”), a hotel and resorts licensee for the Sports Illustrated brand. Together with SHV, we introduced a new concept for a network of sports-themed resort and lifestyle complexes in popular college towns and leisure destinations. The new resorts are anticipated to be developed using an asset-light development financing model. The first resort in the new business line is expected to open in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in late 2025. There is no immediate earnings impact for us, but we expect this business to drive incremental growth starting in the second half of 2025.