Jefferson Dafydd on Growth Sports and Commercial Intelligence

The business of sports has long been dominated by established leagues and globally recognized clubs, but a new category is reshaping the global economy. Investors are backing women’s sports at record levels, emerging professional leagues are attracting institutional capital, and participation-led sports are evolving into spectator properties. These organizations, often referred to as Growth Sports, represent one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry, yet they present a unique challenge: how to evaluate them.

Traditional metrics like attendance and sponsorship revenue remain useful, but they rarely provide a complete picture. According to Jefferson Dafydd, Senior Advisor, Growth Sports at Team Advisory Group (TAG), the industry’s focus is shifting away from what organizations have already achieved toward what they are capable of becoming. “For years we’ve measured what organizations have already achieved,” Dafydd says. “Increasingly, executives, investors, and advisors want to understand what an organization is capable of becoming.”

Unlike legacy franchises with decades of commercial infrastructure, Growth Sports organizations are often developing sponsorship programs, ticketing models, premium experiences, and governance structures while simultaneously scaling their audiences. This rapid development creates opportunity, but it also exposes weaknesses. A league may experience surging audiences while lacking the commercial systems required to support national sponsors. Investors may find themselves comparing organizations using inconsistent or incomplete data.

“The sports industry has become incredibly sophisticated,” Dafydd explains. “Yet many emerging organizations are still evaluated using metrics that don’t fully explain their long-term commercial potential.” As capital flows into the sector, there is a growing need for more robust intelligence. Experience Informed by Collective Intelligence

Instead of relying solely on traditional consulting models, TAG operates as a collective of senior executives with experience across professional leagues, teams, governing bodies, and commercial partnerships. The group has negotiated sponsorships, launched franchises, developed ticketing strategies, and managed media rights across major sports properties. That experience remains essential, but today’s market requires current intelligence. By combining executive experience with continuously updated benchmarking and comparative analysis, advisors gain a clearer view of how organizations perform relative to peers.

Foundations Over Viral Moments

Experienced executives understand that sustainable growth is rarely the result of a single successful season. Championships create momentum, star athletes drive attention, and viral moments generate visibility. But long-term enterprise value is built on less visible foundations: leadership, commercial strategy, operational discipline, audience development, and revenue diversification. These capabilities often determine whether short-term momentum becomes lasting commercial success. Increasingly, they are also becoming measurable.

In response, TAG developed the Growth Sports Index™, a proprietary intelligence platform designed to monitor, benchmark, and evaluate more than 1,000 emerging and fast-growing sports organizations globally. Rather than focusing solely on financial outcomes, the platform assesses the underlying capabilities that drive sustainable growth, including commercial infrastructure, audience development, participation depth, organizational strength, and market momentum. The resulting insights—Growth Sports Intelligence™—provide benchmarking, diagnostics, and comparative analysis designed to support more informed strategic decisions.

As the dataset expands, patterns begin to emerge. Organizations that outperform peers often share similar traits long before revenue catches up: more structured commercial assets, disciplined pricing, improved sponsor servicing, specialized leadership, and measurable audience engagement. Collectively, these changes signal an organization becoming more investable. “Commercial growth isn’t usually the result of one transformational decision,” Dafydd says. “It’s the accumulation of hundreds of operational improvements working together.”

For advisors, this approach strengthens recommendations. For investors, it improves due diligence. For organizations, it provides objective perspective during periods of rapid growth. Despite working across a wide range of sports properties, TAG consistently encounters the same core questions: How does our commercial model compare to similar organizations? Where should we prioritize investment? What capabilities must we strengthen before pursuing national sponsors? These questions extend beyond sponsorship and increasingly influence enterprise value.

As Growth Sports matures into a recognized investment category, commercial readiness is becoming as important as on-field performance. The organizations that create the greatest long-term value are usually preparing for tomorrow’s opportunities before today’s success requires them to. “The opportunity isn’t simply helping organizations generate more revenue,” Dafydd explains. “It’s helping them build businesses capable of sustaining that growth for decades.” As the sector continues to evolve, demand will rise for objective intelligence and experienced advisors capable of translating insight into action. In an industry increasingly defined by innovation, understanding how organizations are built may ultimately matter as much as how they perform.

The shift toward evaluating the underlying business potential of emerging leagues requires new tools. Advisors can utilize full risk management strategies to ensure sustainable growth and avoid pitfalls associated with rapid expansion. Similarly, the concept of globalization continues to evolve, presenting both challenges and opportunities for leagues looking to extend their reach beyond local markets.