Sports and entertainment strategy firm Elevate is set to acquire Intersect Partners, stakeholders in the deal told Sports Business Journal.
The acquisition, which is slated to be announced on Friday, centers on Elevate’s desire to further cement itself in the college space, particularly around naming rights and premium sponsorships.
Exact details of the merger were not disclosed at press time, though the two sides are in the formal closing process.
“If you think about our evolution in the college space and focus on maximizing revenue and optimizing revenue streams across the board for our college partners, this was just a natural evolution,” Elevate College Chief Business Officer Jonathan Marks told Sports Business Journal.
Originally founded by veteran college sports executive Owen Shull in 2016, Intersect has generated over $180M in college venue naming rights sales over the last five-plus years. The company’s clients have included Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Washington State and a number of Group of Six schools.
Intersect was already in the market with 10 college naming rights deals at the time of the acquisition, Shull said.
“Our agency was certainly small and we had the capability to do these deals,” he told SBJ. “We believe joining Elevate gives us the resources and the people to do not only the deals that we have on the table, but much more of them and do them the right way.
“These deals are complex. They take a long time. They’re anywhere from 8-12 months oftentimes in getting them stood up. We need the right resources to do it the right way. and so we weren’t looking to be acquired.
Shull, who last served as the company’s CEO, will report to Chief Partnership Officer Craig Martin, while his four-person team will join other Elevate staffers that were previously dedicated to college sales.
“We’ve seen a massive shift in the college space,” Martin told SBJ. “... It’s ever changing, ever growing into a little bit more of a professionalized operation. As we sat down with Owen, his institutional knowledge and success on the college side blended with our obviously big five pro experience, both domestic and then globally.”
