Six months after the University of Utah board of trustees unanimously approved a measure to pursue a first-of-its-kind deal to partner with New York-based equity firm Otro Capital, the two parties have finalized a deal.
The deal creates Crimson Brand Partners, a for-profit entity within the university structure. Crimson Brand Partners will manage events, branding, and sponsorships, while athletics oversees coaching.a measure to pursue a first-of-its-kind deal to partner with New York-based equity firm Otro Capital, the two parties have finalized a deal that will infuse the university's athletic department with much-needed money and provide other strategic benefits for future growth.
The university announced Friday morning the deal was signed and will officially take effect with the new fiscal year, which starts on July 1. Financial details were not released Friday.
"This new company puts the University of Utah at the forefront of developing creative and strategic solutions to the financial challenges facing college athletics programs across the country," university president Taylor Randall said. "Utah will continue to lead out with unique and entrepreneurial ideas for keeping our Utes sports programs financially sustainable and foundational to the student experience.
" As part of the new private equity partnership — the first such deal inked with a university and likely a potential prototype for other universities around the country — Utah's athletics department will be split in two, with part of its operations moving into a for-profit company called Crimson Brand Partners. That for-profit company will operate within the university structure but be its own entity, with Utah controlling a majority share of ownership in the company.
Otro Capital will hold several seats on the board as a minority owner. Within Crimson Brand Partners, the company will oversee events at stadiums and arenas, branding, licensing and sponsorships, ticketing, and digital media; while the athletic department will continue to oversee coaching, recruiting, scheduling, athlete support and private fundraising.
The university has already begun its transition of several operations into the new company, with several of those prior jobs eliminated in the move, which was first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune. Though several positions were eliminated as part of the move, the university said many of the people impacted could be rehired within Crimson Brand Partners.
Crimson Brand Partners has brought on Matt Webb, a sports business executive who previously worked with the New Orleans Saints, to serve as CEO, where he will oversee the day-to-day operations, with Utah athletic director Mark Harlan chairing the company's board. Joining Webb in the leadership team will be Alex Schulte, who will serve as chief commercial officer after leadership roles with the Kansas City Royals, New Orleans Saints and Pelicans; Joel Adams, the chief ticketing officer who has several years of experience in professional leagues; and Garrett Best, who will serve as chief financial officer after 20 years in finance.
Utah's athletic department reported $4.69 million in revenue for the 2025 fiscal year , but face an uncertain future in the ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics. The House settlement that went into effect on July 1, 2025 meant Utah was on the hook for up to $20.5 million in revenue share to the athletes.
That, mixed with several other elements within collegiate athletics, left Utah to pursue a private equity deal to help provide stability and add an experienced partner to help "mentor" in future deals to provide added revenue.
"We weren't interested in pure capital, we were interested in a partner," Randall said in December. "So when you sit down and you're trying to find a partner, that's a very, very different process than just trying to find money. Right now there are millions upon millions of dollars flooding into athletics for dollars, so this is predicated on a set of individuals that are aligned with our values and aligned with our incentives.
" Utah's partnership with Otro Capital is not expected to be a long-term deal, with the expectation that the New York-based firm will exit in the next five to seven years; however, details of that future exit were not immediately provided. The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Big 12 chaos: On Yormark's next move, the Sorsby scrutiny, and the role of Fox and ESPNJosh is the sports director at KSL and beat writer covering University of Utah athletics — primarily football, men’s and women's basketball and gymnastics. He is also an Associated Press Top 25 voter for college football.
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