Best Of: Jason Wright

[upbeat music] Most people still talk about women's sports as a movement. Our guest this episode runs a fund that treats it as something entirely different, one of the most undervalued asset classes in sports. In this episode, Caroline and Adam sit down with Jason Wright, managing partner at Project Level. If you follow the business of sports, you know the name. Jason spent seven years in the NFL as a running back. Then a labor lockout became his first real lesson in sports business. That lesson took him to business school, then to McKenzie, and eventually into the president's chair of the Washington Commanders, where he rebuilt a franchise from the inside out and helped clear a path back to RFK. Here's the thread that runs through the whole conversation. Jason doesn't treat women's sports as a cause. He treats it as an asset class, under-researched, overlooked, undervalued, and he brings an operator's eye to where the value is actually hiding. The new fan who never bought a men's ticket, the purpose-built stadium that quietly reshapes a team's entire capital stack, the mixed-use district that can out-earn the franchise next door. It's the right conversation for this show because Caroline and Adam meet Jason right at the intersection of sports, real estate, and revenue. And it also includes a little Northwestern student-athlete reunion in here too. I'm Bryce Clinton, and this is the "ROAR" podcast.

Welcome to the "ROAR" podcast. I'm your host, Caroline Balvardi, and with me today is Jason Wright, managing partner at Project Level. And today we also have a special format. We have Adam Grossman playing dual roles as both host and guest. Um, and the reason for this is we thought it'd be fun as we have two 2004 Northwestern grads and student athletes with us. So-

That's it

... welcome, Jason, and I guess kind of welcome, Adam. But, uh-

[chuckles] Go Cats.

As you know, is already a founder of ROAR, so yes.

That's Lake Michigan behind me right there. I'm in our Chicago office today, so.

Yeah. Lake Michigan's right down the street. The new Ryan Field's going up right across from where I am.

Excited.

Jason was a, obviously, star football player at the old Ryan Field, but, uh, very excited. We promised Caroline we'd limit our talk about Northwestern football, but you can't stop us.

Yeah. But I know, yeah, I'm not sure I can fulfill that promise.

We have, we have some time together, so we'll particularly focus on your college experience towards the beginning. Jason, how we often kick off these episodes, if you can tell us a bit about your career journey and how you ended up where you are today.

Yeah. I'll give you the, the quick highlights. And first of all, thank you for having me. It's a honor to be on with you all, especially all of us doing what I think is really cool and innovative stuff in the space to take advantage of what the momentum in all of sports investing as an asset class, but finding these pockets, whether it's sports-anchored real estate, the high ba- the high growth on small base in women's sports. It's just really exciting to be innovating alongside y'all. So thank you for having me. Quick background on me. I'm from Southern California, played