Premier League clubs are calling on the league to create a lending pool between $1.36 billion and $2.04 billion, so clubs can borrow money at cheaper rates than they get from banks and investment funds.

Clubs have leaned on banks such as Macquarie and Close Brothers to meet short-term obligations.

• Clubs use “factoring deals” in which they borrow against expected revenue, such as transfer fee payments. 
• Teams with smaller fan bases typically have less revenue and are at greater risk or relegation, and thus have to borrow at high rates. English clubs outside the Premier League are often reliant on soft loans from their owners.
• In March, MSD Partners, started by Dell Computer founder Michael Dell, lent $163.8 million to West Ham United at 9% interest, and $107.8 million to Southampton at 9.14%.

Premier League clubs collectively lost around $2.73 billion during the pandemic and held nearly $5.4 billion in net debt at the end of the 2019-2020 season. 

The league’s media deals with Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC Sport, and Amazon are worth roughly $7 billion in total and run through 2025. DAZN is in advanced talks to purchase BT Sport, with the Premier League serving as the primary motivation for the acquisition.

PepsiCo is set to raise its prices to offset the costs of supply chain issues, which include shortages of plastic bottles for Gatorade sports drinks. 

The food and beverage giant has dealt with higher transportation and commodity costs amid the pandemic and says it will likely integrate a price hike in the fiscal first quarter of 2022. Sales, however, remain strong. 

PepsiCo raised its full-year forecast for 2021 on Tuesday following an impressive third-quarter earnings report. Revenue jumped 11.6% year-over-year to $20.19 billion, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $19.39 billion.

It now expects total revenue this year to increase by 8%, up from a previous estimate of 6%.

• Gatorade holds a 67.7% market share of the U.S. sports drink market, per Euromonitor.
• The NBA renewed its official soft drink and chip partnership with PepsiCo earlier this year.
• In its last major acquisition, the company acquired Rockstar Energy in March 2020 for $3.85 billion.  

NBA superstar LeBron James finalized a multiyear endorsement deal with PepsiCo in March, leaving Coca-Cola after 17 years in a move first reported by Front Office Sports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Despite supply chain setbacks, PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston told Reuters a shortage of products like Gatorade at supermarkets is not expected.

Exercise equipment maker Technogym announced a deal with luxury designer Christian Dior in an effort to attract more high-end clients.

Starting in January, Technogym will sell co-branded treadmills, bench presses, and gym balls exclusively in Dior boutiques across the globe. The company has machines in around 80,000 fitness centers and 500,000 private homes worldwide.

Dior recently unveiled its 2022 spring-summer women’s collection, the Dior Vibe line, at its Cruise show in Athens. 

• The line includes athletic clothing items and a special Dior Vibe sneaker. 
• Designer Maria Grazia Chiuri said the company “understood the importance of sport during the pandemic.”

In July, painter Peter Doig extended his Dior collaboration with designer Kim Jones to create a capsule collection of ski wear, and in 2019, Dior partnered with Nike on a limited-edition sneaker — Dior has also collaborated with Nike on Air Jordan 1s. Earlier this month, Dior signed a two-year deal with soccer giant Paris Saint-Germain.

Dior recorded a 56% increase in year-over-year revenue for the first half of the year, with its parent company LVMH reaching $33.8 billion in revenue.

LVMH took control of Dior in $13.1 billion buyout in 2017.