The success of Topgolf is spawning a new category of “sports entertainment” startups.

The baseball entertainment venue “Home Run Dugout” is poised to open its second location in Katy, Texas, on March 30th.

Like Topgolf, Home Run Dugout combines sports, food, and entertainment in one upscale setting and boasts Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan as a strategic investor.

Unlike the batting cages of old where you donned a rented helmet and tossed tokens into a batting machine, the 46,000-square-foot facility will feature “indoor soft-toss baseball” and several amenities:

• Full-service restaurant
• Three bars serving 20 craft beers
• 12 virtual-batting bays
• A “Biergarten Baseball” mini-field for wiffle ball
• Live music and concert stage
• Dog park

Co-founded by Nick Hermandorfer and Tyler Bambrick, Home Run Dugout won’t take aim at hardcore hardball and softball players — the new venue bills itself as the “Home of the 7 MPH Fastball.”

This will be Home Run Dugout’s first standalone venue following the maiden location at Dell Diamond minor league baseball stadium in Round Rock, Texas. 

The 76-year-old Ryan, who hurled a record seven no-hitters, is beloved in the Lone Star state after pitching for both Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. Other investors include Lagniappe Capital Partners and BCS Capital.

Topgolf, meanwhile, has grown to over 80 venues around the world. 

The company is set to open a new three-level venue later this year in Pompano Beach targeting Florida’s Gold Coast between Miami and West Palm Beach. 

During the first week of March Madness, four men’s and women’s top seeds were knocked out — the Purdue and Kansas men’s teams and the Stanford and Indiana women’s team.

Purdue was only the second men’s 1-seed in history to lose to a 16-seed. On the women’s side, Ole Miss and Miami made history, too — a women’s NCAA tournament hasn’t seen multiple 1-seeds lose before the Sweet 16 since 1998.

One-seed upsets on the women’s side are likely even more surprising than they are on the men’s — because of differences in the tournament setups. The men’s Rounds of 64 and 32 are played at neutral sites, but the women’s games are played at the home courts of the top 16 seeds. Miami and Ole Miss both upset their opponents on the road.

The structure has become a recent subject of debate.

Home-court rounds help the women’s tournament cut down on costs and ensure that games are played in places where fans are passionate about the women’s game, but women’s fans have begun to wonder whether a home-court advantage is unfair in the tournament. 

That’s part of why the NCAA decided to switch the Sweet 16 rounds from four sites to two this year: In addition to an improved atmosphere, the regionals are supposed to provide a more neutral environment (even though one of this year’s sites will be South Carolina, home state as the reigning champion Gamecocks).

Meanwhile, men’s fans have wondered whether on-campus games could be more electric. The 12-team College Football Playoff will test-drive the concept of early-round campus games in 2024.

The city of Anaheim may be reopening talks on a deal with the Angels that brought down its previous mayor.

Angels owner Arte Moreno plans to meet with Anaheim mayor Ashleigh Aitken — and while Moreno wouldn’t specify the nature of the meeting, the team and city have some major unfinished business.

Last year, the city agreed to sell Angel Stadium and the surrounding land for $320 million to a company controlled by Moreno, which planned to develop the land with housing, parks, and retail. 

In May, the city council unanimously voted to cancel the deal following corruption allegations against former mayor Harry Sidhu. Sidhu is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly passing confidential information to the team in the hopes of securing a hefty campaign donation.

The Angels lease runs until 2029, with a series of three-year options that can extend it to 2038, providing the team leverage in any potential talks. City council members have considered challenging the lease arrangement.

Moreno said he would sell the team following Sidhu’s resignation, but later reversed course after meeting with potential buyers. He recently claimed to have three offers north of $2.6 billion for the team, a sum which set an MLB record.

While the city could develop the land independently, doing so would require the Angels’ permission.

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks, who play in the nearby Honda Center, are beginning construction on a development that will include homes, offices, restaurants, shops, parks, and a concert hall.

A disruptive force in soccer ownership is looking to raise capital — and could be tapping one of sports’ most controversial ownership groups.

777 Partners has reportedly held preliminary talks with at least five different parties about financial investment per Bloomberg — including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns a majority stake in Newcastle United FC.

The Miami-based private equity firm also reportedly spoke with PCP Capital Partners, which helped broker the sale of Newcastle in 2021 and holds a minority stake in the club.

Bloomberg notes that the discussions are in very early stages and with no guarantee of any debt or equity being raised.

“We are not going to comment on any specific rumors,” a spokesperson for 777 Partners said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “That said, as part of the normal course of business at 777, we have many meetings with people in the business world as well as financial institutions. As part of those conversations there is inevitably some discussion around football.

We are thrilled with the current status of our football group, and if anything, these rumors are a testament to the strength of the portfolio we’ve built, our management team and the strong performance of so many of our clubs this season.”

After its high-profile acquisition of Genoa CFC — Italy’s oldest soccer club — in 2021, 777 Partners has made its name by investing in several clubs around the world.

• In Feb. 2022, it bought 70% of Brazilian side Vasco de Gama.
• Less than a month later, it acquired a controlling stake in Belgian club Standard Liège.
• 777 also owns France’s Red Star FC, a 15% stake in Spain’s Sevilla FC, and recently struck a deal for the option to acquire 70% of Australia’s Melbourne Victory FC within five years.

Earlier this year, the firm was in talks to invest in Premier League side Everton — but owner Farhad Moshiri has now said the club is not for sale.

777 hopes to be profitable by the 2023-24 soccer season on a collective $373 million in revenue across its portfolio of clubs.