tl;dr – This brand is starting to feel a little Graduate-esque.
Sports Illustrated Resorts has just announced its newest future location – Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Home to Louisiana State University (LSU), this is the brand’s third announced property in a city home to an SEC school. The brand’s first location will debut in Chicago, and previously announced locations include Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee.
Travel + Leisure Co. has the rights to the Sports Illustrated Resorts brand, and it plans to scale it to many more destinations. There’s a decent indicator of success in this model.
Evidently, Hilton’s Graduate Hotels – Hilton’s college town-focused brand – is doing pretty well. So much so that Hilton is launching an offshoot of the brand targeting even more niche college towns.
As Sports Illustrated is itself a brand name, the focus, at least on these first few properties, has been a bit more ‘grandiose’ when compared to Graduate Hotels. Even this Baton Rouge property – a conversion of a 291-key flagship Hilton hotel overlooking the Mississippi River – suggests that the project will be a bit showier. Reportedly, Shaq (LSU alum) is an investor.
Though it’s early, I could totally see another major player – Marriott comes to mind – making a move for this Sports Illustrated brand as a way to compete with Hilton’s Graduate Brand. There’s intrigue in that a would-be acquirer would be, again, getting a known-name – even if people don’t readily associate Sports Illustrated with hotels. I’m sure the folks at Travel + Leisure Co. have no shortage of resources for running Sports Illustrated Resorts well, but with the right real estate, franchising, development, marketing and distribution behind it, I could see this brand becoming enticing bait for some chain hoping to build the ‘go-to’ hotel brand for traveling sports fans.
