The University of Utah made their private equity deal official this past Thursday. After months of work behind the scenes, the school and its foundation, the University of Utah Growth Capital Partners Foundation, announced the finalization of their partnership with Otro Capital, a firm with advanced experience operating within sports, media and entertainment. Together, they’ve launched Crimson Brand Partners. This is a new commercial operating company that is built to generate sustainable revenue for Utah Athletics. The goal is to do so while keeping academic and research missions intact.
The company formally begins operations on July 1.
This isn’t a usual sponsorship deal. Crimson Brand Partners will take over commercial operations across Utah Athletics and the university. This includes events at Rice-Eccles Stadium and the Huntsman Center, branding, licensing, sponsorships, ticketing and digital media. Coaching, recruiting, facilities, student-athlete support and private fundraising stay with the university. The athletics department isn’t being sold. The structure is being professionalized.
University president, Taylor Randall, framed it with a short quote: “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.”
Athletics Director, Mark Harlan, who will chair Crimson Brand Partners’ board, was equally direct about the intent. The goal is to maximize revenue for Utah’s core programs while creating a structure that protects women’s and Olympic sports over the long haul. This has been a genuine concern across college athletics, especially as costs have continued to rise and revenue gaps have widened.
What does this mean for Utah?
The most immediate impact is stability. Utah Athletics supports 17 sports programs, and the financial pressure on programs outside of football and basketball has only grown in the NIL and revenue-sharing era. Crimson Brand Partners is designed to take some of that pressure off of the university’s balance sheet by building out commercial revenue streams the way a professional franchise would.
That comparison is intentional. Leading the new company as CEO is Matt Webb, who spent the last eight years as executive vice president of corporate partnerships with the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans. Before that, he built commercial platforms for the Cleveland Browns and the San Diego Padres. Webb has been consulting with the foundation since the partnership was first announced. Otro Capital played a central role in recruiting him to lead the venture full-time.
“Crimson Brands is being built to operate at the level you’d expect from a top professional franchise — across media, sponsorships, ticketing and fan experience,” Webb said. “Getting to lead that build is a rare opportunity, and it’s exactly the kind of challenge I came here for.”
Webb’s executive team reflects the same professional sports background. Chief Commercial Officer, Alex Schulte, brings over 15 years of experience with the Kansas City Royals, Saints, Pelicans, and NASCAR. Chief Ticketing Officer, Joel Adams, has nearly two decades in premium sales and revenue strategy across the NFL, NBA, and MLB, including stints with the Arizona Cardinals, LA Clippers, and Miami Dolphins. CFO Garrett Best rounds out the group with nearly 20 years of finance experience across public and private equity-backed organizations.
This isn’t a normal college athletics front office. It’s a professional sports operation that was brought into a university athletic department.
Possible impacts on U Athletics
In the short term, Crimson Brand Partners plans to integrate roughly 15 current Utah Athletics employees and expects to grow to around 70 people over time. The company will operate under oversight from the university’s foundation and its own board. They will be reporting annually to both the foundation and the Board of Trustees. Harlan and university leadership remain closely involved in this partnership.
The longer-term implications are significant. By building a dedicated commercial engine, Utah is betting on itself to grow revenue fast enough to reduce long-term debt risk, avoid cutting programs, and remain competitive in the Big 12 without putting financial pressure on the rest of the university. In the current collegiate athletics landscape, schools are scrambling to figure out how to pay athletes directly. This becomes a challenge while keeping non-revenue programs alive, it’s an important problem to solve.
The Board of Trustees authorized the partnership back on December 9, 2025. Nine months have passed, and now Crimson Brand Partners has a CEO, a leadership team and a start date.
Utah is banking on this being what the future of college athletics looks like. The U is taking a risk, but sometimes risk is exactly what’s needed.
