It\u2019s a bit inelegant to compare a 156-year-old Catholic university with a startup football league, but Mike Repole\u2019s relationship with the UFL is not entirely unlike his relationship with St. John\u2019s University, his alma mater in New York City.<\/p>\n
His wealth is the dominant source of funding for the NIL payments on the resurgent men\u2019s basketball team, which has spent most of this season in the AP Top 25 poll. He\u2019s an active, opinionated booster for basketball, but he also advises the university and athletic department on marketing, ticket sales, fundraising, licensing, concession sales and the overall brand and reputation of the university.<\/p>\n
Athletic Director Ed Kull met Repole as a junior sponsorship salesman for St. John\u2019s more than 25 years ago. As that relationship blossomed, he left to work for Repole at Vitaminwater. In late 2024, after Repole and the university had mended a falling out, the university recruited Kull away from Fordham. Today, they\u2019re lockstep as the university pursues a Final Four berth and a solution to enrollment declines. \u201cI very much look to him as a shareholder,\u201d said Kull. \u201cHe\u2019s a co-owner of our program.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time of intense change and challenges for the entire enterprise, and athletics specifically, at a mid-tier urban university, Repole\u2019s input would go for top dollar on the consultant market, said Kull. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world where, yes, Mike\u2019s generosity is a game changer for us right now, his mind in the business space is that much more valuable,\u201d Kull said.<\/p>\n
Along with Kull, Repole says he\u2019s routinely in touch with university President the Rev. Brian Shanley, head coach Rick Pitino and the players. In his rapid-fire style, Repole reminisces about his time as a teenager idolizing the St. John\u2019s teams of the 1980s, and how much he enjoys connecting with fans who are also enjoying the renaissance he\u2019s funded. Repole was courtside on Feb. 6, when St. John\u2019s beat favored UConn in front of a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden. He met two fans in their 60s, who said the St. John\u2019s resurgence has rekindled their friendship. \u201cI haven\u2019t felt like that in 30 years,\u201d Repole said. \u201cI mean, the buzz that was going on there, it was magical.\u201d<\/p>\n
He frames his involvement at St. John\u2019s in charitable, community terms. But he expects a return on investment. \u201cIf me or Rick [Pitino] said we\u2019d be happy winning a couple games in the tournament, that\u2019d be a lie. It\u2019s Final Four or bust.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a bit inelegant to compare a 156-year-old Catholic university with a startup football league, but Mike Repole\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4567,11979,12612,9,24,63,13296,122,124,123,67758],"class_list":["post-164824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-basketball","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-print","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-united-football-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}