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The National Thoroughbred League (NTL) is coming to one of the best sports cities in the United States.
Rappy Nelly has purchased the Seattle team and will move it to his native St. Louis, where it will aptly be called the Nellies.
“I’m excited to be part of bringing a new professional sports team to the city that means so much to me…” Nelly said in a statement to FOX Business. “I can’t wait to hit the track and celebrate with our incredible St. Louis fans.”
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Nelly performs onstage in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of “Country Grammar” on July 12, 2020, in Maryland Heights, Missouri. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation)
The horses will run at Fairmount Park in nearby Collinsville, Illinois, just 15 minutes across state lines – the historic racetrack is undergoing a $100 million renovation that NTL CEO Randall Lane said is sure to bring fans inside.
“You look at the Cardinals, St. Louis supports its teams and falls in love with its teams. We’ve talked to the mayor’s office about this and coordinated there. It’s a city that loves sports, that wants to support its teams, and Fairmount Park is 100 years old. It’s really historical, old track that they’re putting $100 million,” Lane said in a recent interview with FOX Business.
“We like going where there’s investment. We like going where there’s a century-old tradition of horse racing. But we wouldn’t have done this without Nelly spearheading it, because having local ownership, having somebody that’s so synonymous with the city to the point of even the name is so fun. I mean, the St. Louis Nellies. Almost all of our teams have horse-related names, but it’s both smart and speaks to the fact that we’re tyring to create a team that speaks to St. Louis itself.”
Randall Lane speaks during the unveiling of the National Thoroughbred League team names, logos and uniforms in the first equine fashion show at Public Square & Gardens at Hudson Yards on June 13, 2023, in New York City. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The National Thoroughbred League / Getty Images)
The NTL is backed by several high-profile athletes and celebrities, including Lamar Jackson, Julius “Dr. J.” Erving and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
“National Thoroughbred League is fun in that it’s taking a team sport perspective into a sport everyone already knows. It’s a glamorous sport, it’s a sport of kings. So it’s a sexy investment, and it’s a sexy league,” Lane said. “So it kind of appeals to people who are interested. But here, you’re playing in a sport that’s a $15 billion sport. They know what managing a team means, and these professional athletes accumulate fast wealth. Celebrities, movie stars, the idea of owning appeals to a lot of these folks who made a lot of money from other people paying them, and now, they want to be the owners.
“Professional athletes help make us better, because they understand what attracts crowds, what makes great competition. Music performers make us better since music has always been a part of NTL. They know what attracts crowds. These investors are more than just shiny names – they’re people who make us better… If you think about horse racing, fashion is part of horse racing, horse racing weekends have liquor throughout them. They have fashion throughout them, they have music throughout them. So he checks all the boxes in terms of making us better.”
To celebrate the move, Nelly will serve as host of the NTL’s Nelly Cup at the track on July 19 with a day full of racing, music by A Tribe Called Quest’s Jarobi White, and a Nelly-inspired fashion show.
The NTL has been breaking plenty of its own gate and betting records, and Lane thinks Nelly’s involvement will keep those patterns going.
The National Thoroughbred League unveils team names, logos and uniforms on June 13, 2023, in New York City. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The National Thoroughbred League / Getty Images)
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“What we want to do is be kind of an entryway for new fans to come in. We think we have a multi-hundred million, billion-dollar opportunity here,” Lane said. “We don’t have to invent a billion-dollar sport – we just have to be a force within that sport to create new excitement, more fans, which obviously benefits the NTL, but it benefits all of thoroughbred racing.
“Because if we can bring new fans in, bring casual fans in more frequently, have people start following thoroughbred racing more actively, we’re doing something that’s great for the sport, while hopefully creating something that’s very valuable for our investors and something that’s super fun and valuable for our fans.”
