As a young man, Mike Repole dreamed of a career in sports management. He envisioned one day he would manage a major sports franchise or coach a college basketball team. Instead, the billionaire entrepreneur became a part-owner of the UFL with the goal of properly relaunching the league for long term success.
The first in his family to attend college, Repole grew up the son of Italian immigrants in Queens, New York. Despite those lofty goals, it still took him five years to graduate from St. John’s University. He spent another 18 months living at home while stocking shelves for Mistic Beverages. But Repole wisely used that time to figure out where he could make a difference. Less than ten years later, he co-founded the beverage empire, Glaceau. By 2007, his best-selling brands, Vitaminwater and Smartwater, had become household names, and Coca-Cola bought Glaceau for $4.1 billion.
After that, Repole went from success to success launching BodyArmour Superdrink, a sports beverage intended to challenge the number one selling Gatorade. When that company also began to flourish under the hands of Repole, Coca-Cola invested, eventually acquiring full ownership in 2021 for $5.6 billion.
Repole next turned his attention to other industries, including sports apparel, snack foods, and professional horse racing, launching the very successful Repole Stables. What each of these successful brands has in common is Repole’s gift for successfully marketing and promoting these businesses.
Repole, A Proven Talent For Marketing and Promotion
With a keen understanding of his customer base and how to grow the market share, Repole has gone from strength to strength. Turning his attention to snack foods, he became the largest investor in Pirate’s Booty in 2009. As Chairman of the Board, Repole was instrumental in growing the company’s market share by 300% in under five years. In 2013, the company was sold to B&G Foods for $195 million.
Now, Repole is bringing his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen to the United Football League. He is not content to be a silent investor. As a passionate sports fan himself, Repole recognizes that despite the 2025 downturn in attendance and TV ratings, the UFL has a great deal of potential. Despite a chaotic start to the season hammering out the C.B.A. and addressing multiple coaching changes, the quality of the games improved. Fans were treated to thrilling star-making performances, amid a heightened competitive atmosphere.
Nonetheless, a lack of proper marketing and poor venue choices led to a disgruntled fan base and a loss of revenue. Repole has vowed to improve the situation and promised that “the new United Football League will focus on fun, family, friends, community, and explosive action-packed high-quality football.”
Providing an update via X recently, Repole doubled down on his pledge to increase fan attendance for 2026 and grow the league for the long term. To counter the historically poor optics of UFL teams playing in mostly empty stadiums, Repole is determined to find alternative locations. He believes the fan experience can be substantially improved and sees attending UFL games as a more fun, family-friendly environment. To that end, Repole and his team are building a strategic partnership with Major League Soccer to share the smaller, livelier MLS venues.
In addition, Repole knows the value of celebrity endorsements and alliances. The late Kobe Bryant was one of his first investors in BodyArmour Superdrink. When he launched the company, Repole sought celebrity endorsements from James Harden, Rob Gronkowski, and Richard Sherman to promote the product. Trust that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will become a much more visible presence in 2026 and that Repole will call upon his stable of celebrity friends to create a positive buzz.
Longtime fans of spring football have repeatedly been let down and left with a lot of empty promises and unfulfilled expectations. However, having Repole take the lead on relaunching the UFL suggests that this time, the fans can count on the league having a real sustained chance for success.
5 Comments
by 4th&long
Nothing is proven till its done, but Repole has the track record. He’s a NYer and outspoken, something sorely needed by the UFL.
He’s also a business man, like Gerry C, but not nearly as spread out.
Been deeply disappointed that the league throws Dany G out there, she’s not good, borderline cringe – I’m being generous. DG couldn’t even get The Rock involved, without the Rock, they don’t need DG. They need a real business person and a spokes person. DG cringy, Russ wetblanket, D Johnston good talking on the FB side but not a business man. Now with Repole they have one.
Can they get celebrity involvement? If the Rock is MIA in 2026 please stop mentioning him and show DG the door, UFL needs serious people.
The UFL needs local media (tv/radio), press, podcasters, etc… from the outside and promotion, interviews, events, presence from the league.
We’ll see what Repole can do, so far I’m liking what I see.
by 4th&long
I have not seen any reports of working with MLS. Perhaps individual teams. The Detroit soccer team is not MLS its USL.
by Ken Granito
I have often felt that Darryl Johnston had offered a great product running the USFL. I believe that with the addition of the XFL management team the product has downhill not up. That is a shame because I like the XFL division teams. The Renegades, Battlehawks, Defenders and Brahmas are good for league. Not to say the extra funding hasn’t been good for the league, but the league has forgotten that football comes first. The reason football and baseball are loved by so many, is not dancing, interviews on the field or the vast amounts of money that separate the players from the rest of us. It is the sport. Mike Repole had a product I purchased most workdays. I bought Vitamin Water, because it was real, good and was better for me than some of the heavier drinks like Coke & Pepsi. It was marketed well and had colorful, yet basic packaging to make me feel the product was no nonsense and I literally bought it. The UFL is similar. It has to get away from all the crazy add-ons that take away from football. The reason that players initially started getting excited scoring a touchdown or making a big tackle is due to the importance of the game. My hope is that Repole will turn the UFL into the real thing, then marketing that product. Stop talking about drones. Stop crossing the line with interviews that should never be taking place. Build up and get real football people to announce games especially on ESPN. Let’s get away from them hyping our league. Let the league be SO good that others are hyping the UFL. Think about this. The NFL sells millions of dollars of jerseys and jackets and the like and none of those jackets are NFL jackets or jerseys. You need to make football important so that the teams are important and you sell team merchandise and tickets, but it all starts with selling a good product, not watered down, tasty, but without all the stuff that makes you want to drink or watch. I love the Columbus team. Truly hoping the league determines if a team will be in Jacksonville. If it will bring back the Jacksonville Bulls, but if not I love that for the Columbus team. Either way, I look forward to what Repole is going to being our way. He might not be a football guy through and through, but I think he will see the importance of working with Johnston, to bring out the BEST product the UFL can be. I have said from Day 1, if you build it they will come. I have not been as optimistic about the UFL, until Repole purchased into the league.
by King Bomp
The United Football League has a big problem with branding but an even bigger problem with optics.
No more than one million viewers to watch a game broadcast from a stadium that’s half full.
Very simple solution… sell the seats facing the main camera half price all season. Open the upper level only when the lower bowl is sold out.
Pump extra crowd noise into the stadium if need be.
by David
The UFL needs to learn from the NFL Cleveland>Baltimore debacle/history. Don’t “relocate” a team per se. Consider Columbus and Location XYZ to be expansion teams & put the old teams on an “inactive reserve list”. Let those team names stay as a local UFL+USFL+XFL fan club hub. Build interest the way USL has… that way, there’s a “memory” of teams until they return. And buy out the old UFL and AAF IP properties, so that you could bring back Orlando Apollos and San Diego Fleet someday as names. (For example, a new UFL fan club in Orlando could be “Orlando Apollos UFL F.C. –(Fan Club).”