Travis Kelce’s football contract, by comparison, earns him far less annually than this podcast

​Travis Kelce (Getty Images)

When Jason Kelce mentioned on their New Heights podcast that quarterback sneaks work roughly 92% of the time, nobody in the room knew those three words would eventually name a fan base, anchor a cultural movement, and help broker one of the most lucrative podcast deals in American sports history. By the end of 2024, New Heights had drawn more than 2.5 million YouTube subscribers and won the iHeartPodcast Award for Podcast of the Year. When the show ranked as the fourth-biggest podcast in the United States across all platforms in the first quarter of 2024, it stopped being a football show and became something harder to define, and far more valuable. Wondery CEO Jen Sargent said the company had been tracking the podcast since its 2022 launch, describing it as something that had moved well beyond sports into genuine cultural territory. The headline number is $100 million over three years. That merchandise clause is the thread that ties back to “92%ers.

Because of fame alone, what Kelce built here did not happen. Because he and Jason created a community with an identity, a name, and a sense of belonging, it happened.

The “92%ers” were born, and so was a business. The Kelce brothers began calling their listeners “92%ers” as a nod to the quarterback sneak’s success rate, a statistic Jason introduced during a conversation about the play’s dominance in short-yardage situations. Episodes routinely opened with “92%ers, we’re back” — a greeting that sounds casual but functions like brand reinforcement every single week. “92%ers” was never just a catchphrase.

Most franchise-building moments in sports involve touchdowns, trophies, or trade announcements. Travis Kelce ‘s came from a football statistic about a short-yardage play. Fans voted on the name themselves, which was a small but significant detail. It meant the community felt ownership over something the brothers had created. That kind of organic loyalty is exactly what media companies pay to acquire, not manufacture. That framing matters. Advertisers pay a premium for cultural territory. Sports reach fans. Cultural phenomena reach everyone else. But the financial architecture underneath it is where things get interesting. The agreement gave Wondery rights to develop, manufacture, license, and distribute all merchandise based on New Heights, including new consumer products, alongside exclusive global ad sales and video distribution rights. Join conversation Share your thoughts in the comments Be respectful · TOI community guidelines ” The phrase that started as an inside joke between two brothers and their listeners now sits at the center of a licensing framework worth real money. Wondery also secured rights to create international audio adaptations of the podcast, which signals that Amazon sees this as a global property, not a domestic sports niche. For context, the deal covers both audio and video feeds along with the entire back catalog of content, meaning every episode ever recorded is now a monetizable asset under the agreement. Travis Kelce’s football contract, by comparison, earns him far less annually than this podcast deal does. It was the product. Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.