From NASCAR to UNC: How Steve Newmark plans to steer UNC athletics into new era

Steve Newmark talks about racing quite a bit. He joked that NASCAR has probably been discussed in UNC’s athletic offices “more than it ever has before,” since he started working alongside athletic director Bubba Cunningham last week.

The former president of NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing for 15 years, may seem, at first glance, like an unconventional choice to succeed Cunningham. But once you talk to the duo, it all makes sense.

Newmark said Wasserman executive Dean Jordan made the initial contact, reaching out about a year ago. Jordan had been in discussions with Cunningham about forming an informal advisory group to help UNC prepare for the future of college athletics — from revenue generation to digital strategy and sponsorships. Last summer, Cunningham and other athletic department representatives visited Newmark at RFK Racing. They discussed the racing group’s model, which Newmark described as “fundamentally different from collegiate sports,” yet containing “a lot of the characteristics of where college sports is going.”

Soon, Newmark joined UNC’s search committee that hired Bill Belichick, taking numerous late night phone calls in the process. But the twists along the way didn’t turn him off from college athletics. So when Cunningham visited Newmark in Charlotte last spring, he floated an idea: “Hey, we work well together.”

Nothing formulaic. No search committee. Just an ongoing dialogue. And Cunningham wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

“I think we identified the right person and we thought it was going to be a great fit,” Cunningham said. “I was comfortable with it. Lee [Roberts] was comfortable with it.”

By July 1, the informal conversations became reality: Newmark officially joined UNC as executive associate athletic director, tasked with bringing his professional-sports expertise to Chapel Hill and preparing to take over as athletic director in 2026.

“I think [Cunningham] saw where collegiate athletics were going, and having folks who have had some experience in that type of landscape would be beneficial going forward,” Newmark said. “I envisioned myself always being in Charlotte. I mean, I really enjoyed being part of the Fenway group… but this was an opportunity, just because of my passion for UNC and because of the changes in the landscape, it appeared that, hopefully, my skill set might be able to bring some value.”

‘Sponsorship became the upside’

During this transition, Newmark is primarily concerned with two items: generating revenue and “following Bubba around” to learn the ropes. There’s a lot Newmark can glean from UNC’s athletic director of nearly 14 years. Cunningham is learning from Newmark’s approach, too.

NASCAR practically gorges itself on a steady diet of sponsorships to supply revenue. As Cunningham pointed out, UNC doesn’t have “a handful” of revenue drivers. The Tar Heels can sell tickets. Television deals are already set.

“So sponsorship became the upside,” Cunningham said.

New opportunities to monetize assets are more important now than ever. Newmark, fittingly, was hired on the very day colleges were permitted to share revenue with their athletes, per the $2.8 billion House v. NCAA antitrust settlement.

“I think, where we are in intercollegiate athletics, we really value broad-based programs… and we’re getting more comfortable saying we have to find new ways to support,” Cunningham said.

There are limits, of course, to monetizing assets in the college space — both due to aesthetics and regulations. Newmark joked he won’t go full-out NASCAR driver fire suit with the advertising placements. Not to worry. Jersey patches, as Cunningham pointed out, are not currently allowed by the NCAA.

But patches, and facility naming rights, are two of the biggest opportunities for UNC athletics to grow revenue in the next five years, per Cunningham.

The current AD and soon-to-be AD both believe there’s a way to be tasteful in athletics sponsorships. Cunningham pointed to Disney as an example. Rather than slapping logos everywhere, the company has been able to tie brands directly to experiences. Take Epcot’s Test Track, sponsored by Chevrolet, as an example.

“If you put Modelo on the [coaches’] headsets, probably not a good idea,” Cunningham said, offering a hypothetical. “Modelo sponsoring the beer garden makes sense. So it just becomes part and parcel of what you’re doing. But I think that’s where the sponsorship experience that [Newmark] brings to us is going to be really valuable.”

‘Decisions will be made’

The timeline for Cunningham’s exit, and Newmark’s ascent, overlap with several important agenda items in the next five years: assessing the tenure of Belichick and Hubert Davis, Smith Center renovations or a relocation and, of course, the ever-lingering potential of conference realignment.

For Newmark, that’s one of the most appealing things about this transition — Cunningham will continue on as an advisor to him and Chancellor Roberts.

“The basketball facility is a key thing with his experience,” Newmark said. “That’ll be critical… when the Smith Center came out, I remember it. I remember when we transitioned from Carmichael, and it was state of the art. It was incredible. Time has passed, and it’s not where it needs to be to support an elite collegiate athletic basketball team.”

“Whether it’s here or somewhere else, those decisions will be made,” Newmark later added, “but I’m pretty comfortable that we’ll continue to work hand in hand on that.”

Cunningham’s advisory role, as Newmark explained, is tied to special projects. That includes the development of the Carolina North property — a potential location for an off-campus arena that could much more easily accommodate a more professional, mixed-use style model.

That sort of project may feel like a sharp break from tradition — but then again, so does the current state of college athletics. Just as Newmark is adjusting to the nuances of his new role, he believes fans, too, are adjusting.

“The entire country and the sports fan base is getting acclimated to seeing more marketing and promotion integrated into games,” Newmark said. “I think it may have been something that would have been a shock to the system 20 years ago. But I think everybody has seen the evolution of sports, and collegiate athletics is clearly not on the leading edge of doing that. They look at professional sports, and they’ve been much more aggressive in integrating brands and properties. And so I think it’s just a natural evolution.”