is still alive and kicking, and quite exciting. They’re even playing games in unconventional venues like shopping malls now! I hate admitting my own ignorance, but I had no clue. I just assumed it faded away quietly, joining the ranks of countless professional football leagues with niche appeal and shaky business plans.

You know what put Arena Football back on my cultural radar? An announcement that the freakin’ Kelce Brothers industrial complex, of course. Specifically, , the crisp, no-nonsense lager co-owned by NFL icons Jason and Travis Kelce.

Last week, Garage Beer announced that they officially snagged a 1% stake in the St. Joseph Goats, a professional indoor football team based in Missouri that competes in the Arena League.

That absolutely rules.

So now the Kelces can casually say their beer business owns a stake in a professional football team. Owning a piece of something is still owning something!

Garage Beer—the crisp, uncomplicated lager co-owned by Jason and Travis Kelce—is proud to officially announce that we are now owners of the St. Joseph Goats, a professional indoor football team from St. Joseph, Missouri competing in The Arena League.

From the beer fridge to the front office, the Goats are now powered by the same crisp, uncomplicated energy that fuels Garage Beer. This is more than a sponsorship—it’s a bold, possibly confusing leap into the world of professional sports ownership, and we couldn’t be more excited.

“Some brands buy arena naming rights. We bought The Goats.” said someone at Garage Beer while duct-taping a team logo to the office wall.

Expect more updates soon, including exclusive merch, behind-the-scenes content, and a whole lot of people asking: “Wait… they own the team?”

We do. Probably.

Garage Beer isn’t stopping at just one quirky stake in one team, either. They’ve issued an open call to every weekend warrior and beer-league legend out there: If you’ve got spirit (and surgically repaired knees), they want in. Pickleball, dodgeball, cornhole, lawn darts (if only it wasn’t illegal!).

If there’s beer and a little team and/or personal glory on the line, Garage Beer is listening and they want to spend some money on sponsorship, just like Bud Light did in its ’80s and ’90s glory days when it wrote checks to everyone, including beach volleyball leagues, as long as you fit their party-forward vibe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKM_m0ttYsJ/

I love it. And I also think this could be the beginning of a beautiful new chapter for the Kelces, in a way…

Look, I don’t know how involved the Kelces are in Garage Beer at the business level, beyond their marketing efforts on social media channels. I don’t know how much of a stake they have in the Columbus-based brewery…

BUT… clearly, the Kelces know the game these days isn’t just about selling beer. It’s about selling an entire vibe. Everyone in every business everywhere is looking for ways to cut marketing costs and build organic audiences that rabidly consume their products. It’s just the way of the world in the content-everything era. We marketing dorks call this vibe marketing, meaning that people want to align with the energy and authenticity of those involved. Then, once businesses hit critical velocity, they strategically deploy marketing dollars to accelerate growth further.

But to do this effectively, you need compelling narratives and story arcs. You need stuff to do, and stuff talk about. You can’t just keep talking about the product, or people will crash out and fatigue on the product, and associate with it negatively. There’s nothing the Kelce bothers do and talk about better than football itself, which already has a massive built-in audience.

Enter their beer buying a tiny stake in an Arena Football team. Now picture Jason Kelce, Garage Beer in hand, delivering an Any Given Sunday-style locker room speech to a team with a goat on its helmet. You won’t even have to watch the game to get the gist and want to drink the beer.

Look at Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ takeover of Wrexham AFC, turning a Welsh football team into a global brand and flipping merch and lager along the way. Or LeBron James with Liverpool FC, Will Ferrell with LAFC, even Jay-Z’s Brooklyn Nets play from a decade ago. There are a gazillion celebrity booze brands: Miles Teller with Long Drink,  George Clooney’s billion-dollar Casamigos tequila deal and the dozens of others like it, Ryan Reynolds again with Aviation Gin. Hell, I even attended Dolph Lundgren’s Hard Cut vodka launch party in Hollywood a couple of months ago. It’s everywhere, in every crack and crevice of culture right now. And when you’re tapped out on booze, a celebrity like “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper is there to sell you UNWELL Hydration drinks as a hangover cure.

Celebrity ownership, clever content, merch drops, repeat.

It mostly works every time, because our brains as humans are more obsessed with the people that move and shake culture rather than things and stuff. Clearly, the Kelces and their inner circle on the business side have studied these cultural moves and their stake in it. Once Travis hangs it up in the NFL, there are probably aspirations beyond simply being media personalities, which is obviously the old playbook for retired athletes with star power.

Don’t get me wrong. Visibility is still visibility. Jason is still making handsome money doing exactly this with his Amazon Thursday Night Football arrangement, which helps drive awareness to all his other ventures. The advantage of leveraging their equity, charisma, and social capital into broader, dynamic businesses is that they’ll have assets they can eventually walk away from when the time comes. Think: .

At the end of the day, that’s why every celebrity is so down to go all-in with their own brand right now. Some short-term fun in the present if the company matches their vibe, and, in the long term, a huge payday if they strike gold with the business and things go just right. Hopefully, it’s a win-win, but even if it’s not a big payout, some fun was had.

How exactly they’ll play this hand remains to be seen, but if the Kelces start rolling out YouTube documentaries about arena football ownership, I’m absolutely going to click subscribe.

At this point, the Kelce brothers could announce a competitive knitting league tomorrow, and millions would tune in. Many would be hoping for a subtle hint about an engagement ring connecting America’s favorite tight end with its biggest pop star, but hey… it’s the suspense that keeps people on their toes. They’re basically an omnipresent cultural establishment at this point. Their New Heights podcast alone, with a staggering $100 million Amazon deal, keeps them constantly relevant with clips that go viral on social media and YouTube. They leveraged their incredible football careers to pull all the right strings, transcending football fame. For savvy brothers who loved the game of football, it’s the American Dream manifesting itself in action. You love to see it.

Throw in Kylie’s podcast and their parents occasionally jumping on the mic with Midwestern charm, and you’ve got a family brand that’s relatable and authentic. People love that, rather than high-paid Hollywood types blabbering on about the stuff real people out there need to buy.

Garage Beer gets it. The Kelce brothers get it. Arena football gets it.

Whatever’s next for the St. Joseph Goats is going to be a good time.