Capital One’s MLB partnership is turning fan experiences into long-term customer value
Good morning. Sports sponsorships have evolved far beyond logo placement. For companies like Capital One, this includes using exclusive experiences and cardholder perks to turn fans into long-term customers.
During Major League Baseball’s All-Star Week in Philadelphia, I spent the day at Capital One’s All-Star Village, where the company took over roughly 500,000 square feet at the Pennsylvania Convention Center with activations ranging from youth baseball drills to early access for Capital One cardholders and premium experiences for Venture X Business customers. The festival atmosphere—complete with food vendors, player tributes, and photo ops with mascots—helped draw 111,616 attendees over the four-day period, July 11–14, the event’s highest level since 2022, when it was held in Los Angeles, according to MLB.
The sponsorship strategy comes as Capital One integrates Discover Financial Services and reports stronger-than-expected financial results, giving investors a clearer view of how the company is deploying capital to drive long-term growth. For Q2, Capital One posted adjusted diluted EPS of $5.81, well above Wall Street expectations, while reported diluted EPS of $4.73 also topped estimates. Revenue came in at $15.85 billion, slightly above analyst forecasts, supported by solid top-line growth, strong credit performance, and lower provisions for credit losses.
Capital One completed its acquisition of Discover in May. About 50% of new Discover accounts and loans are now being booked on Capital One’s platform, CEO Richard Fairbank said on the July 21 earnings call. The company expects Discover to be fully on its tech stack for new originations by the end of the third quarter.
Alan Khalili was appointed CFO of Sidus Space, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIDU), a space and defense technology company, effective July 27. Khalili succeeds John Burke, who served as interim CFO. Khalili brings more than two decades of executive financial leadership experience. His career has ranged from investment banking and public accounting to co-founding a space-based global aviation-surveillance data platform and serving as a public-company CFO.
Mike Houli was appointed CFO of Mopec Group, a provider of pathology and anatomy equipment, technology, and consumable solutions. Houli brings nearly 20 years of finance leadership experience. Most recently, he served as SVP of finance at Parts Authority. Before that, he served as VP of finance at FreshEdge. Earlier in his career, Houli held roles at BorgWarner and General Electric.
Bank of America Institute finds that U.S. consumers are once again prioritizing value, with spending at discount apparel retailers and value grocers accelerating in early 2026, according to internal card data.
Higher-income households still account for a disproportionate share of overall retail spending, but lower-income households represent a larger share of spending at discount clothiers and value grocery stores and are gaining share in those segments. Lower-income families’ wages have kept pace with inflation better than before the pandemic, yet they are “trading down” the most—showing spending at discount apparel stores growing about five times faster than among higher-income households so far in 2026.
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"Whoever controls the money controls the winners. You’ve got to soak up as much money as you can so there isn’t as much money available to other players.”