How Vineyard Offshore’s Early Bet on Sports Power Infrastructure Sparked a New Era in Workforce and Supplier Development

Betting on More Than Energy

Back in January 2023, Vineyard Offshore did something few expected from an energy developer. Instead of investing solely in industry conferences, traditional supply chain development, and ports, it became the first founding partner of Sports Power Infrastructure™ (SPI). At the time, SPI was little more than an ambitious idea—a platform that aimed to use sports to open doors into industries like energy, manufacturing, broadband, construction, and tech.

That early bet changed everything. Vineyard’s initial seed funding—led by Andrea Bonilla, now Director of External Affairs, East Coast—was tied to its Excelsior Wind project in New York. That investment helped SPI transform from concept to reality almost overnight. What began as a sports-driven pilot, backed by more than 20 years of Mid-Atlanticpublic-private experience, has since become a fully integrated professionaldevelopment and workforce/supplier intelligence engine—one that connectscommunities to both legacy and some of the fastest-growing sectors in theeconomy.

Turning Sports Into Economic Engines

SPI launched with a simple but powerful mission: harness theuniversal draw of sports and entertainment to guide youth and adults intohigh-growth careers. And it worked.

In its first two years, the platform reached more than 3,000 participants across Long Island and New York City. The results? An industry discovery rate of 70–90%—meaning most of the young people and adults SPI engaged had never even heard of industries like offshore wind or advanced manufacturing before training. The data reinforced SPI’s product-market fit: a massive pool of untapped workforce and supplier talent hiding in plain sight, with sports as the vehicle to unlock it.

Building the Playbook

From there, SPI began layering in partnerships—with energyand construction firms, community organizations, and premium career activations at entertainment venues like Barclays Center during March Madness. The goal wasclear: make industry training as engaging, visible, and locally relevant aspossible.

At the same time, SPI worked closely with OEMs, developers, and contractors to ensure their efforts aligned with New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates and requirements for MWBE and SDVOB participation—using sports and entertainment as an innovative compliance and engagement solution.

Fast forward to today: thanks to that early investment, SPI is no longer just running programs. It’s scaling into a multi-generational digital platform. The revamped SportsPowerInfrastructure.com now runs on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), a proprietary system that ensures every SPI athlete, business, project, and event partner is automatically indexed across leading AI sourcing tools—ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot—to future-proof the platform.

The platform also rolled out a partner licensing program,enabling nonprofits, small businesses, schools, coaches, and employers to run SPI-branded camps, clinics, and combines in their own communities—unlocking newbusiness opportunities while improving quality of life for youth and families.

More Than the Game

At the heart of the enhanced platform are SPI’s newsubscription services, a combination of free and premium options built aroundthe Sports Power Rankings™, a science-based benchmark that goes far beyond boxscores. By combining athletic combine testing with assessments of careerreadiness, leadership, and communication skills, the Rankings quantify traitslike discipline, teamwork, and resilience—qualities fewer than 0.1% of athleteswill ever monetize on the court or field, but which every employer and clientvalues in the workplace.

One of the first to benefit was Christian Smiley, aWyandanch basketball standout who began as SPI’s first volunteer intern. Today,Smiley is SPI’s first NIL (name, image, and likeness) Brand Ambassador,studying Exercise Science on a full basketball scholarship at Garden CityCommunity College in Kansas. His story represents the SPI model in action:sports as a launchpad to education, careers, and leadership.

From Apparel to Anthems

The momentum didn’t stop there. In the winter of 2025, SPI’s success gave rise to Athletes Make The Best™, an affiliated commerce and media brand. The extension—rooted in Vineyard Offshore’s early bet and commitment tolocal and domestic content—ensures that 100% of SPI apparel is manufactured in the U.S. and licenses its name to trusted partners across industries.

The brand even launched an inspirational anthem, Power the Game, Power Your Future, now streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music, to motivate athletes exploring their career journeys.

Why Vineyard Offshore Matters

Vineyard Offshore’s role in all this can’t be overstated.The company’s mission has always been about more than megawatts—it’s aboutmaking sure America’s energy investments deliver real, measurable localbenefits. That vision dovetails perfectly with SPI’s community- and data-firstmodel.

Together, they’re proving what domestic energy partnershipscan achieve:

• Thousands of new jobs created across local economies
• Hundreds  of millions in contracting opportunities for small businesses and    MWBE/SDVOB firms
• Significant  ommunity benefit investments that ripple far beyond the energy sector

Just look at the numbers: the Excelsior Wind project alone is projected to generate $2.6 billion in direct economic benefits and more than2,000 jobs for New York. Nationally, Vineyard’s projects in New England and California are delivering similar long-lasting impact.

What’s Next

From its New York City and Long Island roots, SPI is now expanding into Upstate New York, New England, and the DMV region. New investor-backed verticals are preparing to launch under the Sports Power brand: Sports Power Manufacturing, Sports Power Broadband, Sports Power Maritime, and Sports Power Safety + Defense.

All of it builds on the same proven playbook Vineyard Offshore helped ignite in 2023: combining the influence of sports with the economic opportunities of infrastructure.

The Takeaway

The lesson is clear: when leading corporate partners like Vineyard Offshore back local people and early-stage businesses, the returnisn’t measured in megawatts alone. It’s measured in jobs created, contractsawarded, and futures transformed.

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