What is GameAbove Sports, Detroit’s bowl game sponsor?

It’s a classic question in the bowl era of college football.

What is that sponsor I’ve never heard of? 

Be it the Wasabi Fenway Bowl or the IS4S Salute To Veterans Bowl, there’s no shortage of sponsors that require, at a minimum, some internet sleuthing to uncover what they are. Wasabi, for instance, does cybersecurity and IS4S — Integrated Solutions for Systems — is a management and engineering firm. 

But what, exactly, is GameAbove Sports, the entity serving as the title sponsor for the bowl in Detroit?

At its most basic, GameAbove and its various arms, including GameAbove Sports, are the leading edge of the community enterprise efforts of Capstone Holdings, a firm founded by Eastern Michigan and Oakland University alum Keith J. Stone that facilitates capital investment in real estate, tech and other sectors. 

Within GameAbove, there is GameAbove Sports and GameAbove Entertainment, both aimed at specific sectors. GameAbove Entertainment is a production company that has helped produce and finance a number of documentaries, including “Iceman,” about Detroit native and Eastern Michigan legend George Gervin. 

And GameAbove Sports, which has sponsored the bowl in Detroit — owned by the Detroit Lions — for a few years, supports a number of sporting enterprises in and around Detroit. That includes partnerships with the Detroit Pistons and owning the Detroit Amps, the city's Big 3 team for Ice Cube’s 3-on-3 league, and running a youth 3-on-3 league to accompany it. 

The 2025 GameAbove Sports Bowl kicks off at 1 p.m. on Dec. 26, a showdown between Central Michigan and Northwestern.

“Our ability to give back to Detroit in a lot of different ways — and this is one of the ways we do this — is the most important part,” Matt Sheppard, a community outreach officer for the companies, said. 

The connection to southeast Michigan is natural, given Stone is a native of the area. GameAbove has ventures elsewhere, funding various golf enterprises and youth sporting academies as far away as Australia, but a bulk of the work GameAbove and GameAbove Sports has done ties into the metro Detroit area. 

And being an EMU alum, Stone’s enterprise has left its fingerprints on a number of facilities in Ypsilanti, from a golf training facility to GameAbove being the name sponsor for the George Gervin Center, where EMU plays home basketball and volleyball games. 

And that local connection, beyond just EMU, is the root of GameAbove’s efforts in the area, Sheppard said. 

“He’s always wanted to be one of those people that gives back to the community that helped raise him,” Sheppard said of Stone. 

A unique aspect of GameAbove Sports, insofar as being a bowl sponsor, is that despite being a business that ostensibly makes money, they don’t view their brand being on a bowl as a way to sell you, the viewer, a product. They don’t even have a product to sell directly to customers, a la a Bad Boy mower, for example. 

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The brand identity and awareness is certainly beneficial, but much as GameAbove Sports wants to facilitate various athletic opportunities and entertainment around the region, it's hopeful to do the same with the bowl and to show off the area to the teams invited. 

That’s where a trip to Gleaner’s Community Food Bank for the teams for some service time fits in, along with various events around Detroit and the metro area leading into the game. 

Sheppard recalls that last year, they worked to find a nice Italian restaurant for Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi to eat at on Christmas Eve. The meal earned strong reviews, Sheppard said.

The ideal, at the end of the day, is for GameAbove Sports to facilitate a memorable Christmas week in Detroit for both teams, and offer a sporting event that people around the region might care to attend. 

It’s much the same as GameAbove Sports’ other ventures. 

“Because of our passion for Detroit and Michigan,” Sheppard said.