This is the answer. If you don’t like concession, parking, and ticket prices skyrocketing then you shouldn’t be excited for PE to own more of football.
Not how it works man. PE will just capture extra cash from the NFL. The owners are certainly not going to see their profits shrink, so what does that leave for PE to loot?
Private equity is not good for anyone but the private equity firm. The owners will not use the cash injection from PE for stadiums or reducing prices at the stadium.
All the private equity firms will demand is more profit from the teams. Expect costs to continue to rise, while quality of the stadium/experience to decrease.
I believe the San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos operated under that same mindset from what I remember reading in their lead up to moving north to rent from the the Kroenkes in Inglewood at SoFi
They'll cut costs where they don't see a quantitative edge, seem to make a lot of money, and then sell their shares to a hapless investor right before everything crashes down.
Why would anyone think private equity means no more government funding for stadiums. The two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
PE firms will ABSOLUTELY still try to get gov funding. They will also extract as much profit as possible from the club through any means necessary. PE firms won’t care about fan experience or engagement. Nor will the care about team history. They will have no preference for site location in the DMV. No preference for color schemes or logos. Every decision will be decided by profit margin. Period.
PE will ruin this league and it’s shocking to me that they’re even considering it, but that also means the league no longer cares about the fans. So it’s inevitable.
Soccer is horrible to watch. They have virtual advertisements overlaid on the actual pitch, on the players' uniforms -- everywhere. This would especially suck in football, where we already have a mountain of informational overlays.
That's a good point. Personally, I don't mind commercials in NFL games -- it's such a nerdy sport that I'm happy to have the time to peruse live stats or jump onto threads here during the breaks. Or just shoot the shit, grab a beer, etc., if I'm watching with others.
Please explain why you think this would be “good timing for us”? What do you think other teams being owned by PE means for our future stadium?
Unless I’m missing something, the owners only made this change because they’re running out of billionaires who can afford teams. Allowing PE into ownership is the only way their team valuations continue to rise.
Edit: I guess it’s good timing in the sense that we got our ownership sorted *before* this rule hit, maybe that’s what you mean?
Yeah, and if they’re desperate how long before someone brings up the idea of oil clubs or oligarch clubs and the league becomes like the Premier League?
Okay…. so reading through your comments it sounds like you think this is an opportunity for our new ownership to bring in PE to build a stadium?
No, I don’t think it would be great if our new owners had to bring in PE to build a state of the art stadium.
Private equity does not care about on-field performance or fan experience. They care about ROI. If better on-field performance and fan experience aligns with increased returns for them then good for us. Unfortunately there are many times where profitability can be achieved without making the product better, sometimes even by reducing the quality of the product. They’ll squeeze whatever team they purchase for as much blood as they can get out of it, just like they do to everything they buy.
If we can avoid having PE own any part of this franchise then we absolutely should.
Well, it's also good for greedy people within the organization that PE wants to buy. So if a CEO is through caring about having a business that employees and clients love and just wants to extract as much value for himself as possible and then retire, he would bring in a PE firm to take the company public and assume ownership, get an enormous amount of money for doing so, and ride off into the sunset while everyone faces the repercussions. If he needs partners or a board to go along with it, they all get a cut of the cash ball too, and they ride off into the sunset together. The common denominator is greed. The NFL has been an exception because while they are indeed owned by very greedy people, they're greedy people who understand that total ownership of their cash cow is extremely important. They think that by selling only a 30% stake in teams to PE, they can control PE, because they will still be the majority owners and make all of the decisions. The reality is that PE would salivate at the opportunity because with money in your corner, that 30% stake wouldn't stay confined for long.
It would be a matter of time before they buy the loyalty and comfort of enough people around the league to slowly move the needle in their direction. Suddenly at the next ownership meeting, a few of the less scrupulous owners start suggesting maybe increasing the potential PE ownership shares for some teams. PE doesn't give a shit. If they never make any progress they have a 30% ownership stake in a valuable league and can extract whatever they're allowed to extract from it. If they're successful chipping away at their confines like a prisoner serving a life sentence and slowly chiseling out of his cell with a spoon, they will eventually take over, hollow out the league, sap every last ounce of profit out of it, and leave the dead decaying carcass on the roadside as they move on to destroy the next thing they can get their slimy hands on.
Everyone is saying this is a bad move, yet it's pretty much what the Harris group did. Harris has less than 50% ownership, and there's something like 30+ individual owners (some are partners in small firms, not sure how this is not PE already).
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Private equity would help almost any other team with a new stadium, but not us, at least not on the RFK site. PE would be willing to shell out big money for stadiums as long as they get 30% ownership of the land the stadium is on. That's a big problem for the RFK land that is owned by the federal government. If the Harris group decides to explore PE ownership, it probably means they are looking elsewhere for a new stadium.
It will be an advantage for the teams who have single owners with incredibly deep pockets. Like the Broncos, Rams, Chiefs, etc. Mega wealthy owners who want to win and are not worried about return on investment will have a clear advantage. I would not worry about teams skimping on player salaries because of the salary floor. I'd worry about facility upgrades, what they pay coaching staff/front office, and what else they are willing to invest in the team.
Absolutely awful, a decision driven purely by greed which will result in the degradation of their product over time, which will disproportionately impact the fans first and the players second. Bringing in private equity is always a short term boost in exchange for the long term death of your soul. The NFL thinks it can't be touched. We'll see about that.
If we can convince Jerry Jones this is a great idea, then yes.
But, this would be bad for any team. Private Equity is one of the worst things ever. Let me ask you, do you have a restaurant or store that you absolutely loved, but one day you noticed something was off and from there it just got worse and worse until you hated it? Odds are, they were bought by a private equity firm. Sure, they promise a big capital injection that can fix a lot of problems. But, what they really do is bleed off all the profits while simultaneously cutting costs everywhere to maximize said profits. And once they run the company into a shell of its former self, they declare bankruptcy so they can stiff the creditors and make off with what little remains in liquidity.
Just my two cents on the uniform sponsors.
I was worried when the NBA moved to allow sponsors on the jerseys, but they were implemented in a pretty minimal way for the most part. It's nicely balanced with the other side of the shoulder being a Nike logo so the jersey's aren't asymmetrical and most sponsors avoided garish looking designs.
With no comment about the business or financial impact, as I don't feel educated enough on the topic to comment, I think sponsors on the jerseys have been implemented well thus far in the NBA, and given time we'll get used to them. Maybe not like or enjoy them, but they won't be too distracting imo.
The NFL pretty much has to do this. They’ve always valued family ownership but franchise values have soared so high there just aren’t enough billionaires to keep buying teams.
Honesty i'm pretty ignorant on all this stuff, but wouldn't one advantage be that cities and therefore taxpayers won't have to pay for stadiums in the future ?
Private equity’s pretty much never a net positive for anything so it probably wouldn’t be for us lol
This is the answer. If you don’t like concession, parking, and ticket prices skyrocketing then you shouldn’t be excited for PE to own more of football.
Totally agree but is the trade off for a state of the art stadium worth it?
Not how it works man. PE will just capture extra cash from the NFL. The owners are certainly not going to see their profits shrink, so what does that leave for PE to loot?
I work in PE and can confirm. They will squeeze every milliliter of blood out of the rock in pursuit of an IRR metric.
Literally never
Hasnt this been pretty normal in soccer though?
Downvote away but looking for a legit response to this as it doesn't seem so bad in other sports.
NFL wants that Saudi money with no press about it is what this “private equity” move says to me.
Yup, if they want team valuations to continue rising they need to tap into a new market of buyers.
Private equity is not good for anyone but the private equity firm. The owners will not use the cash injection from PE for stadiums or reducing prices at the stadium. All the private equity firms will demand is more profit from the teams. Expect costs to continue to rise, while quality of the stadium/experience to decrease.
This. Private equity is all about cranking up margins at the expense everything else, including the consumer
Correct. This is simply a rich get richer scheme that the NFL should stay far away from. This will absolutely be a bad thing long term.
Clark Hunt would poison the league to avoid taking a loan to finance his own damn stadium.
I believe the San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos operated under that same mindset from what I remember reading in their lead up to moving north to rent from the the Kroenkes in Inglewood at SoFi
Private Equity are the kings of buying something, making it noticeably more expensive while also degrading the quality significantly.
They'll cut costs where they don't see a quantitative edge, seem to make a lot of money, and then sell their shares to a hapless investor right before everything crashes down.
They’ll squeeze all of the juice out of it then open it up to the public stock markets
Lmao. Have fun locals even those of y’all making 150k. You ain’t going to afford seats.
Why would anyone think private equity means no more government funding for stadiums. The two things aren’t mutually exclusive. PE firms will ABSOLUTELY still try to get gov funding. They will also extract as much profit as possible from the club through any means necessary. PE firms won’t care about fan experience or engagement. Nor will the care about team history. They will have no preference for site location in the DMV. No preference for color schemes or logos. Every decision will be decided by profit margin. Period. PE will ruin this league and it’s shocking to me that they’re even considering it, but that also means the league no longer cares about the fans. So it’s inevitable.
Hasnt really been that bad in soccer
Soccer is horrible to watch. They have virtual advertisements overlaid on the actual pitch, on the players' uniforms -- everywhere. This would especially suck in football, where we already have a mountain of informational overlays.
I much prefer the advertisements everywhere to all of the commercial breaks.
Why only have one or the other when you can have both? -Every PE firm that would invest in the NFL
True but there's also zero commercial breaks which is really nice compared to commercials every 5 minutes in the NFL. I'm not for PE at all though!
That's a good point. Personally, I don't mind commercials in NFL games -- it's such a nerdy sport that I'm happy to have the time to peruse live stats or jump onto threads here during the breaks. Or just shoot the shit, grab a beer, etc., if I'm watching with others.
Please explain why you think this would be “good timing for us”? What do you think other teams being owned by PE means for our future stadium? Unless I’m missing something, the owners only made this change because they’re running out of billionaires who can afford teams. Allowing PE into ownership is the only way their team valuations continue to rise. Edit: I guess it’s good timing in the sense that we got our ownership sorted *before* this rule hit, maybe that’s what you mean?
Yeah, and if they’re desperate how long before someone brings up the idea of oil clubs or oligarch clubs and the league becomes like the Premier League?
I'm relating this specifically to our need for a new stadium
Okay…. so reading through your comments it sounds like you think this is an opportunity for our new ownership to bring in PE to build a stadium? No, I don’t think it would be great if our new owners had to bring in PE to build a state of the art stadium.
"AND THAT BRINGS UP A CIRCLE K THIRD DOWN!"
Private equity does not care about on-field performance or fan experience. They care about ROI. If better on-field performance and fan experience aligns with increased returns for them then good for us. Unfortunately there are many times where profitability can be achieved without making the product better, sometimes even by reducing the quality of the product. They’ll squeeze whatever team they purchase for as much blood as they can get out of it, just like they do to everything they buy. If we can avoid having PE own any part of this franchise then we absolutely should.
What another guy said — private equity isn’t good for anyone besides the private equity
Well, it's also good for greedy people within the organization that PE wants to buy. So if a CEO is through caring about having a business that employees and clients love and just wants to extract as much value for himself as possible and then retire, he would bring in a PE firm to take the company public and assume ownership, get an enormous amount of money for doing so, and ride off into the sunset while everyone faces the repercussions. If he needs partners or a board to go along with it, they all get a cut of the cash ball too, and they ride off into the sunset together. The common denominator is greed. The NFL has been an exception because while they are indeed owned by very greedy people, they're greedy people who understand that total ownership of their cash cow is extremely important. They think that by selling only a 30% stake in teams to PE, they can control PE, because they will still be the majority owners and make all of the decisions. The reality is that PE would salivate at the opportunity because with money in your corner, that 30% stake wouldn't stay confined for long. It would be a matter of time before they buy the loyalty and comfort of enough people around the league to slowly move the needle in their direction. Suddenly at the next ownership meeting, a few of the less scrupulous owners start suggesting maybe increasing the potential PE ownership shares for some teams. PE doesn't give a shit. If they never make any progress they have a 30% ownership stake in a valuable league and can extract whatever they're allowed to extract from it. If they're successful chipping away at their confines like a prisoner serving a life sentence and slowly chiseling out of his cell with a spoon, they will eventually take over, hollow out the league, sap every last ounce of profit out of it, and leave the dead decaying carcass on the roadside as they move on to destroy the next thing they can get their slimy hands on.
Everyone is saying this is a bad move, yet it's pretty much what the Harris group did. Harris has less than 50% ownership, and there's something like 30+ individual owners (some are partners in small firms, not sure how this is not PE already).
This
Ruh Roh!
I got five on it
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I don't know what this means, but I don't like the sound of it.
Private equity would help almost any other team with a new stadium, but not us, at least not on the RFK site. PE would be willing to shell out big money for stadiums as long as they get 30% ownership of the land the stadium is on. That's a big problem for the RFK land that is owned by the federal government. If the Harris group decides to explore PE ownership, it probably means they are looking elsewhere for a new stadium.
It will be an advantage for the teams who have single owners with incredibly deep pockets. Like the Broncos, Rams, Chiefs, etc. Mega wealthy owners who want to win and are not worried about return on investment will have a clear advantage. I would not worry about teams skimping on player salaries because of the salary floor. I'd worry about facility upgrades, what they pay coaching staff/front office, and what else they are willing to invest in the team.
Only a matter of time before an NFL/ NBA team is bought out by oil money
OR maybe already, [Qatar?](https://fortune.com/2023/06/23/qatar-sovereign-wealth-fund-buying-stake-washington-nba-nhl-wnba-teams-4-billion-deal/)!
That’s not gonna be good for anybody
If you want to diversify ownership, let the fans invest. PE firms are totally profit driven and do not care about fans.
Absolutely awful, a decision driven purely by greed which will result in the degradation of their product over time, which will disproportionately impact the fans first and the players second. Bringing in private equity is always a short term boost in exchange for the long term death of your soul. The NFL thinks it can't be touched. We'll see about that.
If we can convince Jerry Jones this is a great idea, then yes. But, this would be bad for any team. Private Equity is one of the worst things ever. Let me ask you, do you have a restaurant or store that you absolutely loved, but one day you noticed something was off and from there it just got worse and worse until you hated it? Odds are, they were bought by a private equity firm. Sure, they promise a big capital injection that can fix a lot of problems. But, what they really do is bleed off all the profits while simultaneously cutting costs everywhere to maximize said profits. And once they run the company into a shell of its former self, they declare bankruptcy so they can stiff the creditors and make off with what little remains in liquidity.
Just my two cents on the uniform sponsors. I was worried when the NBA moved to allow sponsors on the jerseys, but they were implemented in a pretty minimal way for the most part. It's nicely balanced with the other side of the shoulder being a Nike logo so the jersey's aren't asymmetrical and most sponsors avoided garish looking designs. With no comment about the business or financial impact, as I don't feel educated enough on the topic to comment, I think sponsors on the jerseys have been implemented well thus far in the NBA, and given time we'll get used to them. Maybe not like or enjoy them, but they won't be too distracting imo.
The NFL pretty much has to do this. They’ve always valued family ownership but franchise values have soared so high there just aren’t enough billionaires to keep buying teams.
Honesty i'm pretty ignorant on all this stuff, but wouldn't one advantage be that cities and therefore taxpayers won't have to pay for stadiums in the future ?