Sports

Dodger blue outshines gold after $2 bln deal

28 Mar 2012

The sale of the Los Angeles baseball team represents almost a five-fold gain in value since 2004. Gold aside, returns on sports franchises blow away most other major asset classes, including stocks. The demand for such trophy investments from the ultra-rich is stoking prices.

World Cup tells inconvenient truth on liquidity

14 Feb 2012

It’s hardly a surprise that World Cup soccer matches disrupted trading in financial markets. But if liquidity were as important as some fetishists claim, it wouldn’t have taken an ad-hoc ECB study to show what happened. The result should trouble opponents of transaction taxes.

Super Bowl may settle buy-side/sell-side rivalry

3 Feb 2012

New York’s Giants are set to battle the New England Patriots on the gridiron Sunday. The fixture reflects enmity between Wall Street’s banks and Boston’s investment industry. Since neither can crow much about performance of late, bragging rights for XLVI offer a big bonus.

BRICs raise relegation risk for European soccer

30 Dec 2011

World power must be shifting. Samuel Eto’o, a Cameroonian soccer star who used to play for Barcelona, has gone to Russia while Nicolas Anelka, a Frenchman, is moving from Chelsea to China. But both players are over 30. Europe, not the BRICs, still has first call on young talent.

Don’t boo U.S. football’s zero-coupon perpetuals

7 Dec 2011

The Green Bay Packers are selling shares that pay no dividend and can’t be sold. What sounds like a sucker’s bet - or a donation - at least gives fans a tangible stake in the local champs. And as it happens, since the team’s last sale, plenty of “real” stocks are down.

Russian infrastructure dreams sink in Sochi slush

4 Oct 2011

The spiralling cost of the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort illustrates the chaos endemic to Russia’s much-hyped sporting and infrastructure projects. Far from being a boon to the economy and investors, these opaque free-for-alls are a recipe for financial disaster.

Man U investors can always vote with their feet

20 Sep 2011

The soccer club may list in Singapore with “stapled” securities that could entrench the Glazer family’s control. But though new investors may not get the voting power they’d like, that can be reflected in the price. If the idea sounds too tricksy, would-be backers can say no.

Man U’s mooted IPO valuation in league of its own

24 Aug 2011

The Glazers bought the soccer club for a hefty 16 times EBITDA in 2005. Now a $1 bln Asian IPO could raise the bar again. Man Utd boasts global cachet and wage discipline by soccer’s crazy standards. But it looks like buyers will have to be fans first and investors second.

Hedge funds realize baseball is too big to fail

27 Jun 2011

JPMorgan's Highbridge is the latest to bail out a struggling team. Its $150 mln loan to the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers follows David Einhorn's New York Mets investment. Bad finance may be hurting the game's popularity but America's pastime still looks a good longterm bet.

Qatar’s hunger for soccer poses new pay TV threat

23 Jun 2011

Al Jazeera's bid for domestic rights to French football has robbed existing owner Vivendi's Canal+ of a bargain deal. Even if it is hard to see how the Qataribacked broadcaster will generate a return, its bold incursion could cost Europe's commercial operators dear.

Cup loss wouldn’t be end of the world for Qatar

31 May 2011

Even if it happened, losing the right to host the soccer World Cup might do no more than dent the $77 bln of infrastructure spending promised by the Gulf nation in the run up to 2022. But it would be more than just embarrassing to be stripped of the chance to hold the event.

Mets deal gets even a financial star starry-eyed

26 May 2011

David Einhorn, the hedge fund boss who famously shorted Lehman, is poised to buy a $200 mln stake in New York's lesser baseball team. Yet the managers of the Bernie Madoffstricken Mets share some of the bankrupt bank's flaws. Sports investments are just different.

Arsenal deal exposes unlevel U.S. sports field

11 Apr 2011

Stan Kroenke's $1.2 bln soccer club acquisition means half the British Premier League is now in foreign hands. By comparison, U.S. teams have few nonAmerican owners. That should finally start to change as wealth and sports like basketball increasingly globalize.

NFL quarterbacks don’t do teachers any favors

14 Mar 2011

As U.S. public sector unions come under fire from governors and taxpayers, the nation's professional football players are embroiled in their own peculiar labor battle. There's not much common ground, but the popularity of the gridiron millionaires creates an odd contrast.

Mets owner could find financial solution in stands

15 Feb 2011

Fred Wilpon's grip on the New York baseball team is slipping as the Madoff trustee puts on the squeeze. He's liable to strike out trying to find a minority stake buyer. But there might be inspiration from the public ownership model of UK soccer clubs or the Super Bowl champs.

Only advertisements live up to Super Bowl’s hype

4 Feb 2011

A 30second commercial on the year's biggest U.S. TV event now costs up to $3 mln. That's 500 pct more than it was 25 years ago even though the audience has grown by just 24 pct. The hyperinflation may be warranted, though. These days, most viewers don't tune in for the game.

Liverpool FC board shows mettle in Red Sox deal

6 Oct 2010

In April, the soccer club's owners agreed to accept reasonable bids. Yet they are fighting a fair approach from the backers of the U.S baseball team. The offer clears LFC's debt but values the equity at nil, so they may as well resist. But the board must keep pursuing the deal.

Liverpool’s owners and lenders face deserved pain

23 Sep 2010

The UK soccer club is unlikely to repay 237 mln stg to its banks by next month's deadline. Even Blackstone's financial whizzes couldn't devise a viable refinancing. Liverpool needs a conservative capital structure under a solid owner. Getting there will be tough for all involved.

Banks get cold feet over football funding

20 Aug 2010

New rules from the sport's governing bodies in England and Europe are forcing clubs to rein in on debt. Banks that help finance player transfers are also considering pulling out. If lenders limit their support to cheering their teams, football's longterm health will improve.

UK soccer clubs can play a disgraceful fiscal foul

5 Aug 2010

The British tax authorities are playing hardball against the national Football Association. Portsmouth, a bankrupt club, is trying to come out of administration. But scandalous FA rules mean overdue tax won't be paid before other claims. The taxman is livid, and quite right too.