Big 12 Considering $1B in Private Equity

[CYphyllis]

**** it, take the money.

Short term gains with long term wild college sports drama when it inevitably blows up in a messy divorce? Excellent entertainment value, sign me up.

 

[FLYINGCYCLONE]

1Billion for the Big 12 to split? Or $1B per team? The way the cost of running an athletic program is going up $1B will not be enough in 5 years.

 

[Nor'MidWester]

A very similar proposal (also including CVC) happened in German soccer this year. Fans were adamantly against it, to the point of purposely stopping/delaying games by throwing chocolate coins and tennis balls onto the field (among many other protests). Fan pressure eventually got the clubs/leagues to cave and not go through with it.

Bundesliga scraps €1bn private investment plans amid fan pressure - SportsPro

The league was prepared to sell an 8 per cent stake in its media rights business to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

www.sportspromedia.com

Just like the super league. But Americans don't think about the collective overall health of the sport as the Europeans do. It's all about me me me.

 

[CascadeClone]

It's time to disengage college sports from the school.

It's a business. Sell access to the IP and set up oversight to ensure the sports entity doesn't embarrass the school.

Then have the schools step aside. This is professional sports. Treat it that way.

For FB, MBB, and maybe WBB... I think I agree.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Counting down the days until "PornHub Big XXX Conference"

Buckle up. Red Panda's halftime show is gonna get weird.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Selling off the naming rights is an infinitely better idea than getting in bed with private equity.

I have this sneaking suspicion that it's going to be both.

There's never enough money.

I'm never going to tell other people how to spend their money but I think I'd be done giving mine to any sort of collective pretty much immediately.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

No doubt trying to capitalize on Dr. Pepper just having overtaken Pepsi as the #2 soda in America.

As it should have been this whole time

 

[KnappShack]

For FB, MBB, and maybe WBB... I think I agree.

Have the Iowa State Athletic Department Corp give a stipend for the non-revenue sports.

Then go have at it in the Casey's Pizza 12 for those 3.

This **** is beyond repair. Cut it off and move on. The corp can deal with collective bargaining and the professional sports stuff.

 

[KnappShack]

As it should have been this whole time

The Dublin formula is world class.

The rest....not so much.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

People **** on the Big 12 for being poor and when Yormark is trying to close the gap we get **** on again

Bring on the money, literally do not care what the conference is called since the Big 8 is totally gone

 

[CoachHines3]

 

[ClubCy]

Changing the conference name for what ~$3 million per school (on the high end) before the conference takes it cut?

 

[NWICY]

The WWE Big XII Conference presented by AT&T w/corporate champion Dr. Pepper

Well Baylor is in the conference and I believe Dr. Pepper was created in Waco.

 

[swclone11]

It's not my favorite idea, but we're making around half of what the SEC/B1G is and we are judged when we try to close that gap? If it works, great. I'd prefer something like was said earlier with the Allstate Big 12 conference rather than taking out either word.

 

[WooBadger18]

Selling off the naming rights is an infinitely better idea than getting in bed with private equity.

And the funny thing is selling off naming rights is already a terrible idea

I have this sneaking suspicion that it's going to be both.

There's never enough money.

I'm never going to tell other people how to spend their money but I think I'd be done giving mine to any sort of collective pretty much immediately.

I personally don’t give to collectives, but I’ve reduced my athletic donations to Wisconsin to the minimum to get my season tickets. They’re getting $70 million a year or whatever in tv revenue and destroying college football in the process. They don’t need my extra few hundred dollars

 

[ForbinsAscynt]

Honestly who cares what the conference is named if it gets us a fat check. Just make sure the deal is long enough for us to get used to it before it changes to the Skippy Peanut Butter 12

 

[CoachHines3]

Changing the conference name for what ~$3 million per school (on the high end) before the conference takes it cut?

tbh, i don't care what the conference name is.

more money is more money

 

[CascadeClone]

As someone who works with private equity, this would be like the Big 12 taking out a cash advance on its credit card or putting up its car for a high interest payday loan.

PE makes investments like this to make a **** ton of money. Money that the Big 12 would give up for a short term cash infusion. What happens when that money is gone? Back to the well…

Not necessarily. They might just be looking at it as consistent and increasing return, as opposed to a buy it, chop it, sell it. In fact, I think the almost have to be looking at it that way because I am not sure how you could do the "cost-cutting and flip" here. There's a decent amount of PE money just looking to be anywhere besides the stock market these days. And existing quality sports is sort of like real estate, they aren't making more of it.

I will say I am way more comfortable with BY and JP involved in this, and not just your typical sports-guy ADs. Those PE guys are smart af, and you need business people to deal with them, or they will negotiate you right out of your shorts.

These guys have a stake in LaLiga - any soccer people know anything about how that works for them?

 

[WooBadger18]

More like not together enough. Fans here are selfish and don't care about anything unless it's their team being impacted. I mean we have fans openly taking joy in programs being relegated. Hoping for it actually. The reasons the European's can pull this off is A) They really give a **** about their sport as a whole and B) the big dogs (blue bloods) understand how important it is to have all of these smaller programs to keep the fabric of the sport intact.

I agree and think it can be both. Not enough people care, but even among those of us that do, the organization is just not there right now

 

[Cyclonepride]

Hear me out: Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia 12