Who'd have thought equality oriented women's soccer would be the first professional league to embrace private equity underwriters? Semafor's Liz Hoffman hosted National Women's Soccer League Commissioner Jessica Berman. Hoffman wrote:
We talked about the influx of Wall Street money into sports in general and NWSL in particular, which was the first major sports league to allow institutional investors to control teams. “We have to be very cautious and careful [but] I’m obviously a fan of it,” she said, singling out Sixth Street, which owns San Francisco’s Bay FC through its evergreen fund. A sports team “is not something that you hold for five years and expect to make money,” she said, “and that requires a different kind of investor.”
The greed and leverage boys aren't known for sharing their winnings with anyone other than limited partners. Actual employees of PEU affiliates have shared the short stick that comes with deal fees, management fees, drastically higher interest expenses and special distributions. That is if they keep their job after the PEU job shedding (initial and subsequent rounds).
Sports is the perfect investment for those obsessed with winning in the financial world and willing to invest heavily in politicians to tilt the economic table for maximum PEU advantage. The Carlyle Group located in Washington, D.C. for this very reason. Carlyle invested in Seattle's Reign.
Women's soccer, college sports, NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL and even Cricket want access to PEU money. Players will experience owners gunning for return on equity (ROE). They may rue the day the greed and leverage boys came to play financial hardball.
