What does a good owner look like?
Due diligence is all about checking out every factor in any transaction. This is a process most people miss and end up buying a house only to find out they have the neighbours from hell next door.
When we are talking corporate takeover and billion-dollar deals, law firms are employed, and they will even count the paper clips before a sale can be agreed upon. This works for us how?
Well, we can perform our own due diligence and in this article we, as fans, are going to start the search for a possible owner for our beloved Spurs. The candidate we are going to interview for the job today is an American by the name of Todd Boehly.
Note: The quotations from Todd Boehly in this article come from the YouTube content: Todd Boehly – Invest in Sports sponsored by Goldman Sachs “Investing in Sport” posted 03.11.21
Who is Todd Boehly?
Todd Boehly is a billionaire CEO of a professional investment company with a huge interest in American sports. His grandparents were from Germany and at school, he started the school wrestling team, so he has been hands-on in sports since he was a kid.
“You are constantly thinking about how do I put together the best possible chance to win…” (time code: 02.28)
“…you’ve built something that is sustainable then it can continue to perpetuate. And I also love the fact that there is no shortcut.” (time code: 02.41)
Why does he look good for Spurs?
He doesn’t just look good, he sounds good because he is a professional sports investor rather than someone running a family company managing assets and wealth. Just take a look at him for yourself and you will see this is a man who understands sports as much as he understands international commerce.
“And by the way, winning is valuable, right, so as you start winning more and winning with regularity then you have more and more associations and opportunities for associations with the equity and the brand.” (time code: 4.12)
There are two reasons why this particular American, as a person, would be a good CEO for Spurs. The first is that he studied at the London School of Economics and has lived and worked in London. The second is that he has allegedly already made a $3 billion bid for Chelsea which was tuned down by Abramovitch. Therefore he is aware of football and sees it as a sport he wants to get into.
On a professional level, this is someone who wants to win trophies. He sees winning trophies as the benchmark of success in his sports business. For him, in sports, winning is what it is all about in terms of his corporate success. The strategy he employs within his business in relation to the fans is that the fans are in the middle and everything builds around the passion of the fans rather than just the balance sheet.
“And ultimately we are going to grow our fan base and the deeper you can get with the fans, the stronger your franchise is going to be and the stronger your franchise is going to be the more likely you are to be able to win. So these things are self-fulfilling, obviously, we are thinking about the fan and all the things around the fan, the fan is in the middle, so as you think about how all of this comes together, you really want to be thinking about all the multiple layers you want to serve the fan.”
(time code: 25.53)
Why would Spurs look good to him?
Boehly’s corporate, Eldridge, has a huge understanding of American sports and the full media implications of our digital age. He talks about global brand rights and sports with the elegant knowledge of a top investor measured by a true passion for sport. Eldridge owns the LA Dodgers baseball team and the Los Angeles Sparks basketball team. They also have investment and links into the LA Lakers basketball team.
“Q Would you buy a team that wasn’t a global brand?
A. I like the ones that have significant momentum already behind them…. They’re more expensive but I think they are generally better valued.” (time code: 11.00)
The potential in owning THFC and the possibility of an NFL franchise would dovetail into the Eldridge portfolio across the range of their holdings and ambitions.
What chance have we got of getting him?
Why shouldn’t we have a chance of attracting an investor of this quality? He has the financial ability, he has the skills and track record. He would walk through a fit and proper owners test if not actually be the benchmark for what a Premier League owner should look like.
If we make an effort to attract his attention, then there has to be a good chance he would be interested. In fact, it would be very surprising if Eldridge has not already been looking at THFC.
“Q: Do you look at your teams that way [as media content]
A: It’s certainly one way that we look at them…. But I don’t think we sit down and say oh this is just content because we look at it and say this is passion. People want to feel passionate, they wanna feel emotion.” (time code: 19.49)
What can we do to get him?
We start talking about him on every media platform and outlet we can. We create hashtags from #EldridgeTHFC and #ToddBoehlyTHFC, and we post as much as we can about looking for him to come into the club. Why do we do that?
We do this because of due diligence. Any potential owner and Eldridge themselves will see this material in their ongoing process of counting the paper clips. This is not an SOS from a sinking ship but flag-waving to demonstrate that we are smart fans who have the sort of passion Boehly and Eldridge believe is at the heart of sports.
Even if we don’t get Eldridge at least we are advertising our needs and trying to recruit an interest.
You do not have to agree with any article on this blog. You don’t even have to like listening to all the Americanisms and business babble referenced here. However, if you see through our cultural differences and look at the person and his record perhaps you can see someone who as an owner would actually be at the games. Perhaps you can see a person who as a CEO would want to win trophies first and foremost.
If anyone has a better candidate then post the name in the comments. We can sit back and wait until we end up with a one-year-old “blank cheque” hedge fund (LMAF Global Ventures) run by a Hollywood film producer buying our club or we can be much more on the front foot.
“You start, you figure it out, you put the right people in place, you build the right foundation, and you then let it run. And from my point of view, you get all of the benefits while you sit back and observe. You can’t tinker every day.” (time code: 01.43)
Let’s try and put the right person in place and build our foundations at our club.
Finally, you might even look at this video and think that any billionaire who publicly states that $30,000 a year is not enough to live on and that wages in the U.S. have to go up is someone who doesn’t look down on people not as wealthy as he is. That he also believes such wage increases should not affect inflation and that the balance sheets of corporates are broad enough to absorb wage increases also speaks volumes about the humanity of his business philosophy.
He is not all about profit. There is more to this man than the need to acquire huge wealth for himself and that’s one of the things you need in a good football club owner.
References:
Quotes from Todd Boehly – Invest in Sports sponsored by Goldman Sachs program “Investing in Sport” posted 03.11.21
Other video content to consider:
Billionaire and Eldridge Co-Founder Todd Boehly discusses success and owning part of the LA Dodgers
Billionaire Todd Boehly: $30K a year is not enough to live on