More than just media, but interesting read. I think most fans don't even think that much about the very premise (i.e. that what's a passion to them is an "asset class" to the people who really run sports, even if a lot of those overpays are also due the the owners having passion).
Later that day, RedBird Capital founder Gerry Cardinale was asked on stage what he would do with a brand new $500 million sports fund if it fell in his lap. āI wouldnāt put it in sports,ā he said. Pressed to clarify, he added, āItās guaranteed youāre going to overpay massively ā¦ if it was $500 million and that was the deal, Iād give it to my insurance company.ā
Weāre in the middle of a lengthy bull market for sports franchises, with average valuations in the major U.S. leagues up more than 12x since 2000. In the past year alone, according to Sportico expert Kurt Badenhausen, NHL team values jumped 29%. NBA teams jumped up 33% (!). Franchises are now an asset class, and the market is white hot. But for me, 2023 was the year the underlying economics really stopped making sense; the year I began to wonder whether very smart and very wealthy people are heading for a massive market correction.
