http://www.afr.com/street-talk/ubs-could-score-in-ffa-private-equity-play-20170219-gug8db

Read more: http://www.afr.com/street-talk/ubs-could-score-in-ffa-private-equity-play-20170219-gug8db#ixzz4ZJh9FHMW 
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"You can bet there are some smart types at UBS who will be asked to make a few calls and see what is out there. After all, Matthew Grounds and Guy Fowler were integral to FFA's recent $254 million TV deal with Fox Sports.  "

It's now a $254 million TV deal?

How do we reconcile that?

This is the closest I can get to.  The bare minimum offering (excluding the extras for new teams and meeting ratings targets) is the $50 mill offered in Year 1 of the deal, less $6 mill in contra, gets us to $44 mill in Year 1 in cash terms.

Multiply that by six and we get $264 mill.

lol pipinuo

Journalists don't follow football matters - no matter what they report on its seldom accurate

"As for what would be offered – dealmakers know the Lowys love a restructuring deal. If there is there is one thing FFA chair Steven Lowy wouldn't want to give away, it is control.

How could a private equity investor make it work without taking control? That's the issue for investment bankers.

You can bet there are some smart types at UBS who will be asked to make a few calls and see what is out there. After all, Matthew Grounds and Guy Fowler were integral to FFA's recent $254 million TV deal with Fox Sports.

UBS Australia's top brass have an ongoing relationship with the Lowys, and FFA seems to be an extension of the mandate. "



"Crispin Murray in the mix for the FFA after Frank Lowy

The state federations are not entirely thrilled with Football Federation Australia outgoing chairman Frank Lowy's instructions. Louise Kennerley
"The process is ongoing," IAG chairman Brian Schwartz told us when we called about the search for three new board members for the Football Federation of Australia.

So we hear.

Indeed, we have a new name to add to what is understood to be the preferred short list of proposed members for billionaire Frank Lowy's sporting empire: BT Investment Management's head of equity strategies, Crispin Murray.

Schwartz, the outgoing FFA deputy chairman and a long time Lowy confidant, wouldn't comment. He is leading the nominations committee informed by the exhaustive work of executive search company Egon Zehnder.

Still, we've heard Murray is on an extremely short list for the three new members along with CBA Group Executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin and, of course, Westfield co-chief executive Steven Lowy, the presumptive FFA chair to follow his father Frank's 12 year reign.

Not to suggest that the FFA world revolves around the Lowy family, but it's worth noting that BT was crucial to the successful restructuring of their then $60 billion shopping mall empire last year. That couldn't hurt Murray's chances if our mail is correct.

This being Australia, not Sepp Blatter's shonky FIFA, there is a reputable process for all this – whatever whinging former board members might say.

Whatever the board's preferred shortlist, ultimately, the state Federations will decide at the FFA's November AGM. Which isn't to say they won't all make the same decision, independently. We'll see. "
http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/bts-crispin-murray-in-the-mix-for-the-ffa-after-frank-lowy-20150827-gj9eyh

"No one does corporate governance like billionaire Frank Lowy's FFA

The state federations are not entirely thrilled with Football Federation Australia outgoing chairman Frank Lowy's instructions. Louise Kennerley
No one does corporate governance like the billionaire outgoing chairman Frank Lowy's Football Federation of Australia.

As Rear Window readers found out last week, BT Investment Management's head of equity strategies Crispin Murray is on Brian Schwartz' short list of three Lowy-preferred FFA board members.

The day after we published that news, the outgoing FFA deputy chairman Schwartz (better known to many of you as a long-time confidant to Lowy and IAG's current chairman) sent a letter to the state bodies that will vote to decide the new board members at the FFA's November annual meeting.

Even though nominations for the positions do not close until September 30, Schwartz has put the Lowy-approved list in ink. No one does corporate governance quite like football.

The state bodies were told there would be no other candidates put forward by the board lest it risked a return to the "old days" of football. Perhaps code for back when it wasn't a Lowy fiefdom.

To allay fears that the board shortlist was a bit on the stumpy side, Schwartz trumpeted that 70 candidates were identified and 50 of these were contacted. But whether that meant much more than they were sent a "how are you going?" email from Schwartz's PA remains unclear.

Now, the various state federations are not entirely thrilled with their Lowy instructions. That's not a great surprise.

As former FFA board member and Socceroo Jack Reilly has said, while the Westfield founder is an excellent businessman, some – Reilly included – think Frank has run the code as a "one-man band".

Since the Schwartz letter was sent, the Victorian branch has put forward an alternative, not-Lowy-sanctioned, candidate. We await further candidates from the other states.

One name pressed on us is Investors Mutual founder Anton Tagliaferro. He's the president of the Milan Soccer Academy in Australia, so he's not short of experience with the code. And, since it's apparently important, we'll note he's a market gun as well.

And before we move on from the FFA, whatever happened to former board member Peter Treddinick? He departed a few months ago in mysterious circumstances. Do write in if you know more."

http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/no-one-does-corporate-governance-like-billionaire-frank-lowys-ffa-20150902-gjd8tx

Sounds to me like if the clubs what to move control of the A-league away from the FFA , the FFA want to make some money from it and not let the clubs have it at the same time

It's accepted inside FFA that the current model is broken.

Yeah wow, they're only catching up to everyone else, like 7 years late.

-PB

Who's gonna tell Frank ?

Excellent. The gap between having a media presence and not is too big and unaffordable. You need equity to be competitive in this sporting market. I do think the right investment would make football very big in this country. The facts are evident look at the impact Del Piero, Dwight Yorke, Fowler, the FFA Cup and expansion has had on the league but these all have cost burdens before any returns. The FFA alone just doesn't have enough capital for where the game needs to go. I think this is a good move as long as it can be done properly with the interests of football being the central driving force.

anyone think the private equity might be for the expansion?  Maybe they only have 1 suitable 'owner' and want to get to two teams.  Maybe they want to got from 10-14 in one hit and 13 and 14 will be owned by private equity until the FFA sell them ala Wanderers.

brilliant 

But hey,

Who cares ?  so long as Frank keeps paying us to bullshit it through

13% payrise during Full-of-fuck-ups 2015/16, why thank you very much.................

The thing the FFA have to understand is the club owners are the equity model

Forget about this bullshit idea of a single balanced league being paid out of a central pool of funds. Nobody wants to buy an "A League" or invest in 1/10th of an "A League"

If clubs are independent and retain all revenue streams including finals gate keepings and the only competitive cap is a 4+1 rule, this means clubs aren't spending millions more than other clubs only to see the fruits of their labour divided 10 ways and used to compete against them

Not every club is going to have a wealthy owner. But the top 6-7 clubs will. All the FFA have to do is give a minimal fund to each club out of the TV deal and let the club owners do the rest. Some clubs will shit kick at the bottom of the league surviving on a $3m cheque from the FFA and a small amount of sponsorship. They can pop in and out of the league as player development clubs

The other clubs with owners will fight amongst themselves to stand out. There will be real investment and these clubs will drive the overall ratings, attendances, and value of the league. The balance of power will change over time but as long as somebody is doing it the league will always be viable

The FFA simply have to resign to giving up ownership. If there are several people out there willing to invest millions into our game for a few years of fame then let them

Someone at the FFA has woken up. A good, even great start!

@bb

I think they have... Only, they will give it up after the 6 year deal where they have taken a majority of the funds and not distributed a imoi fair amount to the clubs.

Will most likely coincide with the departure of Lowy Jr. and Gallop from FFA.

Maybe they're looking for a ledman to fund a second division.

I've been reading a fair bit about the J-League in the recent few days. It's absolutely astonishing how they've got to where they are in the time frame they have.

It shows what a clear cut, set expansion criteria along with following a true football model can do.

If they're looking for a new model I hope they look there for inspiration.. One can only dream.

@bigpop

I think the should try to set up a 2nd division first without promotion. Try to run it Monday/Tuesday-Thursdays , so during the A-League season there are matches on everyday. Also in eg Sydney & Melbourne it wouldn't clash with A-L as FFA want fans to attend A-L at all costs.

An issue is FOXTEL, they one would think, have to be involved as they would probably be the best to promote/cross promote the leagues. But would they be willing to pay? Would it take away value from A-L?

They have already committed money for 6 years, do they need to even bother?

We have witnessed FFA Cup can be successful but that is a different format.

@tuco

I agree it's more about increased playing pool than pro/rel at the moment. Pro/rel eventually needs to be the carrot.

I've always liked the idea of having all the second division games on the Sunday with the match of the day on Monday night. Leave mid week to National Team, ACL and FFA Cup.
The Sunday games could all occur with a highlights show straight after the HAL game, whether they be live crosses around the league for two hours or replayed with the games occurring during the Sunday HAL game and live scores scrolling across the bottom.

I don't think this format I've suggested would take away from the HAL if anything it would add viewers to the Sunday time slot which is usually a non event except for the supporters of the clubs involved. Fox love their Monday night games and if we could keep it too the second division it won't detract from the A1 teams. Probably won't add viewers but it would be of high interest to football people.

If they could find a private investor to fund it then offer up a game for nothing to fox -call it good will- and then let the football do the talking. Similarly to how the HAL started on fox.

I think if they could treat the two divisions as one under the one banner but obviously prioritise the HAL1 in regards to tv etc it could work. If you look at the J-League website all 3tiers have almost equal coverage/info on them.

This conversation is probably best in the expansion or pro/rel thread though.

The circus continues. But im sure two new pop up teams will smooth over the carcks. For a couple of years at least. 

@select

It is one more year of expansion speculation (which teams), then 1 year watching 2 new teams play.... Then, we da best, sleeping giant has woken etc etc aka 4 years of talking about the next tv deal.

Occasionally mentioned the number of football participants at various press conferences for good measure 

lol that was implied.

Rd 1 ANZ derby on 10, should be looking to get over 600k, netball can get 300k.

Double edged sword really, the better is does the more gloat potential.

Will probably be the "classic" rd 1 ANZ, rd2 Mel derby, rd 3 Adel v MV

Personally I would play both the Sydney teams away and have MV v BR at Aami, then the ANZ derby r2, but I'm just internet guy.

This might be blasphemous, but it would be interesting to see News Corp invest in football, by either buying a share of an independent A-League itself or in the various clubs. It has definitely guaranteed a certain level of promotion for the NRL, with their stake in the NRL and ownership of the Broncos and Storm ensuring they leveraged their massive media arm to promote the game.

They should buy Roar and rebrand them to Broncos. However NRL own the ip so concession would have to be made.

bravo

Well it works quite well in Australia with the NRL and AFL being absolute proof.

Get your point and many including myself would have the same wish in having 6 more teams now, right now. Unfortunately it's logistically impossible without damaging the quality of the league significantly or sending the game to almost certain bankruptcy.

If only we were playing AFL and NRL in a global comtext. 

Aldo NRL made 53 million in losses. 

Unfortunately our income comes from Australia mostly through Australian media only where interests from Australians is measured.

The private equity model is an interesting thought.

So a private consortium comes over and pays the FFA for the right to run the A-League.

It might have to pay an upfront fee, which the FFA pockets.

It might have to return 10% of annual revenues to the FFA, and it will want it's own 10% return annually, so out of annual revenues (currently) of some $80 million per annum, $8 mill is going to the FFA, the private consortium takes $8 mill out of the game, leaving $64 mill for the clubs and running of the A-League.

Because it's a private, commercial venture, presumably the whole thing would be subject to company tax, so that might be another $5 mill or so leaving the game.

On the above figures, it doesn't really sound like a great deal for anyone, but the private consortium who owns  the A-League would have the incentive to drive up revenue by any means, and profit from any surplus revenues the league can generate, so that might be attractive to private investors.

Obviously it would also carry the risk of potential losses.