https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/a-leagues-set-for-130-million-payday-with-equity-sale-to-us-firm-20211023-p592jm.html
A-Leagues set for $130 million payday with equity sale to US firm

By Dominic Bossi

October 24, 2021 — 5.30amSaveShareNormal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size0The A-Leagues are set to receive a game-changing payday by selling a stake of the competition to an American private equity firm for $130 million, in what will be the biggest single injection of cash into Australian club football.

The Sun-Herald and Sunday Age can reveal the Australian Professional Leagues, the new owners and operators of the A-League Men and A-League Women, are in the advanced stages of talks to sell a significant stake of the competitions to US-based firm Silver Lake.

While a deal is yet to be finalised, several sources with knowledge of the negotiations suggest an in-principle agreement has been reached to sell a stake of about 30 per cent of the competitions for a fee understood to be about $130 million, valuing the A-Leagues at more than $430 million.The two parties have been deep in negotiations for an equity sale for several months but are now on the cusp of finalising a deal that would give the once financially strapped competition a massive cash reserve.Many of the competition’s major stakeholders were briefed about the proposed sale this week. The deal would also need federal government regulatory approval.The APL declined to comment when contacted on Saturday, however sources with knowledge of the deal say Football Australia is unlikely to stand in the way of the sale, as the governing body would also benefit financially from the transaction. FA retains shares in the competition after control of the A-Leagues was transferred to the clubs in December last year.Should the equity deal go through, it would represent the biggest commercial deal in the history of Australian club football and allow the A-Leagues to pursue lofty off-field and marketing ambitions while providing long-term financial stability.While A-League clubs will likely receive some of the windfall of the proposed sale, most of the funds will be put towards building a new digital media platform, as well as covering the costs of the competition’s promotion, long-term operating costs, future investments and, potentially, enabling clubs to buy more marquee players.If the sale goes through, Silver Lake will join broadcaster CBS Viacom (owners of Network Ten and Paramount+) as commercial partners with equity stakes in the A-Leagues, while the 12 clubs will remain the majority owners of the competition.

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The impending partnership with the A-Leagues is not Silver Lake’s first venture in professional football with the California-based company having purchased shares in City Football Group, owners of EPL club Manchester City and A-League side Melbourne City. The group paid $US500 million in 2019 for a 10 per cent stake in CFG.

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Silver Lake has also shown significant interest in investing in other sporting codes in the region, having made an offer to purchase a 12.5 per cent stake in New Zealand Rugby and commercial rights to the All Blacks in April. However, that deal stalled after New Zealand Rugby’s Players Association blocked the plan, citing concerns around the commercialisation of the team’s branding.Silver Lake’s proposed equity purchase of the A-League follows several major commercial partnerships the APL has forged since gaining its independence from Football Australia, including a landmark broadcast deal with Ten and Paramount+ that sees the A-League shown on a major free-to-air network for the first time in the competition’s 16-year history. The A-League Men’s competition has also struck a new naming rights deal with Isuzu Utes. Sources with knowledge of the deal suggest the value of that arrangement is about $4 million a season.

For better or worse BIG $ is starting to flow for Australian Football which is unprecedented. Hopefully next few years sees the AL standards creep up higher

Not happy with this... interestingly most of the money will be spend on international communications...

Given the already 30 million plus most of the 130 million on the hub.... seems to me APL are setting up to sell direct .... 

This is what Silver Lake do. They build and trade off underperforming industries with their huge capabilities in directing ICT investments to monetize content. Content is the single biggest and underdeveloped asset the APL own. This is a very smart partner choice, and this strategy goes directly to that I speculated about in another thread about the APL going the way Supercars did. The APL are building a content production and distribution business and my money is on them the use that to monetize their leagues and a DIV2 and maybe some smaller Asian leagues. This is all about revenue growth and diversification. Futureproofing professional football in Australia.

can you please expand on the supercars mention please ?
I don't know the other thread you mention of so I can relate their deal and this.

Sure.

Supercars have a similar split production deal with 7 - an approach they developed in their previous partnership at 10.

They have invested in the establishment of a huge production arm (Supercars Media) and own and operate all the cameras and other production capital (including an OTT platform for OS broadcasting) and broadcast talent at most their events and supplement them with additional cameras of the broadcast partner at their big events. Supercars Media is a vastly bigger operation than Supercars itself, but importantly, motor racing needs many more cameras and broadcast staff to make it engaging than football does.

Going this way APL wIll own all the content (I notice they purchased the archive content from Fox in their final TV deal), they can exploit it in the editing booth to drive content through the broadcast partnership itself, tbrough their new aus football hub, podcasts, specialist apps, undertake documentary film production, push out content to content hungry regional media parters about the FFA Cup, develop made for TV special (like e-series football, awards nights etc...) and they sell it all here - and importantly, they can sell the league and cup broadcast directly via their own OTT platform to OS audiences.

This approach has also enabled Supercars to self-fund additional capacity in production and broadcast that they have subsiquently been contracted as a braodcaster for a couple of 'lower league' domestic and asian motor racing series.

I have no doubt this is where the APL are headed - but football has a vastly bigger and younger 'built in' football family here to sell content to than motor sport and there are many more global football fans or developing leagues looking for content or a broadcast partner at the right price point. The opportunity is huge if you own your content and build your production capability. 

Silver Lake will, by the look of them, bring something else that is missing from the Supercars Media aproach - a big data driven strategy to link and grown the football family and then market online content, club membership, tickets, events, merchandise etc... and the APL are rightly seeking to leverage popular foreign leagues to drive eyeballs to their hub also... Supercars have wanted to 'footyfy' their sport for years creating a finals series of sorts, franchising entry licenses to create 'racing clubs', buying out and building lower divisions of V8 racing and even adopting the language of football in their commentary to create tribalism within the 'league', not just between the two car makes. They have not been able to do it well to be frank as it all feels very forced and fans follow drivers more than teams increasingly. this will all come more naturally to football obviously.

OK thanks for your brief......
Its interesting and agree its very hard to compare supercars to football but the media partner directive has similar lines to market, selling a product......
In the big picture the "product" itself has to deliver and I've seen supercars going backwards for some years due to their governace led by Archer/Seamer.
Rivalry red vs blue was created long before that investment company you may know, another investor before them failed as well after Cochrane sold at its peak I think around $195M.
2020 Fox/7 deal of $200M is the only reason the Series has kept afloat - its viewership declining, a new Invester buyer talk is around $100M.
Archer paid around $190M in 2011, what a loss and their content platform hasn't done much, Middle East/Asia/USA normal target for this content I expect you know.
Overall you could say it is similar to APL/AL, no matter where additional funding comes from be it content the big picture is no amount of money invested keeps people/supporters invested or attract new. Its an unkown to a degree and a sell up.
Supercars, Archer over the years have reduced "support" races that used to entertain having varying class's to watch that was exciting for many.
Archer decided to be greedy and its all about the main show, as you've mentioned they bough or closed out other competitors in the game, the format is a long drain of "practice" of the same main game before we finally see the main race, you touched this. (isn't it ironic APL blocks out NPL or NSD P/R for eg )
Its turned the whole series into a boring joke and the content advantages haven't helped in the big picture that is surprising maybe for the USA audience are into our type of cars and follow so many varients of racing.

What I'm coming to in the end of this - no matter what great businessmen do with their product, all this deal represents to me its not about the good of the game but the good of the investors (pockets) having content available to sell abroad ( whatever OS deal is struck the money won't come back into the sport) for thats how big business operates.
Will it sell enough ? time will tell I guess, what is the OS viewership like of the MLS ? 
Maybe latin america for many players are from there but europe ? I'd say bugger all.
I just don't think a franchise football product gains the attention like say motogp/F1/EPL and other normal P/R leagues......

Excitement by some over a headline.

I once read that the Mexican viewership of the MLS is actually larger than local viewership, which might help explain why compared to the other American sports, it's broadcast deals are worth peanuts.
As for South America proper, I mean why would your average Argentinian or Brazilian have the remotest interest in the MLS?
If their local leagues weren't enough, they have all the European leagues to worry about.
Who else is going to care about the MLS?
Certainly not your average European football fan.

not surprised re the Mex mention, I mentioned latin merica purely on the base's players are in the MLS as well and some would have interest to follow, not devotees 100% but passing interest unless its one of their top players like a Chichorito for eg.
Their own league and typical latin merican leagues would be their foremost full stop and following some of their own in Euro leagues way more than MLS.
Merica is a bubble and squeak DNA way different to their way of thinking and DNA as you'd agree..

I don't disagree with much of that at all, and as a close follower of mototr sport in Australia since the 70's all your observations resonate with mine. My only point of difference is to say that differing motivations are fine as long as incentives are aligned. Let me put it this way. I suspect the APL want to make money too. 

Where do you get this? The article says the money will be spent on the following things:

"While A-League clubs will likely receive some of the windfall of the proposed sale, most of the funds will be put towards building a new digital media platform, as well as covering the costs of the competition’s promotion, long-term operating costs, future investments and, potentially, enabling clubs to buy more marquee players."

To be honest the worst thing they could do with the money is sign marquee players. It needs to be invested for long-term gains, not a short-term sugar rush.

I think marquees as a strategy can work, the MLS has shown you need to sign a new one each season in order to grow the league and are now at the point where the league is popular enough to go after younger talented south americans who are less about marketing and more about talent. If the AL just sign sporadic marquees then it is a waste of money. I do agree that other areas of the league need attention way before we worry about marquees though, but it is worth exploring. It will really comes down to costings of everything. A marquee who will move the dial will cost about 4 -8 mil AUD a season going off what the MLS pay. So if we were to get a new marquee a season you are looking at about that much per year (not counting what clubs will contribute which may be enough to extend it to two season). It will all come down to how much clubs will contribute towards it and have all the other more important areas been addressed. 

Potential conflict of interest with City Football Group? 

It's a very big pay day.
Remember that initially they were trying to sell a 10% stake for $30 mill, and it's become a 30% stake for $130 million.
In other words, they've extracted a much larger price out of Silver Lake, but for a much bigger chunk of the action.
CFG already has some sort of joint venture agreement with Silver Lake, so effectively, this means CFG now has 30% plus its existing 8.33% interest, now giving them a 38.33% interest.
Also worth remembering that Viacom now owns a 2.5% stake in the APL via the broadcast agreement.
What does it all mean at the end of the day?
Well, who knows?
In all likelihood, a chunk of the $130 mill will be used to reimburse the losses current owners incurred during the last corona infested season.  That might take $30 mill on its own, and if they are expecting the same thing for the current season, that might take another $30 mill.
They wanted to invest $30 mill in digital technology (Silver Lake is meant to be a technology comglomerate).
That still leaves $40 mill in the kitty.
It's a lot of money.

It will open up for the aleague clubs to invest in their much needed infrastructure as well as open up in bringing in more marquee players to the league as well.

I don't ever remember the 10% for $30m.  Last reports was that they were selling max 25%.

Now, Silverlake, CFG and 3 others will have a majority.

I’m sure we’ll find a way to waste that in consultation fees.

The good news keeps on coming for Aus football, great stuff and a much needed investment kick for the sport especially for the aleague. 

Might want to edit that first post so it's readable.

This is possibly the biggest moment in Aus club football since the A-League was launched and we qualified for the '06 WC, we need to ride this and make sure it's not wasted. I'm optimistic but we've all seen firsthand how quickly sports leagues burn through money (ARU after the '03 WC and the AFL with their blackhole to support the franchises in NSW/QLD).

Sounds to me  like they've already spent most  of the money before they  will even get it,  at  a  cost of   30%  of the  farm.

I  wouldn't  be  expecting   any  new  stadiums  or  state-of-the-art   facilities being  built, if I  were  you.

Maybe  a Rodwell or  two,  but  that's  about  it.

I see you've remembered to place the extra spaces between the words this time.  

I hope that the majority of the A-league clubs consider building their own stadiums with some of the monies they may get from this deal to help defray some of the costs associated with running a football club. .............charliecat . as you can guess I'm still alive & kicking.

It's only about $10m per club, which is not enough to even begin building a stadium, and only a fraction of the total will be distributed to the clubs, most of it will be used for league-wide investment: the digital platform most notably. There's also the potential to set up a commercial marketing body like MLS's SUM, which could for instance bankroll tours by overseas clubs, the profits from which can be invested back into the A-League.

$130 million sounds like a lot, but it won't go very far at all. Lets hope its spent wisely.  

I would actually like to see clubs use this money for club houses that they can use as a source of income through functions, bars, etc. It would be a good consistent way they could generate income year round

By my reckoning, about half the money is going straight back to the owners to defray losses incurred across two covid infested seasons.
That still leaves some $65 mill to $70 mill, but about $30mill will be invested in digital media.
So that leaves about $35 mill to $40 mill.
A marquee at $4 mill per season is hardly worth it, won't be high enough calibre player, so you start talking about $8 mill per season, or $16 mill in two seasons.
Ok, there's enough to pay for that, but which club is getting the benefit?
Maybe it's a 50/50 arrangement, so two clubs can afford that calibre marquee because they can contribute $4 mill per annum.
Newcastle will not be one of the beneficiaries, as they are currently owned by three other clubs.  Mariners and the Nix, and probably Macarthur are unlikely to be beneficiaries, so that whittles it down to 8 candidates, and of those 8, four look more likely than the other four.
Either way, inevitably it becomes a question of fairness.

4 million gets you someone the calibre of Matuidi (per MLS he is actually being paid 2mil AUD) whilst 8 mil gets you Higuain calibre. So 4 mil is definitely doable, but tbh the league cant worry about fairness atm. It needs to worry about growing the league which will benefit all the clubs in the long term.

Surely the club (or foreign despot that owns the club and has a current employee on the board of FA) that has an equity stake in Silver Lake would be the major beneficiary financially? APL sold themselves cheap in my opinion.... 30% & 1/12th of the remaining "pie" is a pretty decent outcome for the CFG - How long before "his highness the Sheikh" starts getting some positive press on channel 10 do you reckon? 
For the "good of the game" ...... ofcourse.

Can someone break this down for a dopey me this morning. What's in it for the buyers?

Redemption maybe bud? A whole league they can use to do whatever they want with maybe? 25 million western world consumers they can beam messages into every night?  Who knows?

Not an expert but i believe a return on investment when they sell or through profit margins. Best example (even if its extreme) is lets say they invested the Premier league when it started, that has grown into a behemoth today which would be be able to today give a yearly dividend or they could sell for a lot more than they bought. 

Agree with Jay above that if they can re-sell their stake within the decade for double what they paid, they are probably happy.
It's hard to imagine that they are expecting to pull an annual dividend when the league has been averaging approx $20 million in average losses across all clubs since inception (and new broadcast deal is generating less cash, and new major sponsorship is generating less cash) - and that's before we even get to the impact of COVID on all other revenue sources.
From the perspective of at least one of the owners, it guarantees a closed league in perpetuity.
But yeh, it's a lot of money.

Very worried this money will be wasted. Central allocated funds should be distributed to clubs (such as the Roar) to build assets that contribute long term, such as clubhouses on club owned land that has potential to grow into a stadium complex. Just my 1Cents worth. 

About half of it will go back directly to the owners to defray losses made over last two years, and to help with current season.
Note:  that's not really the same thing as the money going back to the "club".

Yes some of this money should eb used for a second div and for marquees.

Also lol at the dopes who think this deal gives City 38% ownership of the aleague. I suppose we're also worried by what Airbnb, Alibaba, GoDaddy and Skype have in mind for the code?? This is an investment company. They're worried about money. They invest to help other companies make more money and then they in turn get richer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Lake_(investment_firm)#Investments

Correct.
Meaning they will use their controlling interest to make sure that all APL decisions further their one primary interest.

The key point is that a booming A League is in their interests. 

Well, in truth, the only thing that really matters is that they find a buyer wishing to pay more than they did for their stake.
That might coincide with a booming A-League.
Then again, the $130 million they've paid is at the very bottom end of their usual array of investments.
It may or may not matter to them a whole  lot.

You should lol at the dopes that will spend their hard earned wages gambling on the results of matches in this league big fella. As far as I know the results of matches between Alibaba vs Skype don't get bet on online.....  Its ok if they come right out and say its "sportertainment" like wrestling, but while they are still pretending its a football competition its a bit suss that the lines of "ownership" are so blurred wouldn't you say? 

I see why you call yourself mono...

I actually find your repartee insightful and amusing most of the time but it must be exhausting trying to convince yourself the A-League isn't football.

Personal insults aside, are YOU not concerned that the opportunities for match fixing are now doubled if not tripled?
What would you call a so called "sporting competition" were franchises own a stake in each other, where one "club" effectively is financially in bed with a consortium that now owns 30% of the league??? I must be naïve but that, to me, is alarming. "MLS lite" is not the "golden standard" that will make our sport grow, make our playing pool better and create an environment where all Australians can enjoy and appreciate this glorious, beautiful game we all love. Even the yanks are starting to see the light and the grumbling from fans and clubs below the money tiers is growing ever louder over there... why must we look to one failing example instead of following the 200+ other , better examples of leagues around the world?

A-League or APL or Aleagues Men's, Women's and Children's or Isuzu Trucks event series or whatever they are now calling themselves may very well play the sport of football, however this is now, clearly, incidental as their goal (self declared by the way - just have look back at all of Lederer and Townsend's decelerations over the last few months) is to generate "content" for public consumption. A-League Franchises currently may very well PLAY football (currently) but they are NOT Football mate.

In truth, this is actually a great thing for real football in this country. It marks the "line in the sand" moment where the A-leagues competitions cease to be the financial burden on the other 700+ clubs in the country and we can focus on creating what we have never had in this country, a true football pyramid from amateur to National NPL, all interconnected.... 

Well said.
It's very hard to put your finger on it, but it's pretty clear that we are now as far away from a real football comp as you can get.
And the fact that people keep mentioning the MLS as the gold standard for us to follow tells you a lot.
For example, this deal pretty much spells the end of ever having P&R, although it's hard to express in words why I think that is the case, but it just is.
All I can say is that things are set up for the investors, and more than likely, that means decisions which are not about football, or at least, do not have football as a priority.
People are hoping it means that a better football comp develops because  that will help the investors, but in truth, it's just as easy to mount the opposite argument (a la MLS).
In other words, investors trading in franchises and equity for the sole purpose of making money is NOT the same thing as creating a quality football comp.

Exactly right.
If my some miracle of miracles I am wrong and Silver Lake's $130 million investment goes towards building training grounds and stadiums for (even the Alegaue franchises) football this would be a great and glorious day for all of football indeed but as it stands.... Its no different than investing in bitcoin or shares or real-estate ... the product doesn't matter, just how much of a buck they can make from it... That, to me, is NOT a good result for the sport in this or any country. 

Frankly, that'd be due to them being an American consortium and therefore not culturally-inclined to make pro/rel a reality.

I'd imagine there'd be all sorts of assurances given to the owners of the clubs and this mob to 'protect' their investment in both directions.

I can't believe we sit here in 2021 still talking about, maybe, possibly, you never know P & R.

Fuck these fucking idiots.



How's the send division shaping up BTW?

Dead in the water so far...... Only great news lately, in VIC at least, is the state sporting grants have lead to a dozen or so local clubs getting some much needed funding and updated facilities... 

In fact I agree with pretty much all of that, except the highlighted part.

I want nothing more than for football to be the best it can possibly be in this country and that absolutely requires the fully connected pyramid.

But don't tell a rusted on Mariners supporter, or Victory supporter or any other supporter who goes along to every match and experiences the oscillation of joy and grief that they're not watching (and part of) football.

As I've said before, one of the happiest days in my life will be when South are promoted on merit to the AL. Then we might agree.

Mate, no beef whatsoever with the supporters of these clubs - especially the ones who have jumped on board with the surge of the sports popularity over the last 15 years... Anyone under the age of 30 or so who is an Aleague supporter, or even the new ones over that age that didnt follow the sport in this country before are well regarded in my books (as for the turncoats who abandoned their old NSL clubs to jump on board a new franchise .... well I think they are the lowest form of bandwagoner to be honest but thats their problem). Ofcourse these clubs have established rusted on support (even the newest abominations will over time I guess?) but that's not the issue here. In fact that is one of the few strength the Aleague brought, a whole bunch of people who engaged with a club and the sport of football who otherwise might not have.... 
The issue is that the APL and their new financial bedfellows are running the sport as a business, even in the darkest days of the NSL soccer was at the core of all issues. Fame and prestige (and political clout I suppose) from having a strong club, promoting their own agendas, being a celebrity in their own circles etc etc whatever the reason the previous Soccer Australia mob did all the ridiculously scandalous things they did it was always soccer at the heart of it.. When I hear the head of APL and the CEO of FA describe the sport I love as "content" I guess that just gets my goat.....

Modern football, modern football.  :laugh::hehe:   For the past 10 years global professional football is essentially a branding exercise that drives the business.  Sad, I know.   

I want to get an "Against Modern Football" T-shirt but dont have a pay pal account..... hahahahahahahahahahahah

Well - I'm one of the turncoats. Lived in the inner west and went to Lambert Park to watch Apia and Leichhardt Oval for Balmain in the NSWRL - member of both at the time. Moved to the Central Coast in the mid eighties. Followed the local rep football sides then. My kids joined Gosford City Dragons, the Mariners were born, their Academy came along, the Central Coast Lightning reformed in the State League as Central Coast United.

My teams are now all Central Coast related but I still retain a soft spot for Apia.   

To each their own. If that works for you then fair enough... Im not the arbiter of what makes a football fan or why. I picked a club (or to be honest was taken to one and that was it) as a wee lad and wherever I may live in the world that wont change... but thats me.  To be honest, I would be a little more annoyed if I was an APIA supporter and you, remaining in the inner west,  chose a club like Sydney FC or Wanderers just because a new shiny thing came around if that makes sense?

Absolutely, I would have stayed with Apia if that was the case. As it was Apia's keeper at one stage, Terry Greedy (ex-Socceroo and Mariners life member) ended up being the deputy principal at my son's school on the Coast. I'm pretty sure that Andrew Orsatti started at Apia as the 'orange boy' when Terry was there.  

When I was a wee lad my first match was Manchester City vs a NSW rep side in the early 1970s. Ron Corry was the only NSW player I can remember. So my first club would be Manchester City. No thanks!!

It still amazes me that someone like Greedy was socceroos keeper and at the same time a school teacher, Paul Wade was a draughtsman I think ... they all had careers and soccer was a passion... 
Glad you didn't gel with the "Citizens" they are a special breed of people the lesser Mancs. 

I've played against Terry numerous times in the O35 and O45s. I usually play left back but occasionally play in goals (where I played my highest level of football - level 3 state league and intervarsity). 

One day I was playing v Terry's team, and I think it was 1 v 2, when our keeper was injured so into goals I went. Five minutes later I pulled off one of the best saves of my life - a diving header from my blind side at which I instinctively flung myself (high to my left after moving right following the cross). I even managed to hold the ball.

Both teams gave me a stunned ovation (which was very cool - I was pretty stunned myself), but at half time Terry sought me out and told me it was one of the greatest saves he'd ever seen. I was a bit star-struck - even at 50-ish - and mumbled something in reply. What a top bloke to do that during a hard fought top of the table clash.

Nice, well done, must have been a cracker to make Terry say that....

Very  very  disappointing  isn't  it.

Is  that  how a  real  football  person  refers   to  our  great  game ?  

aha  can  you  explain  why  you  bother  with  the  double  spacing  thing?

Is it just because every word you write is so important to you that it needs a little room to breathe?

Again, I agree with (pretty much) all of that.

Money calls the tune everywhere, but an A-League club doesn't have to be your only club. I take an interest in a number of clubs but I'm also the sort of bloke who'll stop and watch a couple of kids kick a ball with jumpers as goalposts.

I have  a few clubs around the world and locally I "follow"  too... I cant speak for all of us soccer tragics  but I would hazard that most of us were a step above our classmates in Geography at school?. Who else but the soccer nerds knew where the hell Lisbon,  Kiev and Dortmund were?  Hahah Everyone in my sphere has a favourite EPL club, German club, Italian club, Spanish club and Greek club etc etc. But there is nothing like your first true love, the club above all other clubs. The one you ride the highs and lows with over 40, 50, 60 years of your life.... , the one where as a grown  man you still stumble out of the gate after a heavy loss feeling like you've been through a colonoscopy. The club who's last minute winner actually causes your heart to skip a beat.....
Maybe I'm a sentimental old fool but money and marketing and artificial rivalry can't create that, and part of "that" hunger is what used to drive the kids with the ball and jumpers as goalposts..... Now those kids have all got one of the many CR7 club shirts (their poor parents have to fork out another $200 whenever the shampoo model changes clubs) and   $300 boots and they all do a special dance when they score .........  Money calls the tune mate, I just don't feel like dancing to it anymore :)