B12 selling conference naming rights.

[Deep Creek]

figure out how to drive up all revenues - conference naming, raising ticket prices, playing more neutral games, playing international games, etc.

Explain your thinking on this one please. I don't see it. Which team in the Big 12 is an entity willing to pay big money to come play and which team has name recognition to draw a huge crowd?

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

The fine print of this makes me a bit uncomfortable. Getting into bed with VC’s never, ever goes smoothly. They want their own returns, and that doesn’t mean good things for you. I understand Yorkmark is trying everything he can to keep the Big viable, but this is a step too far as currently constructed.

I think what will save them from themselves is the fact that legally they can only do so much damage. Because we’re talking about state entities, there is only so much they can do or give to the venture capitalist. They’re very much restricted by the state government and the states constitution as to what they can actually give up. They probably look at that as a bad thing, but it’s the thing that likely will save them in the end.

This keeps getting discussed as a private equity issue, but some of the things I read and podcasts I listen to are positioning thismore as a as a debt play, With creative terms. There’s just very little that the schools can actually give the PE in actual assets.

 

[Goldbug]

@WhosYourDawggy said "Most people are skeptical, but it's apparently not quite as stupid as some people are making it out to be. I've attacked it because I've been involved with multiple companies that were taken over by VC/PE and they fucked it all up, every time.

This is exactly our same experience. Those dudes come in with their computer spreadsheets and manage with absolutely no common sense. If an algorithm, or a formula or a theory says do something, they do it regardless of the consequences. And anyone thinking their investors give a shit about what happens 10-15-20 years in the future is either delusional or just not capable of seeing how VC/PE actually makes their money. Those guys are looking for high yields on short to medium terms and are willing to do anything, repeat ANYTHING, to get their ROI. Brett Yormack is leading the Big Whatever into a blind alley where someone is going to pull their pants down to half mast, bend them over and go to town on them. If Yormak is falling for the VC/PE BS then he needs to come talk to me and I'll show him good companies where we raised and invested nearly a billion dollars in them and then too damn many of them were ruined by VC/PE swooping in later and making the owners rue the day they fell for their sales pitch "to really make you guys a lot of money". /rant off

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

Explain your thinking on this one please. I don't see it. Which team in the Big 12 is an entity willing to pay big money to come play and which team has name recognition to draw a huge crowd?

When you play neutral games, you get payments from the cities in which you play the games. For example, UGA in Florida make more money off their game in Jacksonville then if it was a home and home series.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

The fine print of this makes me a bit uncomfortable. Getting into bed with VC’s never, ever goes smoothly. They want their own returns, and that doesn’t mean good things for you. I understand Yorkmark is trying everything he can to keep the Big viable, but this is a step too far as currently constructed.

nothing has been constructed yet. All we’re hearing are some rumors that they’re thinking about it. I dug into it as deep as you can without any sources, using publicly available articles and podcast. There’s nothing out there but a bunch of people talking nonsense. No one knows any details.

 

[Deep Creek]

When you play neutral games, you get payments from the cities in which you play the games. For example, UGA in Florida make more money off their game in Jacksonville then if it was a home and home series.

I understand that. But that is Georgia and Florida. Same for Texas and OU. But I’m sure the payment to schools like Texas Tech vs Houston meeting at Jerry’s World wouldn’t be near as attractive for revenue and attendance. No?

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

I understand that. But that is Georgia and Florida. Same for Texas and OU. But I’m sure the payment to schools like Texas Tech vs Houston meeting at Jerry’s World wouldn’t be near as attractive for revenue and attendance. No?

It's all incremental at this point. They have to figure out how to make a few hundred million more per year, and/or each team 20+ million per year. They are going to have to be creative, or give up.

 

[Goldbug]

PE/VC "partners" fuck three kinds of people: suppliers, employees and customers. If those people aren't eventually getting screwed somehow it means that a profit center is being neglected and someone else is making too much money at the expense of the PE/VC snake.
Suppliers = Anybody who provides a service or product to the athletic department.
Employees = Anyone who works for the athletic department.
Customers = Fans who attend the games and buy merchandise.

It all starts out giggles and smiles then the greed gland starts squirting and eventually people start waking up and seeing that everything has changed.......dramatically. And seldom for the betterment of the original suppliers, employees and customers. How many companies have you seen get better over the past 10-20 years? How many have gotten worse? Now look at how many of them are infested with PE/VC money.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

PE/VC "partners" fuck three kinds of people: suppliers, employees and customers. If those people aren't eventually getting screwed somehow it means that a profit center is being neglected and someone else is making too much money at the expense of the PE/VC snake.
Suppliers = Anybody who provides a service or product to the athletic department.
Employees = Anyone who works for the athletic department.
Customers = Fans who attend the games and buy merchandise.

It all starts out giggles and smiles then the greed gland starts squirting and eventually people start waking up and seeing that everything has changed.......dramatically. And seldom for the betterment of the original suppliers, employees and customers. How many companies have you seen get better over the past 10-20 years? How many have gotten worse? Now look at how many of them are infested with PE/VC money.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

This is why I don't think this will be what you and I have experienced with VC/PE. It's going to be more of a private debt scenario. Still rife with possible fuck ups, but different.

 

[Deep Creek]

It's all incremental at this point. They have to figure out how to make a few hundred million more per year, and/or each team 20+ million per year. They are going to have to be creative, or give up.

I guess I'm a pessimist. I just don't see the draw that can create enough revenue to keep from getting further and further behind. I think they'll regress toward G5 level money instead of progress in the other direction. It is just the reality of the situation.