Ratcliffe to the rescue at Manchester United?

Executives have been fretting this week about the outlook for broadcast rights as big wigs from sports, media and finance gathered in London for two big confabs: Due Diligence Live and Leaders Week.

The current climate suggests some ill winds are blowing. On Monday, Serie A clubs once again delayed a decision on whether to accept bids from Sky and DAZN for the domestic broadcast rights to Italian football. We hear the combined offer on the table is around €900mn a season – that’s lower than the deal they have now. A day later, the auction for the domestic rights to Ligue 1 collapsed, with no bidder hitting the reserve price set by the French football league operator.

Bain Capital veteran Steve Pagliuca, owner of Serie A side Atalanta, conceded that times were likely to prove tough in the short-term as the industry makes the switch from its traditional linear broadcast model to a more complex (and potentially more profitable) streaming-based service. “Winter is coming on media rights for the next three to four years,” he said at Leaders.

Few investors are more exposed to European sports media rights than CVC Capital Partners, which put money into French and Spanish football broadcasting during the pandemic. Speaking at Due Diligence Live, Nick Clarry — CVC’s point person on sports — said: “We’re in a transition from a pay TV model to a streaming model. And as with any transition there’s real turbulence.”

Investors and team owners will be watching what happens closely. Premier League rights are next on the block, with the tender process kicking off earlier this week. The Bundesliga is set to follow in Q1 next year. With these deals typically lasting at least three years, the implications for football finance are huge.

This week we’re looking at whether the long-running saga that is the sale of Manchester United is finally reaching a conclusion, plus we ask what the future holds for the WNBA after a record-breaking season came to a dramatic climax. Do read on — Josh Noble, sports editor

Are we nearly there yet? United sale enters Fergie time

For his 70th birthday, Sir Jim Ratcliffe received video messages from some Manchester United legends, including David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson. The British chemicals billionaire turned 71 this week, but his next big present from the club isn’t quite ready: a seat on the board.

After a year of rumour, speculation and outright nonsense, the “sale” of United, the most famous club in football, is edging closer to an ending as we outlined in our recent update. Last weekend United’s Qatari suitor Sheikh Jassim bin-Hamad al-Thani signalled that he was pulling out of the running, with someone close to his bid blaming the Glazer family’s “fanciful” valuation.

It emerged soon after that Ineos founder Ratcliffe was nearing a deal to take a 25 per cent stake in the club, giving it an enterprise valuation somewhere between $6bn and $6.5bn — by far the highest ever for a football team.

If approved by the board, Ratcliffe’s arrival would be followed quickly by a capital raise to bring new money into the club. Ratcliffe and Ineos sporting director Sir David Brailsford would then take up two seats on a new committee to oversee the football operations, alongside current executive chair Joel Glazer.

Such an outcome offers something for almost everyone. Ratcliffe gets to sail into his childhood club and lead the effort to revive its fortunes. The Glazers get to stay in control of their lucrative asset while taking out a nice lump sum. They can ride the wave if Ratcliffe is successful, and have someone else to blame if he isn’t. Fans, though clearly divided on the idea, at least have the prospect of witnessing some change.

The people that may be wondering what’s in it for them are those holding New York-listed shares in United. The stock traded at around $13 before the Glazers announced their “strategic review” almost a year ago. In February, amid fevered speculation about a monster bid from Qatar, it shot up as high as almost $27 a share.

There have been some ups and downs since (remember Rio Ferdinand’s train station video message?), but the latest news on Ratcliffe’s prospective entry has weighed on the stock price, which is down more than 10 per cent this week. At $17.50, it is now at its lowest since the review was announced.

Despite Ratcliffe’s high valuation, there are many unanswered questions about the mechanics of his offer. Investors positioning for a full buyout look set to for major disappointment, while the prospect of a further share sale could mean more dilution to come. With United’s commercial prospects not closely tied to events on the pitch, minority investors may well shrug at news of a sporting shake-up.

All this has been made possible by the nature of US takeover law, which appears to demand very little of a seller — at least that’s the case when the controlling shareholders have over 90 per cent of the voting rights. But those who bought shares would have known that all along.

What the newest superteam era means for the business of the WNBA

Wednesday night. Game four of the WNBA Finals at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Eight seconds remaining on the clock. The New York Liberty, playing in their first finals in over two decades, were down by just one point with a chance to force a deciding game 5 against defending champions, the Las Vegas Aces.

An inbound pass by the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, to league MVP Breanna Stewart. Bogged down by the Aces defence, Stewart lobbed the ball around the key, where point guard Courtney Vandersloot pulled back for a 3-point attempt. No go. The buzzer sounds. The Aces win, the first back-to-back WNBA champions in 21 years.

It was an epic conclusion to a WNBA season that had been buzzing about a potential superteam showdown between the Aces and Liberty, two franchises that exemplify the modern game. The Aces, which originated in Utah in the 1990s, have been relocated under different owners until ending up in Vegas in 2018, and purchased by American football scion Mark Davis in 2021. The Liberty were the sister project of New York Knicks owner Jim Dolan from the league’s inception until 2019, when Joe and Clara Wu Tsai bought the team and moved it to Brooklyn.

Both squads have been lavished with new training facilities, top talent, and champion coaches. In short, they are exemplars of a new wave of women’s sports owners, who have made splashy investments to not only foster women’s pro hoops but to imagine a different, more egalitarian future for the sport.

Wu Tsai, the Liberty owner, met with Scoreboard this week to discuss this new era, particularly at a time when women’s football has been a recipient for record-setting expansion fees and valuations. The full interview is worth a read here.

While this year’s championships didn’t result in Wu Tsai’s ultimate goal — the first basketball trophy, for any pro hoops team in New York City, in half a century — the results may still be a boon for the industry. Sunday’s Game 3 in Brooklyn recorded the highest ever attendance in the league’s nearly three-decade history. Television ratings were up 36 per cent over last year, and was the most-watched finals in two decades, according to ESPN. 

Those figures come as the league approaches negotiations for its next media rights contract — current terms with Disney’s ESPN expire in 2025. The league’s growth in popularity has outpaced the value of the current terms, so much so that the WNBA signed a three-year, $39mn deal with Scripps’ Ion cable channel for a package of Friday night games to infuse the league with more cash. 

It’s no secret that live sports are the cornerstone of the cable industry, and pro leagues across the world have been hammering out eye-popping new contracts in recent years as streamers and broadcast companies look for a piece of the pie. The WNBA is by no means yet as popular as the NFL, which boasts tens of millions of viewers each week (and notched an 11-year, $110bn rights package to boot). 

But this year’s viewership and attendance should — emphasis on should — augur a more competitive package even as media companies have hit the ceiling on other live sports.

Highlights

• The Saudi Arabia-backed Professional Fighters League is in talks to acquire its mixed martial arts rival Bellator as the Arab state continues to expand its sports portfolio.

• The sale of Premier League club Everton to Miami-based fund 777 Partners has stalled amid growing questions about the buyer’s finances, the New York Times reported.

Final Whistle

Picture the scene. You’re on the team bus in your workout gear, heading off to training ahead of a World Cup semi final and you find your path blocked by a thoughtless driver. What to do?

If you’re New Zealand’s All Blacks, the answer is simple. Pick up the offending vehicle — in this case a two-tonne Range Rover — and put it somewhere else. As if the Haka wasn’t intimidating enough!