Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?
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@Kruse They cannot sell the NZRFU as it is not owned by paid employees of that organisation. It is simply a body set up to organise and administer rugby in NZ and is effectively owned by the financial (and Life) members of each and every club affiliated to a provincial Rugby Union that is also affiliated to the NZRFU (and there are none that aren't!). .
They might be able to sell off or pledge assets/intellectual property or interests in things they own or run (eg broadcasting rights to the NPC, naming rights to teams or competitions etc) but they cannot "sell" part of the governing body as it is, in effect, a "Co-operative". -
Unless the NZ government comes to the rescue, NZR (like other nation unions and many sports organisations) is going to need a lot of investment to make up for revenue lost in the Covid-19 crisis. Silver Lake has a very strong track record of successful investments (Skype, Dell, UFC, Twitter).
For me, the chief stakeholders in New Zealand Rugby will always be the players and the fans, especially those closely involved in grassroots and Heartland Rugby. But if the piggy bank is so empty that Private Equity's involvement is necessary for competitive Rugby to survive in New Zealand then Silver Lake are a good organisation to be speaking to.
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@sparky Investment firms don’t give money away for free. They will want a return that is greater than current owners (Clubs & Provinces). No one can just magic new revenue sources out of nothing - so the plan has to be good and the chosen partner has to add value to that plan. I note the digital media stuff.
For me the worry is that the plan will be non existent and something will be lost.
I worked for Telecom (Spark) when it was sold to the Americans in the 80’s with the same type of story - they would magically bring investment and knowledge and the company would do wonderful things. All that happened is they bought a monopoly for a song - just after the Government had upgraded its network ( to digital exchanges at that time ). So with no major new investment required for the foreseeable future, and a rising share market they just cut costs (people) milked the company (read NZs ) for dividends and sold their shares at the top of the market. Best investment ever for them but they really added no long term value - they were nothing special. Still remember sharing the lift with the big Texan CEO of Telecom Auckland in his boots and smoking cigars - they just came and went.
So when the story is we need the foreign investment I say bullshit to that. Show me first how they will grow our revenue streams and why only they can do that for us and why they require ownership rights? It’s all fairies and unicorns - but with a good (?) chance they will just end up just being blood sucking leeches.
Just waiting for the full story but a little bit skeptical
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@Rapido said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
I'd rather NZRU just gave up on competing at sub-national level, settled for top players being foreign based. Come back to play test rugby.
Obviously will play less tests per year (fine with me).
Then, if they are playing for foreign clubs I don't give a shit about, I won't even need to be angry ever again about terrible bland tribeless franchise rugby kits. Sub-national rugby has become so identity-less that I don't really care anymore.
This is the crux of it for me too. What do they need the capital for? If it is just to prop of recurrent expenditure (player salaries, the franchises etc) and they don't intend to change the model then what is in it for Silver Lake?
If the model is going to be changed it's not clear why we would need additional capital to let players play overseas, cull unions or pull out of SANZAAR and auction off our test matches etc. If we were trying to renationalize the structure I could understand why you would need that injection.
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@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
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@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
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@canefan said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
Seriously wonder though, you could sell stakes in nzr for$1k each...30,000 folks and you've got$30M to play with. Honestly, I'd support to keep us out of the hands of venture capital in exchange for support, half price tickets and no voting rights👍👍
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@nzzp said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@canefan said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
Seriously wonder though, you could sell stakes in nzr for$1k each...30,000 folks and you've got$30M to play with. Honestly, I'd support to keep us out of the hands of venture capital in exchange for support, half price tickets and no voting rights👍👍
I’d invest in a heartbeat.
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AFC Wimbledon ran a bond scheme
This meant there was a min spend of $1000 but you could put in more if you wanted and choose the term length (3 - 20 years) and the return (0-3%) so those that just wanted to help could put it in for 0% and 20 years but those that wanted to help but may not have been able to afford just to give the cash got a small return
we raised 7 Million quid (over $12M) in maybe 6 months, I imagine the AB's would have much more pull than a small league 1 football club
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@Rapido said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
I'd rather NZRU just gave up on competing at sub-national level, settled for top players being foreign based. Come back to play test rugby.
Obviously will play less tests per year (fine with me).
Then, if they are playing for foreign clubs I don't give a shit about, I won't even need to be angry ever again about terrible bland tribeless franchise rugby kits. Sub-national rugby has become so identity-less that I don't really care anymore.
I'm 100% the opposite to this. That would be me almost done as a rugby fan. Would I have to get back into cricket? Become a soccer fan? Get Fox back on so I can watch the Worriers?
Ah fuck, I'm about to slink off into a deep depression.
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@nzzp said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@canefan said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
Seriously wonder though, you could sell stakes in nzr for$1k each...30,000 folks and you've got$30M to play with. Honestly, I'd support to keep us out of the hands of venture capital in exchange for support, half price tickets and no voting rights👍👍
Join a club?
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Exclusive: The $465m offer that could change NZ Rugby forever
NZ Rugby field revolutionary $465 million private investment offer from US tech giants.
New Zealand Rugby has received a $465 million offer from US technology investment giants Silver Lake for a 15 per cent share of commercial rights valued at $3.1 billion, the Herald can reveal. The deal, should it be signed off by New Zealand Rugby's provincial unions in the coming months, would be the biggest seachange since the game turned professional 25 years ago, and the largest transaction of this nature in NZ sports history. New Zealand Rugby and Silver Lake have been in talks for over nine months, with the Herald first revealing their shared interests last May. While Silver Lake's minority stake remains under negotiation and could be anywhere from 10 to 15 per cent, with terms yet to be finalised, the Herald understands they have tabled a $465 million offer for 15 per cent of a new, separate NZ Rugby entity. -
@KiwiMurph Any word on how many years the contract is for?
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@Tim IIRC the first Adidas contract in 99 was a 10 year deal, but they ended up coming back to NZR well before to re-negotiate an extension.
Wonder what they get from the deal (aside form the 10-15% of what? I mean they dont seem the type of company to have it's name on the jersey or anything like that?
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@taniwharugby there's some info in the article (I didn't post the whole thing).
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@taniwharugby said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@Tim IIRC the first Adidas contract in 99 was a 10 year deal, but they ended up coming back to NZR well before to re-negotiate an extension.
Wonder what they get from the deal (aside form the 10-15% of what? I mean they dont seem the type of company to have it's name on the jersey or anything like that?
I ha the impression that selling the jersey sponsorship would be something they would have control over and get a % of that...that knd pf ting...but I might be making that up
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@KiwiMurph well I fern'd it, read what was posted only, this is the way.
Funny I was reading an article over the weekend where they were saying they needed to get EA Sports back into doing rugby games, in particularly looking at the technical stuff (including graphics) you have with NFL, some could easily be replicated to rugby.
