NFL's Christmas gift to the pirates; Dial 115 for Manchester City; $200million for Chelsea Women; When the ESPYs were good; Walk a mile for Childhood Day; Contagion threats; The Beige Brothers
Overthinking the sports business, for money
A Merry Christmas to all you pirates out there, from Roger Goodell
Alt headline: So far, so Goodell.
What happened?
The NFL has done a deal with Netflix to screen two live games on Christmas Day.
Why do I care?
The answer to this question will depend on whether you work in the sports business or are one of those poor bastards who actually pay to watch professional sport. Let’s give this group of noble savages a name: fans.
Within the sports biz bubble, the Netflix deal will be lauded as a breakthrough moment, coming quickly after the WWE announcement a few months ago.
Clever, micro rights management carving out fresh IP for incremental revenue.
The response from beyond the sports biz bubble is very different.
This is how to watch NFL in the US (thanks to Peter Hutton for the graphic).
OK, two games on Netflix is a margin call, but Twitter’s reaction to the NFL’s news release was unsurprising.
Pirates ahoy
Share tip: Buy the makers of dodgy firesticks.
The big beneficiaries of the clever-clever rights deals like this are illegal streamers.
Remember the key data point - most people who illegally stream sport ALSO pay a subscription.
Fuck it, I pay enough already, I’ll get it all in one place for one price.
Build:
Contagion threat
Discussed on tomorrow’s episode of The Bundle, what comes next is a series of mini-me deals by rights holders doing the NFL Christmas Day Black Friday thing.
Small bits of calendar-related inventory taken out of the main rights deals to create something to sell to the streamers at some point down the line.
Premier League May Bank Holiday Monday, exclusive on Hulu….Etc.
Sport as Politics
The story of the last two decades has been the breakdown in trust between people and institutions.
As ever, sport is a microcosm.
Sometimes, there’s a debate about whether sports executives should refer to fans as customers.
But the relationship is more analogous to that of politicians and voters, where your local MP has become the pinch point in the market between powerful business interests and the constituency of people they should in theory protect and serve.
Trust is the key intangible that makes both systems - sports administration and political institutions - work.
It degrades over time, incremental deal by incremental deal.
Then one day, trust is used up and we ask, who are you serving?
Us or yourself?
$200 million for Chelsea Women
A few months ago we talked Victoire Cogevina Reynal, founder of Mercury 13, the consortium seeking to build a multi-club operation in women’s football.
That podcast has been revisited a lot this week.
What happened?
Chelsea have made it known they’ve received offers to buy a minority stake in the club’s Women’s team.
Quickly, the chat moved to valuation.
What’s it worth?
This is tricky, as there’s very little data of real substance to go on.
Todd Boehly and Clearlake are looking at the top of the market for guidance, which translates to Angel City, which has been valued at $180million by Sportico.
So, add a bit and you get to 200mill.
Sportico’s valuations are being used as the starting point, but are often - how do we put it? - a bit toppy, a bit…Forbes Rich List.
Whatever the price point, we’re at an interesting moment, evidenced by the creation of Mercury13 and other women-only funds, of which there are quite a few, either in play or being built.
Chelsea Women at $200million comes down to your worldview and your reading of the next ten years - see the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup story below.
At last week’s ECA Connect conference in Madrid, the talk was of marginal increments vs big leaps in commercial revenue.
Is the women’s team a big leap?
This comes to which camp you’re in.
Do you believe the hype around the women’s game? That it’s the new new thing, bringing the cool gang of hipsters, families and women to your ground; a bridge to a gene pool of purpose chasing sponsors who see men’s football as a game for UKIP voting, red faced, angry dinosaurs? If so, keep your women’s team, take it seriously and do the work of capitalising on the opportunity.
Or, do you reject that thesis and think the value of women’s soccer is overblown by a sports marketing industry that has created a world they want to live in rather than the real world? Is the women’s team seen as a marketing cost to be borne for marginal sponsorship revenue and/or a leak on your club IP, enabling opportunistic sponsors to get on the shirt for a fraction of the price of the men’s team?
Stefan Borson, previous UP guest, is in the latter camp.
Putting the price tag to one side, other questions arose from Victoire’s UP podcast:
The headline number is that Mercury has $100m to spend in women’s football. What does that mean, really? Whose money is it?
What happens at the end? If I sell my women’s team, or a stake in it, to Mercury or someone else, do I control who they sell it on to later? If so, why would I buy it with that limitation in place?
The Jim Ratcliffe Question - operationally, what can be done to increase the value of the team with a minority stake?
Has FIFA just helped the Chelsea valuation?
Coincidentally (?), FIFA just dropped its plans for the calendar this week.
Most eye catching was the first edition of FIFA Women’s Club World Cup™ to be contested by 16 teams in January-February 2026.
Sounds a bit like the IPL for Women’s Football, an idea floated a year ago by Unofficial Partner, the blueprint for which was written on the train up to DAZN’s HQ, in the hour before our Billion Dollar Brainstorm event.
Just sayin’.
See also: if you’re a woman working in football, click the link to take part in the WiF annual survey. It’s important.
City Decoded
Close your eyes and think of Man City, what number comes to mind?
No, it’s not 115, it’s 0161 (ht Sanjay Bhandari)
The latest kit release invites a phone code meets financial fair play meme.
I’m a big fan of Phil Foden talking in to what looks like his gran’s landline.
Something for everyone here.
The cool kids see the grime lyric references.
Gen X have nostalgic WhatsApp threads about their old phone numbers.
As Ricardo Fort points out, codes have been a thing for a while.
Awards, what are they good for.
An email appears touting Serena Williams as the host of this year’s ESPYs, the stations award show.
Haven't thought about it since 1998, when Norm Macdonald destroyed everyone in the room. Brilliant.
Walk a mile for Childhood Day
The NSPCC has a sports group, doing brilliant work every day of the year (HT to Charlie Boss and everyone involved).
But there’s a special day coming up.
Friday 7th June is Childhood Day.
Half a million children suffer abuse or neglect a year in the UK. That means 7 children in a classroom experience abuse before they turn 18. This can’t go on – and it doesn’t have to.
By joining us this Childhood Day you can play your part in helping us stop child abuse.
Embrace your inner child this Childhood Day and take part in the Childhood Day Mile!
We’re asking people to get together on Friday 7 June to move a mile and raise money for children.
Take part on your own, with friends, family, colleagues or your furry friends. The Childhood Day Mile is for everyone.
We’ll be walking the boundary rope of Sussex CCC’s hallowed Hove Cricket Ground - well done to Rupert Pratt and Peter Fitzboydon, the club’s CEO, for organising.
What mile will you walk?
(Shouldn’t that be Which mile?…Either way, you get the point).
The Business of Women’s Feet, cont’d
Congratulations to UP alumni Laura Youngson for this gong.
And hear our recent conversation below.
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The Beige Brothers
Spectacles Law: Over time, all PR firm co-founders start to dress like each other.
See also, dogs and their owners.
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