Private Equity is a lump-sum term in anything related to putting in money. Not all investment deals look for a 4-6 year outcome In this case it could be:
- PE Conglomerate is buying into a partnership and would get 1/20th of distributions
- It values the Big Ten* at $2 billion post money
- The play for investors is more of a long-term annuity that pays it back $100M+ annually in perpetuity or extended time
- I'd suspect it might get points on net new revenue streams until it gets its original investment back
PE knows how to make money. I bet they would find a way to monetize the non-revenue sports (women's volleyball is surging like crazy now) and I'd bet the house you will see "March Madness"-like events across all sports (e.g. Big X Softball Suaree...live from Las Vegas!) that generate new media opportunities and theoretically cut down bulk travel so Iowa doesn't have to fly to Rutgers, then two weeks later go to Maryland.)
This is a VERY RARE asset, that's the draw to investors. This would be a super minority deal with a number of safeguards.
Do I love it? No. Is it the worst thing ever? Nah. It's another damn symptom of the NIL-with-no-true-cap era...
