Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

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4th&long
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Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by 4th&long »

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/podcast- ... 00349.html

>> We delayed it, clearly to make sure the foundations are in place. When I say foundations, we're talking about things like media rights and distribution and sponsorship and franchises in different markets and what families or institutions may want to participate in franchises. On a risk-adjusted basis, we don't have a ton of capital deployed yet to it, but we have capital earmarked. That's what success-based investing means, is, we're going to deploy a lot more capital if we have a clear line of sight into making sure the cash flow covers whatever larger investment we make in the asset. <<

Nothing's changed since 10/1/2020 IMO
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Firecop
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

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Just tells me that they haven't been able to get all their "ducks in a row" yet. They clearly won't invest without a solid lock on profitabiluty.
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by laxtreme56 »

I can't blame them entirely. You get into business to make money, they aren't running a charity. While I don't see the networks writing big checks to the league, getting a paying deal with a streaming service can net them additional revenue as well as linking up with the betting and fantasy football companies. Sell the rights to everything; jerseys, field signage, conference names, playoffs, etc. If anyone can pull it off I think it'll be these guys. I'm confident we'll see a quality professional league on the field come Spring 2023.
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by GregParks »

Here's an XFLNewsHub.com write-up with the pertinent XFL discussion highlighted:

https://xflnewshub.com/xfl-news/redbird ... us-of-xfl/

Lot of corporate-speak to sift through. The worrying part is the league still being "in its infancy" (Klein's words) after more than a year of ownership by this group. But I also think some other comments show how massive this project truly is aiming to be, which could explain the longer-than-expected lead time. I know, doesn't make the lack of news any more palatable, but also shows the ownership group isn't sitting on their duffs with their collective feet up just letting time pass.
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by oklahomaoutlaws »

GregParks wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:34 pm Here's an XFLNewsHub.com write-up with the pertinent XFL discussion highlighted:

https://xflnewshub.com/xfl-news/redbird ... us-of-xfl/

Lot of corporate-speak to sift through. The worrying part is the league still being "in its infancy" (Klein's words) after more than a year of ownership by this group. But I also think some other comments show how massive this project truly is aiming to be, which could explain the longer-than-expected lead time. I know, doesn't make the lack of news any more palatable, but also shows the ownership group isn't sitting on their duffs with their collective feet up just letting time pass.
Here's an interesting piece of the article from Mark that hasn't even been examined yet in this thread
Could the XFL 3.0 include team owners being individuals or multi-million dollar investment firms?

Couple of questions jump out at me right away, first of all, how would any of that work, remember you're talking about selling all 8 XFL franchises to individual owners, secondly if that happens who would be interested in any of the XFL franchises and my last question, how much is MLSE and all of these other Canadian entities that were involved in these CFL-XFL discussions play a factor into this idea of selling individual franchises on the part of the XFL and is it because of Redbird realizing that the model of single entity ownership with the Canadian teams being individually owned as it is in its current form wouldn't go over too well if the XFL were to add in teams like the Stampeders, Argos, etc out of the CFL and into the XFL.
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by GregParks »

I'm glad you brought that up, oklahomaoutlaws, because it's a piece of the interview I've been stewing on for a little while now. If you look at what RedBird does, as mentioned in the XFLNewsHub article, they buy sports properties/entities/whathaveyou, build them up, and sell them for profit. From my understanding, they're not into the long-term ownership game. Also in the article is the quote from the RedBird exec relating to "rights-holders" potentially being a "team owner," and then later, the quote: "franchises in different markets and what families or institutions may want to participate in franchises."

Those ideas taken together, it's not a gigantic leap to assume RedBird has purchased the XFL to rehabilitate it with the idea to eventually make its money back and then some by selling individual XFL franchises. Perhaps then the league would be big enough to sustain itself like other pro sports ventures such as the NFL and NBA (not sure how Dany Garcia & Dwayne Johnson would fit in here), surviving on its own profits rather than needing capital from a firm like RedBird.

Now how long would it take to get the XFL in position to make enough money to where selling off franchises would earn RedBird tens or hundreds of millions of dollars? Five years? Ten? I don't know what their gameplan is so it's difficult to say. But RedBird is not in the business of owning assets they purchase in perpetuity. And I think it would be easier (and perhaps more profitable) to sell individual franchises than the league itself down the road, if it does become successful.
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by Firecop »

I can't see them selling off the league as a whole as it would severely limit the number of available prospective buyers. It seems to me, it would only work by selling off the individual franchises as there would be more potential buyers that way, each with a smaller piece of the pie so to speak. Let's hope, that if this is indeed the plan, that they vette the franchisees very well for long term ownership and not just sell them off to any knucklehead with the money but not the business acumen to run a team.
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Re: Podcast with Red Bird Cap's Rob K. includes some XFL

Post by oklahomaoutlaws »

Firecop wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 5:21 pm I can't see them selling off the league as a whole as it would severely limit the number of available prospective buyers. It seems to me, it would only work by selling off the individual franchises as there would be more potential buyers that way, each with a smaller piece of the pie so to speak. Let's hope, that if this is indeed the plan, that they vette the franchisees very well for long term ownership and not just sell them off to any knucklehead with the money but not the business acumen to run a team.
Yeah, it would definitely make more sense to sell the individual franchises. I do think as time goes on and Redbird will (as they should) do their own research and vetting to ensure they put the right owner/investor in place.

Already, I have a perfect owner/investor in mind and that's for the St. Louis Battlehawks, Dave Peacock. Now, I don't know if he'll even want to take on owning a Football team but, remember he did incredible work in attempting to keep the NFL's Rams from moving to LA back in 2015. It might not mean anything now but, he's someone I'm sure Redbird would love to talk to about owning or being an investor in the Battlehawks when the time comes.
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