Sorriano wrote a book called “Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance” or something similar.
It’s a great read. It’s mainly about his time at Barca, but it goes in to quite a bit of depth about his strategy as a CEO, and a lot of the things he says you can see applied directly to City.
He mentions his idea of launching a Barcelona team in Miami and the whole “global / local” idea he’s applied to City’s expansion.
Also some interesting bits on football operations strategy. He absolutely lauds Txiki in it, saying how important he was to Barca and the strategies they use in negotiations / recruitment of players and managers.
interestingly, the book was released when Fergurson was still at the helm at the Swamp. Sorriano says it’s incredible how successful he’s been, but having an all powerful manager for so long will cause huge problems down the line when he leaves which could take many years to rectify. His words have been prophetic.
You keep making the point about private equity wanting a profit and that's not wrong. Some of Silver Lake's previous & current investments have done very well so it's clear that they're quite good at this.Christ now i am coming across as a know it all ... all i have said and i am constantly attacked / harassed (rag, know it all, stupid ... ) is that the dilution of 10% equity stake to a private equity house isn't necessarily a good thing from a "Football" perspective as Private equity firms are primarily driven by returns and profits and our owners up to now have largely focused on football success and Finance has taken very much a back seat.
Indeed they have shown great vision and taken risks in doing so, more so than any Finance company / institute would probably do. If they were awful owners (Man UTD) then any transfer of equity indeed would be great news. But if you think it is great news and someone can't have an alternative view (without being ridiculed and bullied - it obviously makes you feel good) then so be it. Indeed, if it wasn't for the bullying an insults I would have merely finished with my first post and left it that.
Haha, you’re stretching a bit here, mate.He’s building the Disney World of football for the next 100 years. You need to think bigger than Lou Macari’s Chippy and Pot Noodle partners. (-:
True but to be honest although it helps I don't think whatever we do at the stadium will drive and fuel our global ambitions . But every bit helps
You keep making the point about private equity wanting a profit and that's not wrong. Some of Silver Lake's previous & current investments have done very well so it's clear that they're quite good at this.
But the usual worries about Private Equity - leveraged debt, aggressive cost cutting, asset stripping, etc - don't really apply here.This isn't the same as Elliott Management taking control at AC Milan. There's an obvious upside at Milan, as they're not in the CL and their revenue stream has stagnated for years. If Elliott can turn that situtation round, they'll probably make a return and get out. But their involvment in Milan was via funding the original Chinese investment by Li Yonghong so when he couldn't meet his financial commitments, they became the owner by default whereas Silver Lake have made a conscious decision to invest.
It's also not a Glazer-like leveraged buyout; SL are very much a junior partner as it's a 10% stake so they've no control bar a sole director on the board. Khaldoon can do anything he wants. Second, there's already a number of connections including Oak View & Fanatics, plus a couple of names that I think have been commercial partners in the past. I suspect there's been a connection for a while and this investment merely formalised it. Maybe some of the private equity they're managing comes from the UAE. We know that the company controlled by Khaldoon, Mubadala, has a tech fund in the USA and this year announced one to be based in London. We also know that the UAE are big investors in SoftBank so there's obviosu synergies. The club has already dipped its toes into the tech investing area by inviting a number of smaller tech start-ups to pitch their ideas with about 8 being actively worked on currently.
You talked in one of your posts about Sheikh Mansour releasing equity, which seems nonsense to me. He's worth tens of billions of pounds, whereas you're comparing him to some old couple living in a house where the mortgage has been paid off and who want to help their grandkids. This investment has already transformed the valuation of football companies, with United's share price (which is the most visible) shooting up 15% at a time when their share price had dipped below $16. But they are a true case of a short-sighted investment ploy where the Glazers saw a huge upside and were prepared to put them in hock and are more interested in taking money out than putting it in.
Garry Cook said, 10 years ago, that football clubs would be competing with the like of Disney and other entertainment companies in the future. We don't really know what Silver Lake's plan ios at the moment but I really don't see this investment as a risk at this moment.
When you realize how deep this deal goes and who's really involved, its mind-blowing, good luck to Liverpool, United and UEFA, good fookin luck.
Haha, you’re stretching a bit here, mate.
They have Endeavor in their portfolio. They are the most influential entertainment and sports agency on the planet. I genuinely could not think of a better strategic partner for City.
Oak View and Live Nation are also under their umbrella, again for a company that is looking to build an entertainment arena in Manchester, a stadium in New York and possibly rolling out similar projects across the globe, I struggle to think of a partner that even comes close.
They also own a bunch of cutting edge digital marketing companies, could come in quite handy.
They’re hardly Littlewoods are they?
Maybe some of the private equity they're managing comes from the UAE.
Wheels.Careful PB, you'll have the conspiracy theorists getting all worked up about that one!
There's absolut no risk that a new arena at Estlands would kill MEN, they are operated by the worlds largest venue management-company, its a little bit like when McDonalds builds a restaurant next to Burger King. Live Nation who will be backing our new arena owns the Apollo, so they are safe. Even if its possible to flex the cap you don't really hire a 20k arena to do a 3k show.