i would be very interested in seeing the numbers on what sport is the fastest growing sport in american professional sports. id also be interested in seeing what MLS average attendance is against NBA and NHL. and i would also like to see the numbers of any study that has been done regarding the projected growth of soccer and MLS in america lets say in the next ten yrs. i am willing to be without knowing in advance that soccer is number one in all these areas. iirc mls outdrew nba and nhl in avg attendance last year. owning a MLS franchise is just a sound investment imo. and anyone who follows mls will say ,if they are honest,that the Dynamo are a sound and well run organization with constant success,a great fan base and revenue out there just waiting to be had. i cant see any reason why someone with money who is involved in sports wouldnt buy the Dynamo. he will make a huge ROI and in the end besides winning and competing every year,as a business decision this is the time to buy into MLS iirc the expansion fee for NY2 is going to be 100 million as opposed to 40 million for the last few clubs to join the league. so why wouldnt it be a good investment for Les???? if i had money and a choice between pro sports teams in any league i would pick MLS over everyone else except NFL and the business model is almost identical.
Well, It only makes sense if you are bullish on future TV contracts. Because frankly, ticket sales and average attendance, while impressive, are not going to make a billionaire any money. Right now, MLS relies on in-game revenue alongside jersey sponsors and game day sponsors to barely break even. You can only grow average attendance league wide by a few more thousand before you are at league capacity. So the only MAJOR growth for the league is via media outlets. If you think MLS gets a major deal done in the next run or two, it is a good investment. If you think they don't get to the hundreds of millions of dollars mark; well then it is a wasted investment (not necessarily a loss).
And there's a school of thought that you only get higher ratings with more big-name players. Maybe, maybe not. But if you accept that premise, you can only bring in new investors who are willing to go for big-name DPs.
It is funny. While I fear AEG as a the Dynamo owner, I actually like what they do. I like it alot. They do nothing. I like that. A lot! AEG has actually been a fantastic owner if I evaluate it objectively. They let CC & DK do their thing and they send money. How could it get better?
It is, of course, the chicken and egg theory. Big players beget bigger deals; or do bigger deals beget more money for players? I think, as the raw numbers look now, while NY and LAG do get slightly higher TV ratings none of those numbers justify a big contract for TV networks unless they are REALLY going to go all in and market the crap out of it. Now, that is possible (see NHL). On that note, I think it is a good move for MLS to have another voice in the room that has actually negotiated these huge contract deals.
Anyone who things that Les controlling two Downtown venues and teams and being an equal partner with the other Downtown venue "owner" (Astros) in a network is a good thing for consumers needs to be evaluated. Or take an economics class.
I have mixed feelings about Les. He's been good to the Rockets (convincing Hakeem to stay, letting Dawson bring in Clyde and Chuck, etc.), but he seems to meddle in odd ways. Les is willing to put the resources toward building a winner, but often goads his GM into making a "big" move that requires too many other things to work out. That's really not Les' fault. He didn't let Scottie Pippen get complacent or kill Eddie Griffin. Did he hold on to the Yao/T-Mac dream too long? You could say so, but when healthy, those two were superstar-level players. Those don't come along in the NBA every day. Les and Morey are really two peas in a pod. Morey keeps setting up to make incredible moves; when things beyond his control kill them (I firmly believe Stern still holds a grudge against the Rockets because Hakeem embarassed Ewing, and I also firmly believe that Rob Hennigan is certifiably insane), he carries on and makes smart, but low-key moves. MLS attendance and NHL/NBA attendance are very different animals. The NBA and NHL have to fill 41 home dates for the regular season alone. Even the die-hard fans get fatigued. The revenue is tied to some very specific avenues at this point. As already mentioned, TV deals in the MLS don't pay dick. However, as part of the larger Astros/Rockets local TV network, this could work very well. The kicker will be stadium revenue. Will AEG sell their operations contract? How much money can a new owner make after the deal if AEG still operates the stadium? That's a fair point. From a pure consumer perspective, we're about to feel an all-out assault on our wallets.
Any Cowboys fans here? (good because I don't like them either) Jerry Jones is the quintessential hands on owner and look at the Cowboys, no success on the field yet they charge an arm and a leg for admission. I'm very worried about this, I don't know if this guy even likes soccer. What if he is just in this for the venue and wants to do everything else on the cheap. MLS franchises don't pull in loads of cash so he probably wont be too interested in doing anything good for us. I hope he is a great owner but I would prefer someone like the guys in Portland and Seattle, young soccer fans that want to build a soccer empire and do it by making the fans happy. AEG make the fans happy, they field a solid team every year and they gave us our own stadium, which is beautiful by the way. The Dynamo should be one of the top teams in this town, I want an owner with that vision. Does this guy have a vision for the Dynamo? We need to find out quickly and let our voices be heard.
I doubt MLS can negotiate significantly better TV deals without at least a reasonable expectation of better ratings. And I don't think the broadcasters have much incentive to "go all in" unless they know they have big names on every broadcast. MLS can continue with a very long-term, slow growth approach and hope that their broadcast partners are equally patient. Maybe that's feasible. Maybe it's even desirable. Or they may also decide in the near future that they don't have to fear the ghost of the old NASL anymore. There's ground between the modest MLS model of the Hunts, Kraft, and Kroenke on the one hand, and wild, out-of-control spending on the other hand. But you can't take a more ambitious approach if you bring in new investors who take the minimalist approach.
Reposting from my post on Clutchfans (Rox site lol) A. Les likes to win but can be "too hands on" at times. Camt fault him when winning equals profits and Les knows that from his glory days with the Rockets, especially given his acquisition track record with the Rox: Drexler, Barkley, Pippen, Francis, Yao, TMac, Artest, chase of Bosh & recently Dwight Howard. But yes, too hands on. Houston doesn't have the market attract-ability of a NY/LA so when it's time to rebuild, forcing a trade for Dwight Howard wont achieve that. But given his appetite for winning/profits and the international popularity of soccer/football, this could still be a huge positive for the Dynamo in the end. B. Any owner (even Drayton) is better than serving as the red-headed step-child in AEG's ownership. C. I view this move by Les as a preemptive strike to prevent BBVACS from stealing any concerts from Toyota Center. Both are similar sized venues designed to hold concerts. If someone else where to buy the Dynamo & gain control of BBVACS, Les knows he'll have to fight for concert business at Toyota Center. D. Given the relatively low current salaries of MLS & the fact the Dynamo control BBVACS revenue streams, this means more money for Les to spend on the Rockets & Dynamo respectively. E. Les/Rockets & Astros Regional Sports Network, aka CSN Houston. Does Les buying in to Dynamo mean more/all Dynamo matches on CSN Houston in HD?!?
Les already has a limited non-compete he extracted from AEG to allow them build the stadium dealing with certain types of concerts/acts. I think he wants the stadium to lockdown the booking of Downtown venues (remember Minute Maid is unavailable for large chunks of the year and isn't a great concert venue), plus there is some synergistic cost savings to having one operating company, booking, ticket, etc. over time. I would have just loved to see Les negotiate with AEG and when they said to him "the concert rights/cash flows are worth $5 million per year without the non-compete, so we want that value in the purchase price" and he told them "so what, that's my non-compete, I'll give you $2M for it".
Scoop Ortiz already sucking up to new ownership: Guess Canetti is worthless now. From the story: He won with the Rockets the first two years with a mostly inherited team. That was 16 years ago. I'm not counting the WNBA in his list of achievements. That's like bragging about winning the U-17 World Cup.
I think Zach Woolsey at Dynamo Theory must be giddy - not only is the Dynamo rid of the conservative Christian owner Anschutz, but he's being replaced by a left-wing Jew. You can't get much further away on the spectrum than that, unless he was gay too.
A few comment on this angle: 1) Les isn't going to run a charity. That's fine. Question is how much of the deal is venue-driven vs. team-driven. I suspect he sees money on the venue side and just wants to break-even on the team side. 2) Rockets ticket prices, at one time, were some of the highest in the league. He jacked the Summit prices up and basically forced out a lot of the old-time STHs. They were in the top 5 highest priced in the league for years. You won't see the pricing issue now because all of the reports that measure ticket prices do some considerable averaging and the Rockets cut the prices on the upper end zone seats a few years back so it looks more affordable than it is. But downstairs at Toyota Center is very expensive and the atmosphere reflects that. I don't expect the same thing at BBVA Compass but I could see the best seats being raised over time. 3) MLS still has TV contracts nowhere near what other leagues do. Now the salary cap/budget keeps costs down but the league is still mainly a gate-driven revenue league at the team level. Same as NHL. So ticket prices are important. 4) I'm sure no one has brought this up but consider all of the assets that Les will own or control in this town thru this deal and the sweetheart Toyota Center deal that Out of Town Brown cut for him: - Rockets - Toyota Center lease/operating rights - Future NHL rights - Some control of Aeros thru lease (they can't even give tickets away to charity/veterans under the terms of the lease) - Dynamo - BBVA Compass Stadium lease/operating rights - The Downtown concert venue market - Roughly 40% of Comcast Sportsnet Houston & partnership with Astros The guy's holding company will basically control the Downtown sports market with the exception of Minute Maid, which a business partner of theirs controls. That's almost scary in some ways. But then again, McNair basically controls the entire Reliant complex with the exception of the month of March for the rodeo.
Ahh, but that is what the NHL did. They negotiated a fantastic deal with crappy ratings and a prayer. At the time, Versus was willing to take a chance and they went all in. The first deal was marginal, but better than what MLS has now. And last year . . a 200 million a year ten year deal. Forget NFL; the NHL model is what MLS should strive for. The writing is on the wall. MLS is doing exactly what NHL did . . sign an explatory deal with NBC for decent coin but pennies compared to other sports (same thing Versus did for NHL). Now, coming into 2014, the hope will be that NBC sees enough potential to sign the big one (again, NHL finally cashed in last year). Garber and team are smart, as are all the millionaires and billionaires in the room. But I would love to have a guy at the table that has been through negotiations and signed hundreds of millions worth of TV contracts before. A few of the other owners have, but the more the merrier. As for the contention that you need the stars before networks will sign. 1) I don't think so because TV makes the star in this country to a large degree. 2) This isn't going to happen any differently then we have it today (a few DPs) without a MAJOR change in revenue. Say each team kicks in 5 million more in budget without the TV contract. You end up with every team losing money at that point and your return for the extra 100 million? Not much. Each team can maybe sign one Beckham? Is that going to get you a 100 million dollar deal? Because that would be the break even if the owners did throw in an extra 5 mil a year. I hear you on the minimalist approach is not likely to garner growth, but these guys are not going to throw good money after bad. As I said, if a Les is bullish on the TV contract and knows that each team is going to intrinsically get an extra 5-7 million each year after 2014, it is a no-brainer. I just don't see him spending millions before that certainty. A lot easier to recover cost in the NBA than MLS.