My big questions about the Utah athletics PE deal

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

In a perfect world, Extra Points would run on something resembling an editorial calendar. You make the phone calls, file the FOIAs, write the second and third drafts of a story, and then can confidently say, “I’m going to publish something about X on Thursday, Y on Friday, etc.” Since we’re running close to the end of the year, there aren’t many newsletter spaces left. You want to make ’em count.

And then somebody goes out and does something that blows up your schedule. THANKS, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH.

Specific financial details about this transaction — What are the assets and liabilities moving into this new unit? How much cash will Utah get, and when will it get it? How large an ownership stake will Otro Capital hold? — are all TBA. Yes, I’ve filed the GRAMA requests, just like every other sports business publication. Yes, I’ve sent the text messages. As of this moment, I don’t have those answers.

But we know the general gist of the arrangement. Utah will create a new group, Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC, to house much of the athletic department’s revenue generating efforts. Via Yahoo:

The question I’ve been asked again and again over the past 24 hours — from radio hosts to EP readers to industry professionals — has been: Is this a good idea? And my honest-to-God answer right now would be … I don’t know. I don’t believe I know enough of the nitty-gritty financial specifics to answer that question. I understand why Utah would want to do this. I understand why Otro Capital might want to do it. I can intellectually understand how this could end in 10 years with everybody fat and happy.

But I do have lots of questions.

Part of the stated rationale for this deal is to tap into Otro’s network and expertise. Otro’s whole deal is investing in sports- and entertainment-related firms, and it has existing stakes in an F1 team, a data analytics company (Two Circles) and a youth sports event and marketing company. The thinking goes: Utah could generate even more revenue from stuff like live events, licensing, multimedia and ticketing by working with a firm with deep operational expertise.

Whether that works comes down to execution, but I understand the argument.

But what I’d like to better understand is … let’s say everybody is successful, and Otro helps to meaningfully grow Utah’s new earned revenues. How much is even possible?

Let’s look at some numbers.