NSWE Investment

[Steve67]

Shit, Blose just have arranged a pre-season game with Barcelona at the Trillion Trophy Stadium. They are ambitious. Are you worried they'll be ahead of us in 10 years?

Barcelona are already ahead of us eamonn, but we are chasing hard 🤪

[aev]

Comcast are splitting in two, with Michael Angelakis will become the chief executive of Comcast.

[Dante Lavelli]

Comcast are splitting in two, with Michael Angelakis will become the chief executive of Comcast.

Where do Atairos sit in this reshuffle?  Furthermore, exactly how are Comcast connected with Villa/V sports?

[Percy McCarthy]

Comcast are splitting in two, with Michael Angelakis will become the chief executive of Comcast.

Where do Atairos sit in this reshuffle?  Furthermore, exactly how are Comcast connected with Villa/V sports?

Atairos owns about 30% of V Sports, and Angelakis is on the board.

Atairos is an investment fund set up (by Angelakis) with seed capital from Comcast. There is an arrangement that after a certain period (5 years? - can’t remember now) Comcast takes ownership of most of Atairos’ investments.

Angelakis was a former Comcast executive who left to set up Atairos. Obvs, he’s now back there.

[ChicagoLion]

Comcast are splitting in two, with Michael Angelakis will become the chief executive of Comcast.

Where do Atairos sit in this reshuffle?  Furthermore, exactly how are Comcast connected with Villa/V sports?

Atairos owns about 30% of V Sports, and Angelakis is on the board.

Atairos is an investment fund set up (by Angelakis) with seed capital from Comcast. There is an arrangement that after a certain period (5 years? - can’t remember now) Comcast takes ownership of most of Atairos’ investments.

Angelakis was a former Comcast executive who left to set up Atairos. Obvs, he’s now back there.

That makes sense on the basis that all of these funds have time horizons /predicted liquidity events of 5 to 8 years.

[Dante Lavelli]

Thank you Percy.  Pretty sure you've explained this a few times.

Not football, but why would Comcast (or any company) structure it this way rather than doing it directly? 

Is Angelakis effectively on the hook for the money regardless of Villa's success, therefore win v win bigger for Comcast?

[Steve67]

Are they allowed to sponsor our shirts for an over inflated sum?

[Dante Lavelli]

Are they allowed to sponsor our shirts for an over inflated sum?

As I understand it

Comcast >>> Altairos >>>> V Sport  >>>> Aston Villa FC

You'd think there is the legal bandwidth to do it, however I don't think there would be much motivation for Comcast to prop up Villa so Altairos make more money, and thereby reduce their margin.

[AV82EC]

I’d imagine the Associated Party Regs for both UEFA and PL would mean either Atairos and Comcast are excluded from sponsoring the club in any form.

[Dante Lavelli]

I’d imagine the Associated Party Regs for both UEFA and PL would mean either Atairos and Comcast are excluded from sponsoring the club in any form.

Not disagreeing but if demand is not there, then adidas and El Gouna deals suggest they will step-in to maintain momentum. Presumably capped at 'current market' rates.

[paul_e]

I’d imagine the Associated Party Regs for both UEFA and PL would mean either Atairos and Comcast are excluded from sponsoring the club in any form.

Nope, it would just be value capped to a limit set by an independent panel. For this summer I think our cap for them (but not for unrelated sponsors) is about £26m. That's less than Spurs, which sums up how broken the current rules are in favour of the clubs that happened to be in the right place at the right time.

[AV82EC]

Thanks Paul. Is that limit for a front of shirt or general commercial sponsor or doesn’t it matter?

[ajmant]

Bottom line. Is it good news?