Football: media group sells the sport to the US – 08/24/2023 – Market

Emboldened by the lucrative potential of making American spectators fall in love with European football, a billionaire father-son-in-law duo is betting that they can sell the world’s most popular sport in the United States.

Relevent Sports Group, the New York-based media company backed by real estate mogul Stephen Ross and led by chief executive Daniel Sillman, is fighting for a piece in an international gold rush that involves teams, leagues, sports brands and media companies.

The candidacy comes at a time when the United States will be one of the hosts of the 2026 World Cup, along with Mexico and Canada, a tournament that FIFA, the body that governs world football, expects to generate revenues in excess of US$ 10 billion. Ross’s Hard Rock Stadium in Miami is one of the venues. The US will also host the Copa America next year and the renewed FIFA Club World Cup in 2025.

“The next five years are going to be huge,” Sillman said in an interview with the Financial Times. “You’re going to see a constant series of events come to the United States.”

While US investors have typically bought top clubs like Chelsea and AC Milan to get into football, Relevent has chosen an alternative path, organizing matches and expanding into media rights deals.

From its origins as a host of big-money exhibition games for clubs, Relevent has turned its attention to leagues. The company partnered with the Premier League on a nine-match “Summer Series” that drew 265,000 attendees, as well as Spain’s La Liga for a four-match Summer Tour of the US and Mexico that drew 100,000 fans. .

Relevent and La Liga want to go a step further by bringing official games to the US.

The company is embroiled in legal actions against FIFA and US Soccer as it struggles to host official League matches in the US. In 2018, Relevent teamed up with Liga to host an official match of the season between Barcelona and Girona in Miami. However, FIFA introduced a policy banning leagues from hosting games outside their home country, and Barcelona withdrew.

“Our hope is to have an official Spanish league match in the United States,” said League president Javier Tebas. “You can be sure that when we can legally, the next day we will be organizing a match in the United States.” FIFA declined to comment.

More than six years after bringing El Clásico – the clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid – to the US for the first time in a friendly match, Relevent is no longer dependent on events.

When the coronavirus pandemic made global travel impossible, the company accelerated the move to broadcast rights and has since brokered US television deals worth billions of dollars for UEFA’s Champions League and La Liga.

“We reached numbers we didn’t expect,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told the FT. “In America, they are willing to pay a lot more for the best and nothing for the rest.”

Backed by capital from Ross, who also owns the Miami Dolphins NFL team and promotes the city’s Formula 1 Grand Prix, Relevent is in expansion mode. It is building a team in Switzerland and bolstering its presence in Europe as it targets more football media rights deals.

Sillman is also on the lookout for acquisitions that could help him expand. Your targets include sports media, content assets, brands and live events. He said he wants to establish the company as a “bridge” that works both ways, seeking partnerships with American leagues aimed at international expansion.

Sillman, 34,’s rise into the world of sports began when he was still a student at Michigan Ross, the business school named after Relevent’s owner. While there, Sillman emailed Ross asking for advice on his professional athlete consulting business, and the pair struck up a rapport.

Sillman eventually sold the business and joined the billionaire’s venture capital arm in 2014, before becoming chief executive of Relevent three years later, aged 28. He’s also been Ross’s son-in-law since 2020.

“I know him and I work with him and he works hours and hours and hours,” said Ferran Soriano, chief executive of City Football Group, which owns Premier League champions Manchester City.

Relevent’s proposal to link American and European football predates Sillman. That vision came from co-founder Charlie Stillitano, former general manager of the New York-based MLS team that would later become the New York Red Bulls. Stillitano, who has since left the company, used his decades of football experience to develop Relevent in the sport.

But Sillman’s position in the football establishment was reinforced during the European Super League turmoil in April 2021, when a dozen elite clubs sought to form a separate competition. His mission failed after backlash from fans and lawmakers alike, but Sillman’s opposition to the project helped him gain friends in the industry.

“I got in touch with him at that point after it happened and it was amazing to see that someone living in a country of closed leagues clearly understands what it means to have a pyramid and why European football is so successful,” said Ceferin.

Relevent has brokered media rights deals worth $2 billion for La Liga in the US, Canada and Mexico in 2021, a welcome bonanza as football struggles to recover from losses caused by Covid.

The following year, the company brokered a deal in which Paramount agreed to pay $1.5 billion over six years to show UEFA’s European club competitions in the US. At $250 million per season, it was 2.5 times more than before.

“People have been talking about making football more popular on television in the US for decades, and it’s really starting to happen, it’s happening,” Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports at Paramount, told the FT.

As more viewers watch, Soriano of City Football Group, which also owns New York City FC, believes the US business opening for the soccer industry is “huge” and growing rapidly.

“In the US, there will be a big global soccer event every year. When you say update the opportunity size, multiply it by 10 because it’s already big,” he said. “This is the opportunity for companies like Relevent.”

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves