UP274 FWIW: Private Equity in Australian Soccer

This is episode 3 of For What It's Worth our regular series in collaboration with Turnstile, the sponsorship valuation service. Today's special guest is Danny Townsend, the CEO of The Australian Professional Leagues, aka the A-Leagues, home of professional soccer, comprising men's, women's, youth and esports competitions. Townsend formerly held global leadership roles at Repucom and Nielsen Sport before becoming chief executive of Sydney FC, and then moving to head up the league.In December 2021, the APL announced that Silver Lake, the private equity firm, had made a significant minority investment in the organisation, which it said would 'drive technology enhancements and innovation aimed at improving the fan experience and driving further development of the game in Australia'. The transaction values APL at approximately USD$300m / AUD $425M.So, what's it like when private equity comes on board? What is the basis of their investment outlook, and how do they put a value on their investment?Joining the conversation is Dan Gaunt, General Manager of Turnstile. For our weekly analysis of the sports business, subscribe to the Unofficial Partner Newsletter, available via Substack or UnofficialPartner.comUnofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.