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4 days ago
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Andrew Brandt explains details of Shemar Stewart contract negotiations
Cincinnati Bengals first-round pass rusher Shemar Stewart is essentially the only healthy first-round pick not participating in offseason work with this new team. Stewart and the team still haven't been able to come to an agreement on his rookie contract. On the Business of Sports podcast, former NFL executive Andrew Brandt provided more detail about the holdup in negotiations. Advertisement 'They're (Bengals) basically putting in a default clause that says if the player defaults and a default could be a breach like a discipline issue, a steroid or drug test issue, a morals clause issue, getting in trouble, being suspended, being fined, whatever default is defined as, you can void future guarantees,' Brandt said. 'In other words, if this happens in Year 1, you can say, 'Well, Years 2, 3, 4 are not guaranteed.' And that is something the Bengals are trying to impose for their own precedent where they can do it now going forward with all rookies and maybe even with veterans. 'Shemar Stewart's agent is saying 'Nope. No sir, because last year you didn't have the 17th pick, you had the 18th pick, and he didn't have that.' And in past years, players like Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, they didn't have that.' Essentially, the Bengals want to introduce new language in their contracts and Stewart has the misfortune of being the first player to negotiate with them with their new stance on voiding guarantees. Advertisement Brand continued, 'The Bengals saying we're trying to create the precedent. So this is the one that could last a while. Basically, it's all about language,' 'That could go into training camp. I know there are all kinds of restrictions on holding out of training camp. And maybe the Bengals, who are known to be tough. You know, known to be very tough. Just hold the line, saying, 'It'll be here when you want to sign it.' Players have no options down the road. 'What is he going to do? Not sign? Here we go.' Stewart's father, Mo Marquez, also weighed in on the issue, basically saying he just wants his son to get the same type of contract last year's first-rounder, Amarius Mims, got. Advertisement It seems both sides are digging their heels in and not wanting to compromise. With each practice that takes place without Stewart participating, this story seems to get louder and louder. Pair that with the Trey Hendrickson situation, and you have the Bengals in standoffs with two of their pass rushers. This could be a matter of who caves first, and history suggests that it won't be the Bengals. More from
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
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NFL's 49ers to Sell Stakes at Record $8.5 Billion Valuation
(Bloomberg) -- The San Francisco 49ers reached a deal to sell stakes in the NFL team at a valuation of about $8.5 billion, breaking the record for a sports franchise set in December. As Coastline Erodes, One California City Considers 'Retreat Now' How a Highway Became San Francisco's Newest Park Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Warming Homes in the Nordics Maryland's Credit Rating Gets Downgraded as Governor Blames Trump NYC Commuters Brace for Chaos as NJ Transit Strike Looms The club is offloading equity totaling about 6% to three private investors, according to two people familiar with the transaction — each of them are major figures in the world of Silicon Valley venture capital. Billionaire Vinod Khosla is buying the largest stake with the families of Byron Deeter, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and Will Griffith, founding partner at Iconiq Growth, also acquiring pieces. The deal will require approval at one of the NFL's owners meetings. Bloomberg reported in March that the 49ers were looking to sell a stake. The 49ers and a spokesperson for Khosla declined to comment. The three investors buying stakes all high-profile VC names. Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures, co-founded Sun Microsystems before launching his investing career, and more recently, became one of the first and largest backers of OpenAI. Deeter, a 20-year veteran of Bessemer, is a leading investor in cloud technology companies and has served on the board of companies such as Twilio Inc. and ServiceTitan Inc., which recently went public. Griffith is a leader at Iconiq Growth, Iconiq's venture and growth investing platform, which last year said it had raised $5.75 billion for its latest fund. Professional sports team valuations have boomed in recent years because pro clubs have maintained television ratings better than other entertainment, which has boosted revenue from media rights. The NFL's Philadelphia Eagles had the previous high, reaching $8.3 billion last year. Leagues have broadened the pool of potential investors by allowing institutional funds to make investments. In 2024, the NFL became the latest pro league to allow them to buy stakes in teams. That's drawing more money, including funds started to invest in pro clubs. Sportico reported the news earlier. Sign up for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports, from the latest deals to the newest stakeholders. (Updates with context on tech investors starting the second paragraph.) Cartoon Network's Last Gasp DeepSeek's 'Tech Madman' Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race Why Obesity Drugs Are Getting Cheaper — and Also More Expensive As Nuclear Power Makes a Comeback, South Korea Emerges a Winner Tariffs Won't Reindustrialize America. Here's What Will ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
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Mark Cuban and Sports Insiders to Invest in Major American Teams
(Bloomberg) -- A group of professional sports team insiders, including Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban, is launching a $750 million private equity fund designed to take small stakes in US pro sports teams. As Coastline Erodes, One California City Considers 'Retreat Now' How a Highway Became San Francisco's Newest Park Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Warming Homes in the Nordics Maryland's Credit Rating Gets Downgraded as Governor Blames Trump NYC Commuters Brace for Chaos as NJ Transit Rail Strike Looms Cuban is joining Steve Cannon, the former chief executive officer of the company that controls the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, and Rashaun Williams, a venture capitalist and limited partner in the Falcons, to target investment opportunities in the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. The Harbinger Sports Partners Fund will focus on acquiring stakes of as much as 5%, the group said in a statement. It expects to invest $50 million to $150 million in each transaction, and use secondary offerings to exit the positions within seven to 10 years. Team valuations have boomed in recent years with institutional funds making more investments. In 2024, the NFL became the latest pro league to allow institutional money. Sports clubs are attractive because they've maintained television ratings better than other entertainment, which has boosted revenue from media rights. In a sign of how much values have climbed, the NBA's Boston Celtics sold for a record $6.1 billion earlier this year. Business Chops Williams, an early investor in firms such as Lyft Inc. and Coinbase Global Inc., said that the operational experience that Cuban and Cannon bring, along with the fund's focus on leagues with strong revenue, will set Harbinger apart from other recently launched sports private equity funds. Wealthy private equity investors want to invest in sports teams where they can get a high-growth asset that isn't tied to equity markets, he said. 'My background is getting into private, illiquid companies and getting out in the secondary market,' he said, explaining how the fund expects to operate in an environment where team owners often hold onto their controlling stakes for decades. Cannon, who retired last year after leading Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment, the owner of the Falcons and Major League Soccer's Atlanta United, said the partnership combines unique sports expertise that spans ownership, team and league operations, as well as stadium construction. 'Our goal is to add insight and value to all our sports investments,' Cannon said in a statement. Sign up for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports, from the latest deals to the newest stakeholders. --With assistance from Randall Williams. Cartoon Network's Last Gasp DeepSeek's 'Tech Madman' Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race Why Obesity Drugs Are Getting Cheaper — and Also More Expensive As Nuclear Power Makes a Comeback, South Korea Emerges a Winner Trump Has Already Ruined Christmas ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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29-04-2025
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Eli Manning to Put Together Bid for New York Giants Stake
(Bloomberg) -- Former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is putting together an investment group to bid for a piece of the National Football League team, according to people with knowledge of the matter. New York City Transit System Chips Away at Subway Fare Evasion NYC's Congestion Toll Raised $159 Million in the First Quarter The Last Thing US Transit Agencies Should Do Now At Bryn Mawr, a Monumental Plaza Traces the Steps of Black History At the National Public Housing Museum, an Embattled Idea Finds a Home In February, the New York Giants announced the Mara and Tisch families had retained Moelis & Co. to explore the potential sale of a minority, non-controlling stake in the New York Giants. Manning, who led the team to two Super Bowl victories, including its last in 2012, has spoken to investors including retired NFL players, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. As much as 10% of the Giants is for sale, the people said, with the stake likely to be split among a number of different investors. In December, the Buffalo Bills sold a minority stake to 10 different investors including Bank of America Corp.'s Mike Joo, Accel-KKR's Rob Palumbo, Gridiron Capital's Tom Burger, Acrew Capital's Theresia Gouw and Meritech Capital's Rob Ward. In January, Manning said he would like to buy a stake in the Giants if it ever came up for sale. 'There's probably only one team I'd be interested in pursuing,' he said in an interview with CNBC. 'It's the one I played for for 16 years.' The effort to sell a stake in the Giants is ongoing, and no final decisions have been made, one of the people said. Representatives for Manning and Moelis didn't immediately have a comment. The Giants declined to comment. NFL teams have soared in value in recent years, largely boosted by significant media-rights deals. The Giants could be valued at about $8 billion, according to sports-team investors and advisers. Manning is estimated to have earned more than $200 million during his sporting career, and has since built up his wealth from broadcasting income and advertising partnerships. The two-time Super Bowl quarterback is also a partner at private equity firm Brand Velocity Group. Manning also is a minority owner of Gotham FC, which counts Carolyn Tisch Blodgett as its governor. The Giants are one of the five teams that joined the NFL in 1925, and have been owned by the Mara family since then. In 1991, the Tisch family bought 50% of the team. The Giants' 2012 championship win was one of four Super Bowl victories in the franchise's history. A minority stake purchase by Manning would follow Tom Brady and Richard Seymour's purchase of a slice of the Las Vegas Raiders, which was approved by NFL owners in October. Sign up for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports, from the latest deals to the newest stakeholders. Delivered weekly. (Updates with Manning's Gotham FC stake in eighth paragraph. A previous version of this story was corrected to say Giants have had four Super Bowl wins in penultimate paragraph.) Made-in-USA Wheelbarrows Promoted by Trump Are Now Made in China As More Women Lift Weights, Gyms Might Never Be the Same Why US Men Think College Isn't Worth It Anymore Eight Charts Show Men Are Falling Behind, From Classrooms to Careers Healthy Sodas Like Poppi, Olipop Are Drawing PepsiCo's and Coca-Cola's Attention ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
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20-04-2025
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Atlanta Braves Face $19 Million Tax-Hike Battle Over Player Pay
(Bloomberg) -- The Atlanta Braves, the country's only publicly traded Major League Baseball team, is facing off against the US tax code in a lonely battle that threatens to cost the franchise millions. DOGE Visits National Gallery of Art to Discuss Museum's Legal Status Trump Administration Takes Over New York Penn Station Revamp DOGE Places Entire Staff of Federal Homelessness Agency on Leave Trump Signs Executive Orders on Federal Purchasing, Office Space Why the Best Bike Lanes Always Get Blamed A little-known tax rule soon to go into effect will restrict public corporations from deducting the salaries paid to their highest compensated employees. For Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc., those employees are players — including first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Austin Riley and former National League Most Valuable Player Ronald Acuña Jr. Privately held teams like the New York Mets, owned by Point72 Asset Management founder Steve Cohen, and billionaire John Middleton's Philadelphia Phillies, won't get hit by the tax. The Mets, for example, can deduct every dime paid to outfielder Juan Soto, a free agent lured from the New York Yankees with a record-setting $765 million, 15-year contract. The team's five most generously compensated players are set to collectively earn $96 million in 2027 — the year the new rule limiting salary deduction for all but $1 million of each of the top five most highly compensated players' pay. That amounts to a potential $19.1 million tax hike on the Braves, assuming a 21% corporate tax rate. The team paid $4.2 million in federal income taxes in 2024, according to a regulatory filing. The company had pre-tax loss in 2024 of about $36 million, when revenue was $662 million. Representatives for the Braves declined to comment. The Braves will be at a significant disadvantage under the tax code, according to Douglas Schwartz, a Nossaman LLP partner who specializes in tax matters. The team would be particularly harmed when pursuing free agents because they'd have to factor in the additional tax burden, in addition to the contract amount when competing for top talent, he said. Sign up for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports, from the latest deals to the newest stakeholders. The only other major league team owned by a publicly traded company is the Toronto Blue Jays. Rogers Communications, a Canadian entertainment conglomerate with nearly $20.6 billion in annual revenue, doesn't expect any meaningful impact from the US tax provision, according to company spokesman Zac Carriero. That leaves the Braves without any MLB allies in this fight, which requires congressional intervention before 2027 tax returns are due if they hope to dodge the new tax. The team hired a pair of lobbyists in February to bend lawmakers' ear about the rule, according to federal filings. There is, however, one other professional sports entity affected by the 2027 tax hike: Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., which owns the the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks and the National Hockey League's New York Rangers. That may not give the Braves the most politically sympathetic bedfellow. The company, run by billionaire James Dolan, has been criticized for a state tax deal cut in the 1980s that has exempted them from $1 billion in property taxes. A spokeswoman declined to comment. The Braves' lobbyists may not find a receptive audience in Congress, according to a person familiar with the talks in Washington. Republicans like the tax because it raises much-needed revenue from a relatively unpopular source: big companies whose top employees earn millions. Democrats like it for the same reason, said the person, who asked not to be identified to discuss confidential conversations. The tax code generally allows companies to write off employee compensation as a business expense. But efforts to curb those write-offs for multi-million-dollar salaries date back to former President Bill Clinton's first term, after he'd campaigned on reining in corporate greed at a time when middle-class voters were reeling from jobs being moved offshore. The rule initially only applied to executive pay — not employee compensation — but it was broadened to include the five highest worker salaries as part of former President Joe Biden's pandemic relief bill, with a delayed effective date until 2027. Companies can lessen the blow by employing sophisticated tax techniques, including timing other losses to offset the higher tax bills, according to Deb Lifshey, a managing director at Pearl Meyer, an executive compensation and leadership consulting firm. Another option is to go private, which reduces oversight and regulation. 'We always have companies that struggle with the question, is it worth it to be public?' Lifshey said. For the Braves, finding a buyer willing to take the team private might be difficult. The team was spun off by Liberty Media Corp. in 2023 at a time when the sales tags for sports franchises were spiking — and the Braves were riding a high coming off a 2021 World Series win and had top stars locked into multi-year contracts. While teams in other leagues — including the National Football League's Washington Commanders and the NBA's Boston Celtics — have broken sports franchise sale prices records in recent years, the market for baseball teams hasn't been quite as lucrative. Private equity titans David Rubenstein and Michael Arougheti bought the Baltimore Orioles in 2024 for $1.7 billion, $700 million less than Cohen paid for the Mets four years prior. Mark Lerner and his family put the Washington Nationals up for sale in 2022, and took them off the market two years later after failing to find a buyer who'd meet their purchase price. Absent going private or a winning a lobbying effort, the Braves may end up saddled — at least temporarily — with a tax bill no other team in the league faces. 'I just don't think Congress ever thought about this when it enacted the rule,' Schwartz said. (Rubenstein is the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations on Bloomberg. 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