(Bloomberg) — Paul Conway, the U.S. media executive turned European football club owner, is targeting one of the region’s elite teams for his next bet on the sport.
Conway said he’s looking to take a minority stake in a club with an enterprise value of $250 million to $500 million in one of Europe’s top five leagues in England, Spain, Germany, Italy or France. Any deal will be funded by Counter Press Acquisition Corp., a blank-check firm he set up with partners including investor Michael Kalt.
“We like the macro environment of football in Europe and will be looking for clubs that are well run on the football side,” Conway said Friday in an interview. “There are lots of historic names in European cities, and some have been impacted by Covid.”
It could mark one of Conway’s biggest investments in European football to date and one of the most high profile since last year’s 305 million-pound ($415 million) takeover of English club Newcastle United FC by Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund.
Counter Press Acquisition raised $75 million in its U.S. initial public offering this week to target deals in the sports, media and data-analytics sectors.
Special purpose acquisition companies, which raise money in the public markets to fund takeovers of privately-held targets, have become a favorite tool for business leaders to strike deals across industries. Firmly established in the U.S., SPACs are gaining popularity in Europe.
Counter Press’s other directors include Randy Frankel, co-owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Kalt, a former executive at the Major League Baseball team. The pair have invested alongside Conway in previous football deals.
U.S. investors have been pouring money into the world’s most popular sport in the hope of earning stable returns. Conway is one of a number of Florida-based financiers pursuing a multiclub ownership model.
Data Driven
Pacific Media Group, an investment company co-founded by Conway, already holds stakes in teams including AS Nancy of France, Barnsley FC in the U.K., Denmark’s Esbjerg fB, FC Thun of Switzerland and KV Oostende in Belgium. Conway is a former owner of French Ligue 1 team OGC Nice, who has frequently invested alongside businessman Chien Lee.
Proponents of the multiclub strategy point to cost synergies and the potential to strike more lucrative sponsorship deals. Critics say it stifles competition and creates feeder teams with no real prospect of success. Two of Conway’s teams, Barnsley and Nancy, are in the midst of battling relegation from their respective leagues.
A former Oppenheimer & Co. banker, Conway advocates the high-pressing style that’s become popular in Europe’s top leagues. Ensuring a common approach to playing this way means it’s easy to move players around his clubs if and when the need arises.
Conway’s teams rely heavily on data analysis when recruiting and developing young talent. Andrew Friedman, a senior executive at the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers known for his use of data analytics, is also listed as a director at the Counter Press SPAC. Another is Julie Uhrman, the president of Angel City Football Club, a Los Angeles women’s team she co-founded with actress and activist Natalie Portman.
“Our pitch is compelling to clubs that have been around for 100 years or so. Through the public vehicle they can feel more connected,” Conway said.
Pacific Media has yet to invest in Germany and doing so could be harder to negotiate. German rules on professional football-club ownership prevent a commercial investor from holding more than 49% of the voting shares in a team, to prevent the prioritization of profit over supporters’ wishes. German soccer credits the so-called 50+1 edict for keeping club wages and ticket prices low compared with other major leagues in Europe.
Read more: Florida Cash Chases the World’s Favorite Sport
(Corrects the job title of Chien Lee in ninth paragraph of story first published on Feb. 11.)
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