Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp CEO John Collins launched his blank-check company with former NFL Exec VP and On Location Chair Eric Grubman and Shumway Capital's Chris Shumway earlier this fall because after a career of working for others they wanted to bet on themselves and build and own something. Collins, speaking during SBJ's Dealmakers In Sports virtual event, said of a SPAC potentially buying a franchise in North America, “There are some companies that benefit from a private company valuation, versus a public company valuation. And I think if you look at the tracking stocks of the sports teams that are already in the public market, the public market doesn't tend to value them the same way that the private market does.” He added, “We got a lot of questions about that as we were going out. Not just because of SPAC, but also because the companies like Arctos and Dyal were beginning to get into the limited partnership acquisition of many of the sports franchises. And we said, 'We're not going to do that.' ... We just felt there was a much richer area for us to explore, in terms of sports, and entertainment, and experiential media and technology.”
Quick Hits:
- On the beginning stages of creating his SPAC: "As part of the process, we had probably 61 Zoom calls over three days. And we were going into the market to raise $350 million. And as a result of those 61 zoom calls, we had commitments for $830 million. Having maybe had a handful of Zoom calls at that point, I couldn't think of a much more efficient way of raising capital."
- On how his experience as former CEO of On Location altered his views on investment capital: “Having experienced that, working with guys like Gerry Cardinale and George Pyne, who were the founding partners, along with the NFL, in On Location, it really does change your mindset. It does give you the idea that there are quicker and more interesting ways to build these enduring platforms in the sports and entertainment space.”
