Charlie Baker Thinks There’s Room for Private Equity in College Sports

Over the past several months, schools and conferences have begun exploring partnerships with private equity investors. From the looming House v. NCAA settlement to the media-rights revenue arms race, athletic departments nationwide are seeking out more revenue streams. But inviting private equity, with its reputation in some cases for saddling companies with loads of debt, into college sports is controversial, to say the least.

NCAA president Charlie Baker, however, says there’s space in the college sports industry for private equity investment.

Speaking at an Axios event in New York City on Tuesday, Baker provided some advice for potential investors. The private equity industry has “usually kind of a three- to five-year window that most people think about,” Baker said. But “colleges make decisions in a much broader time frame than that.”

“I think the question would be: You’d have to figure out on your table of risk and resources how to make a PE piece fit into a model that’s not designed to deliver returns in three years,” he said.

Baker, a former Massachusetts Republican governor, who served from 2015 to 2023, has had some negative association with the private equity industry.

Private equity firms that contributed to a campaign for a pro-charter school policy Baker implemented as governor ended up benefiting from the policy, securing hundreds of millions in state pension contracts. As a result, unions in the state filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

What could private equity in college sports look like? In May, RedBird Capital Partners and Weatherford Capital announced a new investment arm specifically for NCAA programs. (The firms will provide capital to athletic departments and expect a return based on how much revenue or profit the schools can generate from those investments.) PE firms have agreed to fund “super leagues” proposed over the last few weeks. Commissioners, including the AAC’s Tim Pernetti, have expressed interest in exploring concepts like these. But no private equity firms have made deals with athletic departments or conferences—yet.

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is an investor in Front Office Sports.