Sports Execs Lead New SPAC

Former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and a slew of sports executives filed for a new special purpose acquisition company, SportsTek Acquisition Corp., seeking to raise $125 million in an IPO.

SportsTek is targeting acquisitions in sports and “related sectors,” including “sports franchises, media, data analytics, and technology services businesses serving those end markets, among others.”

Formula One promoter Tavo Hellmund and former professional baseball player and scout-turned-banker Tim Clark are joining Luhnow on the SPAC’s management team. 

Among the other execs involved are San Antonio Spurs CEO R.C. Buford, former Dignitas vice president of esports Sebastian Park, and Monumental Sports chief planning and operations officer for basketball Sashi Brown. Monumental owns the Washington Wizards and Capitals. 

• Luhnow was dismissed from the Astros in January 2020 and handed a one-year ban from MLB in the fallout from the team’s sign-stealing scandal. 
• He spent 2020 working with “multiple investment groups targeting investments in baseball, soccer and e-sports,” according to the prospectus filed on Monday.

Over the last year or so, SPACs have become the “it” way to take companies public. There are currently around 40 sports-related SPACS, per Sportico. 

More than 250 SPAC shell companies combined to raise over $78 billion in the U.S. last year.