Why Sports Clubs are the New 'it' Investment

I'm not sure when I first invested in Manchester United but if you look back at my blog history it's most likely around 2016. It was a simple post about investing in an election year and go figure a Clinton and a Trump were running against each other. I may not have shared at the time, but I was investing alongside a good friend of mine from my MANSA MUSA network, billionaire Ron Baron (cue Lil Weezy - A Billi) Baron was yapping away in a CNBC interview and he laid out a very compelling thesis of the investment. I like simple and I like math and it was BOTH.

But let's rewind for a bit. For those of you that don't know what sport I'm talking about, I'm talking about original football. What we here in America call soccer but the world knows as the sport of football. Possibly where a single last name can be uttered and the ENTIRE world knows exactly who you are talking about: Pele, Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, Critiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Andres Iniesta, Didier Drogba, Thierry Henry and the list goes on and on.

I don't remember the full talking points but it went something like this:

- The Los Angeles Dodgers at the time were worth something like $2 Billion dollars and we're talking baseball

- Machester United was worth less than that 

- The viewership for each game rivals the equivalent of a US Football Superbowl event

- Machester United is a top four club in the English Premier League so this was like getting shares in the Chicago Bulls (Jordan Years), Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, or Golden State Warriors (Curry Years) on discount! 

- In 2015/2016, he foresaw what we are experiencing today. The decline of cable means the Live Sports is a game changer for television viewership. 

Here were some of my previous posts:

: 2016 Post on Manchester United

2019 Post - Finding-value-in-Media-and-Sports-Stocks

In 2016, I was snapping up sharing at around $13/14 dollars a share. And the rumors continue to circulate that the Glazer family may sell this franchise and the sharks are lining up to buy. At over a mind boggling 7 Billion pounds, there is word a deal may be in sight. If I told you to be patient and wait a few years and your money would double --- could you do it? If I told you to avoid the flash and do the math --- would you really do it?

I purchase or hookup of this stock could enter it into my MansMusa Hall of Fame. Thanks to my guy Ron Baron for the simple advice and in this particular case a reminder of why sometimes we hunt in packs.

#MansaMusaHOF   - designates this stock pick was retired in my Hall of Fame

#ABilliSquad -  Billionaire investors from the Wall Street community that make up my squad. Ya Dig

#HuntinPacks - designates investments I made alongside someone in my network

#MansaMusaMentality

Expiring December Trades - Summary of Value Trades [JOE|MANU|FNF|TDOC|THS|MU]

This year was filled with many highs. The biggest is we welcome a bouncing baby boy a few months ago!! I apologize for not posting as frequently but I've been running my cyber company and we doubled our revenue last year and we are closing out this year, 3X what we did last year. 

So, I often shared my pillars with you all -- if you don't recall them -- use the search bar for the term "pillars". I've had to prioritize time for family and the business deals that bring us the most benefit. My stock portfolio has taken a back seat but that doesn't mean I do not still trade. For your reference, many of these stock trades were placed months ago, based on theme of what I think will happen OR based on companies that I think offer value (search my 50c candy bar views). See my summary below for why I made these trades and whether they panned out. 

 I'm headed to a Board meeting shortly but here are my December trades:

Summary of Trades

THE ST. JOE COMPANY (JOE)

MANCHESTER UNITED PLC (MANU)

FIDELITY NATIONAL FINANCIAL, INC. (FNF)

Teladoc Health, Inc. (TDOC)

TREEHOUSE FOODS, INC. (THS)

MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC. (MU)

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My next post will discuss what I'm doing going into the end of the year. Stay tuned for what we call tax loss harvesting. When you've had a great year, usually with short term trades like I have it offers me a chance to get rid of some of the underperformers in my portfolio.

Finding Value in Media and Sports Stocks

Time to get back to the basics. I've been laying the ground work for how to build a successful business, but it's time to get back to the basics of investing.  Remember, investing is something every person should consider once you pay down your debts and establish a rainy day fund (savings account).  In my perfect social media world, people would go viral for:

- Paying off their school debt

- Putting off unnecessary purchases

- Improving their credit score

- Hitting their retirement goals 

While I personally turn off the tweets and so-called influencers, I do not deny the irrational impulses of the masses. Everyone wants instant gratification, personalization, and to think they are influencing someone else's opinion.  So I try to keep it simple by recognizing the trend: "Content Is King".  Some of my recent investments over the last few years have been media AND social media stocks:

Social Media - Twitter (TWTR); Facebook (FB); Snap (SNAP)

Media - Time Warner (Acquired); Time Warner Cable (I think Acquired), AMC Theatres (AMC); ROKU (ROKU); Twenty First Century Fox (Recently Acquired); Verizon (VZ); Disney (obtained through FOXA shares)

Sports - Manchester United

My investing logic is simple. With cutting the cord coming and the fact that I DVR record and stream most of my television viewing due to my busy schedule, I want to own the content and pipes.  My influencers love Netflix, Apple TV and Roku and I buy the content that they are paying top dollar for to watch on all their devices.  Because everyone is giving themselves (free content) away for free on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube for cheap...my investments are focusing on content specifically Sports.  Why!! Because Sports is one of the last few things that people WANT to watch live.  Take March Madness, NFL, NBA, and the English Premier League. This is amazing content bringing lots of viewers to the media stocks listed above. The games and players are the real influencers and it actually drives more business.  You do not have to believe me, just look at the how your favorite politician has flipped in the last decade. Very soon, a majority of states will allow legal sports betting to cash in on the trend.  If you do don't know now ya know: Fan Duel, Draft Kings are partnering with major sports leagues to get everyone betting Billions of dollars.  What am I watching next:

Media - CBS (CBS), Liberty Media, Madison Square Garden

Sports Betting - Ceasars Entertainment (CZR)  

The value is there for good content. I owned and watched Twenty First Century Fox's stock skyrocket as multiple companies fought to buy it out and Disney eventually paid top dollar. Then I inherited a new company with AMAZING content Disney. Every movie my daughter watches 50 times over are Disney movies. And sports is the Top Dog! 

URB Prediction: So I think Ceasars and their big bets on online gambling are good for business and they will be bought out in the next few years. If the NBA, NFL, and MLB were smart...they would form a consortium and purchase Ceasars outright.

How to Invest in a Clinton / Trump Election Year...

First, I'll address where I've been since my posts have dried up for about a year. My answer is: "Still Right Here".  As we all know for the last few years, people continue to have to do more with less and that extends to companies. With unemployment pretty low for most big companies, they have to squeeze more out of every employee.  Good old fashion hustlin', and I got the memo and have been very busy at work and in my personal life.  The other reason, I haven't written much is because as a country and in the stock market things appear to be in a holding pattern.  I had a feeling a little over a year ago that the stock market was reaching its tops and I took my ball and went home.  For my portfolio, that meant I decided to sell some of the stocks that had been big winners. If you need a reminder flash back to this post: http://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2014/08/marketsno-longer-starting-from-bottom.html

I never like selling but if life you can't get too greedy so I parted ways with names like:

• Allergan - maker of botox (Allergan was acquired Actavis for a nice price) :)
• Lululemon - athletic wear (bought when it was in the low 40s, after some of their pants were showing too much skin and when the CEO ranted he didn't want bigger sized women wearing the clothes, and waited for them to correct their missteps)
• Caterpillar - big equipment maker (bought early and they fell, then I acquired more shares over time through patient dividend investments and they rallied above my purchase prices...just sold in the last few months for a small gain)
• NovaGold - gold miner (bought over 3 years ago and they dropped by over $50 percent; my old mentor reminded me if the fundamentals make sense buy when they are on discount. At roughly $3 I bought more and sold a good portion of it this year at just under $7. 

I felt a little over a year ago we were closing in on the top and I was just a bit early, but by planning then I was starting to set myself up for what's to come. A market near its highs, a Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump election year, and other surprises like the UK leaving the European Union have kept the markets a little uneasy. So I'll tell you what I've been quietly doing as I've sold my winners over the last few months:

Buying Top-Tier Companies (when they reached Low Prices):

• Apple (bought in the low $90s)
• Verizon (bought in the low $40s)
• Manchester United (bought b/w $13-14 range)
• Gilead (bought b/w $73-74) 
• Alibaba (low $80s)

These bigger names anchor my portfolio and should grow in good times and fingers crossed, the bad times. They all pay a dividend so they will pay you to wait :)

I then decided to begin thinking about how I wanted to thin my portfolio out to and hold higher quality names. I've been making hard decisions and here are some of the mistakes I think I have made:

• Gold - NovaGold (I still own a small portion and should have sold it all when it hit its highs)
• Oil - There is too much oil around the world and oil stocks are NOT going anywhere anytime soon. I own (British Petroleum(BP), Oasis Petroleum, Cheniere Energy) and the only good thing is the latter two, I don't hold big positions. BP pays a nice dividend so I use that to buy more shares and love that this is a long-term cornerstone of my portfolio at these levels.
• Non-Dividend Stocks, Not Growing - Lastly, I have a few stocks that don't pay a dividend!! I've held them for quite some time and they are just sitting there taking up space. For me names like:  St. Joe's Company (real estate), Nuance Communication (voice services like Siri), Hertz, and a few others just are not bringing much to the table. So I'll likely be parting ways with these names in the future.

I'm reminding you to go Vote, go Cubs, for me...go focus on higher quality names in this crazy election year.

~ Get Ur Urb On