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

Sprint, How A Wireless Carrier Was a Top 2019 Investment?

First things first, happy holidays to everyone out there! Next in my series of Top 2019 investments is Sprint.

Sprint Corp
Ticker: S (NYSE) Industry: Wireless Telecommunications

I have written about Sprint quite a few times so I am not going to spend much time on this investment. Sprint finally turned into an investment literally about one year ago. This was a tough decision because after doing some research on Sprint I felt like they operated more like the Cleveland Browns football team.  If you are not familiar with the Browns, they have not been a very good sports team in quite a long time. But there has been hope in the last few years as they have selected some talented players who are hoping to turn the franchise around (Mayfield, Garrett, Landry, Beckham, etc.). I was NOT a believer but many people anointed them a championship caliber team this year.  How has it gone this year for the Browns and their new look team?  Well in short, it is still dysfunctional and a work in progress.

I am already reading your mind -- and you are wondering if Sprint is similar to the Cleveland Browns, why in the world would I want to invest in them?  Well the nice think about the stock market is you can make bets on the underdog in hopes they can turn it around for a big upside. So using my Cleveland Browns analogy, I would have reminded Browns fans that I DON'T think this is the breakout year but I DO think they are headed in the right direction. As for Sprint, they, as well as the whole industry, will be looking good in future years due to the transition to 5G technology. T-Mobile appeared to like this future outlook as they made a bid to acquire Sprint which initially caused the shares to spike in 2019.  I was handsomely rewarded in 2019 on various bets I placed on Sprint and closed but was also surprised to see the T-Mobile deal still remained open.  Even though Sprint and T-Mobile squeezed through Federal regulator approval in 2019, the deal is hung up because roughly 13 states and D.C. think the combination would be bad for consumers and pricing.  I actually agree with the states argument that if there are only 3 major carriers (ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile) the aggressive pricing decline we've all benefited from probably slows down. So Sprint strangely is making the argument that they are on a path to go out of business.

Hope all you Sprint customers are listening, In short, here is what I've learned about Sprint:
a) they never did a great job with the Nextel Communications acquisition (remember push to talk Nextel, yeah Sprint ran that into the ground)

b) they made a major bet on which 4G technology would win and lost (Sprint WIMAX was shut down)

c) these events have caused them NOT to invest as much into their wireless infrastructure (not a good statement if that is one of your biggest responsibilities is to invest so cell phones work properly)

d) they own Boost Mobile and spent more time trying to convert pre-paid customers into customers like you and me who get a monthly bill and can get billed for overages (not really stealing customers from the other carriers)

Final Summary -- So even though I empathize with the states, it would look bad if the Sprint deal falls apart only to have that company FAIL in a few years. That also would result in the industry consolidating to 3 major players and the same concerns return over customer pricing. I've made a small bet once again on Sprint that this deals get done in the New Year.