Private equity firms RedBird Capital Partners and Weatherford Capital have jointly launched Collegiate Athletic Solutions, a platform aiming to provide capital and advice to public and private university athletic departments in the US.
In a press statement last week, the firms said that CAS could provide “a debt-like cost of capital structure — without any fixed payments — with its returns tied to new revenue generation”.
Gerry Cardinale, Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird Capital, described a “paradigm shift” in university athletics as “similar” to those in media distribution models, collective bargaining rights and premium hospitality. He said that these were all “centered around the need to create long-term growth by bridging the gap between premium IP and optimising revenue streams”.
