Australia’s big super funds eye pro sport as a serious investment
Professional sport is fast becoming an institutional-grade asset class. Some of the biggest winners for superannuation capital are the Atlanta Braves and Formula One.
Professional sports teams have historically been viewed as trophy assets, owned by rich individuals for non-financial reasons. But increasingly, due to their scarcity and pricing power, they are being viewed as an institutional-grade investment. And Australia’s biggest institutions — our superannuation funds — are aware of the opportunity.
Several of the biggest funds were given a front row seat into the emerging asset class during a 9-13 March visit to the US, as part of a government-backed delegation to the world’s largest economy.
The super funds involved included AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, CareSuper, Cbus, HESTA, Hostplus, Rest, UniSuper, AMP, MLC, and Colonial First State.
According to NSW Treasury documents, US fund manager RedBird Capital Partners founder and managing partner Gerry Cardinale presented during a summit session called ‘Sport as an emerging asset class’ which also featured Goldman Sachs global co-head of sports Dave Dase.
