Sports Investment Banking

Can't imagine there's enough deal flow to support a desk/group in a BB. Sounds more suited to a senior guy starting his own advisory firm.

http://www.gspcap.com/GSPWeb/ExperienceSelectSecurities.jsp

There is a sports (mostly minor league and smaller stuff) PE firm based in my hometown. Cannot remember the name off hand but when I think of it, I will post it.

Allen and Company has dealt with sports IBD in the past. I might be off, but I seem to remember that they were the ones who helped Citi get its name attached to the new Met's stadium.

Teams are often acquired with debt so Lev Fin groups get in on those deals.

Allen & Co does sports, they're very closely tied to the Mets.

UBS also has a presence in the space, though I'm less sure of this. I know an MD who's now at another bank, but when he was at UBS he was involved with something NFL-related.

The only other one I can think of is GSP, as posted above.

Both Citi Private Bank and JP Morgan Private Bank have sports advisory groups. These groups leverage all of their firm's business lines (IB, corporate banking, etc) to serve the client. For example, Citi recently advised Karen Davidson -- former owner of the Detroit Pistons -- on her sale to Tom Gores (see link below).

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20110408/FREE/110409915

This is incredibly informative, things like this are why I love this site.

I'm not so sure about specific groups, but I believe each of the BBs has a senior guy covering sports -- most likely falling under Media & Entertainment. I believe MS has a pretty decent sports guy. He's doing the sale of the Leafs/Raptors right now I believe, and has done work for the NFL and MLB.

Allen & Co is often involved in the larger deals with Steve Greenberg (son of hank) leading the charge. Profile from last year...

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/10/news/companies/greenberg_sports_deal_ki…

Yeah Allen & Co. has done a lot of stuff recently - handling Mets sale, etc.

Perella Weinberg did the Rangers bankruptcy and subsequent auction and is said to be attempting to build out a sports platform.

UBS is advising NFLPA and has traditionally had pretty good sports coverage.

Also, I always see that guy Galatioto on CNBC who runs his own bank and used to be at LEH I believe.

Not strictly sports but check out the Raine Group. Has a mixed reputation, but may be interesting to you.

Another option may be to take the public finance route if you can get into the right group at the right bank. For example, Goldman's PSI group did the Nets and Yankees new sports arenas.

Oh, also, The Raine Group definitely works on that sort of stuff.