What makes one football league's commercial rights worth billions, while another struggles to find broadcasters willing to pay what it believes those rights are worth?
It's a question that goes to the heart of how sports organizations create value.
Last week, reports emerged that Italy's Serie A was considering an investment proposal from Avenue Capital, offering €320 million for a 10% stake in a new company holding the league's international broadcasting, sponsorship and betting rights. The proposal values the business at approximately €3.2 billion.
And it wasn't even the highest offer.
A competing proposal from Carlyle and Nextalia reportedly offered €650 million for a 17% stake, valuing the business even higher. Yet the structure of Avenue Capital's proposal, particularly the absence of special protections over future cash flows, appeared more attractive to the league.
No transaction has been finalized, but the proposals demonstrate how valuable established sports rights have become.
What interests me, however, isn't simply the valuation or the growing influence of private investment in sport.
It's what makes those rights worth paying for in the first place.
Owning the rights doesn't create the demand
Consider what has happened across the border in France.
Ligue 1, home to Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Lyon and some of Europe's most recognizable football institutions, has spent years struggling to secure the broadcasting revenues it expected.
After the collapse of its previous arrangement with Mediapro, the league reached a new domestic agreement with DAZN in 2024. That relationship also deteriorated, with disagreements over payments and the commercial performance of the agreement.
When the contract ended in 2025, the league faced a difficult decision.
Rather than continue relying on a traditional broadcasting-rights agreement that wasn't delivering the expected results, Ligue 1 launched its own subscription platform, Ligue 1+.
The platform attracted more than one million subscribers during its first month, demonstrating that there was genuine audience demand for the competition.
But having an audience and generating sufficient commercial returns are two different things.
According to figures presented to the French Senate in May 2026, the platform generated approximately €150 million in gross revenue during its first season, before channel expenses. That was considerably less than the revenues the league had originally expected from traditional broadcasting agreements.
For the 2026/27 season, Ligue 1+ has taken exclusive control of domestic live coverage of the competition, creating a direct relationship with subscribers while assuming more responsibility for its own distribution and commercial performance.
And that is what makes the comparison with Serie A so interesting.
Both leagues own valuable sporting products. Both feature historic clubs, passionate supporters and internationally recognized players. Both have opportunities to attract audiences and commercial partners.
Yet the amount a broadcaster or investor is willing to pay depends on much more than the quality of football being played.
A league can own the broadcasting rights, determine its asking price and believe strongly in its product. But that doesn't mean the market will agree with its valuation.
The business of creating value
We often discuss the value of sports properties in terms of broadcasting agreements, sponsorship revenues, expansion fees or the valuations investors place on them.
But these are ultimately expressions of something deeper.
Sports organizations create value through the experiences they deliver, the audiences they attract, the relationships they develop and the opportunities they create for others.
A compelling competition attracts supporters. Engaged supporters create opportunities for broadcasters, sponsors and commercial partners. Strong community relationships can support ticket sales, memberships, participation, fundraising and local business development.
The more value an organization creates for its stakeholders, the greater its opportunity to capture some of that value financially.
This doesn't always require a large audience.
A community-based club may have a relatively small following but a particularly strong relationship with local families, businesses and institutions. That relationship can be valuable to a partner looking to engage with precisely that community.
A university athletics programme may create value through student development, institutional identity, alumni engagement and community participation. Its ability to attract funding may depend less on broadcasting revenues than on demonstrating those outcomes.
A professional league, meanwhile, may be able to monetize an international audience that smaller organizations simply cannot reach.
Different properties create different forms of value.
The mistake is assuming that every sports organization should monetize that value in the same way.
Finding the right capital for the right purpose
This is becoming increasingly important as sports organizations look for new ways to finance their ambitions.
And the search for capital is taking place at every level of the industry.
Serie A is exploring outside investment in its international commercial operations. FIFA has also confronted questions about how its commercial assets should be structured and financed through the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise initiative, which was ultimately abandoned amid governance concerns.
LIV Golf offers another perspective.
After years of substantial financial backing, the league entered restructuring and began exploring a proposed LIV 2.0 model involving new financing, greater player ownership and a more sustainable operating structure. Whether that model can succeed remains uncertain.
These situations differ considerably, but they reveal a common challenge.
Attracting capital is not the same as creating sustainable value.
Investment can accelerate growth, finance infrastructure and create new opportunities. But investors expect a return, lenders require repayment, and commercial partnerships need to deliver value to both sides.
Even funding without a direct financial return comes with expectations.
A grant requires an organization to demonstrate that it can deliver its intended outcomes. A donor wants to understand the impact of a contribution. A fundraising campaign succeeds when people believe in the purpose and the difference their support will make.
For a community club, this might mean raising money for better facilities or securing support to expand programming.
For an association, it could mean attracting development grants or establishing partnerships that serve its members.
For an emerging professional sports property, it might involve developing sponsorship opportunities, strengthening its audience, creating new commercial products or attracting ownership capital.
The scale differs enormously, but the principle remains the same.
The organization must understand what value it creates, who benefits from it and why someone should be willing to contribute to its development.
Value must be built before it can be captured
The contrasting experiences of Serie A and Ligue 1 reveal another important consideration.
Creating a valuable sporting product doesn't automatically mean an organization has developed the commercial capabilities necessary to monetize it.
For decades, leagues have relied on broadcasters to package, distribute and sell access to their competitions. But when broadcasters no longer believe the expected returns justify the rights fees being demanded, the economic equation changes.
Ligue 1's decision to launch its own platform illustrates one possible response.
By developing a direct relationship with its audience, the league has greater control over its product and potentially more opportunities to capture value from that relationship.
But it has also assumed responsibilities traditionally carried by broadcasting partners, from production and distribution to marketing, subscriber acquisition and retention.
The platform's success cannot be measured only by how many people subscribe. It must also be evaluated through the revenues generated, the costs incurred and the returns ultimately delivered to the clubs.
The same trade-off exists for smaller sports properties.
Should a developing league charge for access to its content, or make it widely available to build a larger audience? Should a club prioritize immediate sponsorship revenues, or invest in community relationships that may create greater commercial opportunities over time?
Neither approach is automatically right.
The decision should reflect the organization's stage of development, its commercial objectives and the value it can realistically deliver.
An organization that pursues funding without understanding its underlying value proposition may secure temporary resources without building the capabilities needed for lasting growth.
Equally, an organization focused exclusively on immediate financial returns may miss opportunities to develop relationships, infrastructure and audiences that become significantly more valuable over time.
This is why commercial strategy cannot simply be about selling more.
It must also be about deliberately building something worth supporting.
What are we actually building?
At Athlos, we work with ambitious sports organizations to connect their vision with the commercial and organizational foundations required to achieve it.
That begins with understanding what an organization is trying to become, who it serves and what makes it valuable to those stakeholders.
From there, the challenge is to develop the relationships, revenue opportunities, leadership and operating capabilities necessary to turn that value into sustainable growth.
Not every club needs a broadcasting agreement. Not every league needs private equity. And not every organization should measure its success through profitability or enterprise valuation alone.
But every sports organization needs resources to pursue its ambitions.
Whether those resources come through sponsorships, ticket sales, memberships, fundraising, grants, donations or external investment, the organization must provide a credible reason for someone to support it.
That requires more than a compelling sporting product. It requires a clear purpose, a differentiated proposition and the ability to deliver meaningful outcomes.
Serie A's proposed transaction reminds us how valuable a sports property can become. Ligue 1's experience demonstrates that even an established competition cannot take commercial demand for granted.
For sports executives at every level, the opportunity is not simply to determine what their organizations might be worth today.
It is to understand how they can become more valuable tomorrow, while building the financial and organizational foundations to sustain that growth.
Because the question isn't simply how much someone is willing to pay for your sports property.
It's what you're building that makes it worth paying for.