Justin Papadakis of the United Soccer League argues that stadiums and venues need shared ownership to succeed. When one owner controls everything, a single event breaking even can still make the whole project profitable through bars, restaurants, and hotels nearby. Fragmented ownership forces each event to stand alone financially.
it is really important to have a degree of joint ownership because that enables the, you know, the project to do things that wouldn't be possible in fragmented ownership. And what I mean by that is, you know, take a concert for example, where if you have fragmented ownership, the stadium operator really has to have strong economics within just the concert to make it work. If you have a holistic joint ownership, you can bring in a concert that, you know, is breakeven or makes a little bit of money on an operating basis, but it generates, you know, 10,000 people for the bars, restaurants, hotels, you know, around the project. And so that's what we really like to, you know, have that cohesive ownership mix. But depending on the project, they can take different forms.
