University of Utah board approves private equity deal to support athletics department

SALT LAKE CITY (KSL.com) — Private equity is coming to Utah athletics.

In a first-of-its kind deal, the University of Utah’s board of trustees unanimously approved a measure Tuesday to create a for-profit company in partnership with New York-based equity firm Otro Capital that could help infuse more than $500 million to the athletics department.

The deal creates a new for-profit company called Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC that will operate as part of the university structure but be outside of the athletic department.

Utah will maintain majority ownership of the company and full control, while being in partnership with Otro Capital, who will be a minority owner and the source for a immediate infusion of cash into the department to help meet the growing demands of a landscape that has put additional stress on athletic departments around the country.

Otro Capital will receive a percentage of the annual revenue from Utah Brands & Entertainment that will be split with the university, with a goal to exit the partnership in the next five to seven years.

“This will give our institution, particularly our athletic institution, the upside it needs to thrive in the new revenue sharing and NIL era,” university President Taylor Randall said in a press conference after the board of trustees meeting vote. “It also allows the other missions of our university to thrive.

“We are a unique asset to the state of Utah in that we not only teach students, we do the bulk of the federally-funded research in the state, and we are also a healthcare system. Each of those missions for us to be successful have to be successful, as well. And in the old model of funding athletics, often those missions were placed at odds with each other. This new innovation, this new way of doing business, actually allows them to complement each other in ways that we have never seen before, and we are excited to start executing on this new vision.”

The new venture will maintain the current operations of the athletic department, but shift many positions — stadium and events, production and broadcasting, hospitality, partnerships and licensing, brand and content, and finance — into Utah Brands & Entertainment, with athletic director Mark Harlan serving as chair of the board.

Though approved Tuesday, the vote comes after nearly a year and a half of work done to investigate and come to the right agreement with a partner — one the university said it felt right to enter in because of Otro Capital’s extensive work in the sports and entertainment world.

As such, Utah sees Otro Capital as a “mentor” to help speed up the process in sustainably funding athletics instead of relying on the university to organically meet the needs of an ever-evolving arms race to the top of college athletics.

It’s working with an entity that has already been involved with deals in the professional realm and has the infrastructure and experience to help lift Utah to a place where it can continually compete with the rest of the collegiate world.

“We weren’t interested in pure capital, we were interested in a partner,” Randall said. “So when you sit down and you’re trying to find a partner, that’s a very, very different process than just trying to find money. Right now there are millions upon millions of dollars flooding into athletics for dollars, so this is predicated on a set of individuals that are aligned with our values and aligned with our incentives.”

Though a risk, Randall said the university is jointly connected with Otro Capital in that risk, which allows both to feel an “obligation to make this venture successful, and we both want the same thing.”

“I think that’s what you’re going to see us focused on the next few years, is just getting this venture off in an extraordinarily successful trajectory.”

Harlan added that it’s “another step forward” to recruit and keep athletes, while also supporting the mission of the university.

“I think this is an extreme boost to NIL,” Harlan said. “We’re bringing in folks that have been involved with NIL in the professional space for years. … You don’t retain the kind of players that we’ve had in many sports if we don’t have a very robust program, but this allows us to now really, in our recruiting process and our retainment process, to really show what we are now surrounding our student athletes with going forward.”