Former New Orleans Saints great Marques Colston and former mixed martial artist Nick Edwards are launching an evergreen sports asset fund, Champion Fund, through the pair’s investment firm, Champion Venture Partners.
The fund, which is evergreen, is designed to lower the threshold of entry as low as $500, which is inexpensive in the private equity space.
As Edwards told Front Office Sports, “The juice has to be worth the squeeze. We wanted to make sure it makes sense for people to invest.”
Colston also pointed out that accessibility is a core part of the vision that he and Edwards collaborated on
when they started CVP approximately two years ago.“The vision was always to have at least one arm of our firm that was accessible to every investor. The Champion Fund allows us to do that,” Colston noted.
Edwards believes that instead of putting money into the coin slot machine that is DraftKings or any sports betting app, “you can have some meaningful ownership. We think of it like a mutual fund. After you invest, you can see all the logos and know that you own part of this team, you own part of this stadium.”
He continued, “We don’t do high-risk VC investment. All of these are known names and brands, they just happen to be private, off-market deals that we get through our deal flow, and pass along to investors.”
“This vehicle is a way to open up an asset class that is ubiquitous, that everyone enjoys and participates in—whether you’re an athlete, fan, coach, administrator, or parent who has a kid in youth sports,” Colston said.
As he told Forbes, his retirement from the NFL in 2015 after the Saints released him due to injury, spurred Colston to explore his options in order to maximize his post-NFL earning potential while he still had at least some of the $40 million he earned during his playing career.
“Once you retire, whether you retire on your own volition or they kick you out and say you can’t play anymore, you’re kind of left bridging the gap between your playing career and when you can access your benefits, and it’s really hard to to find opportunities to make the same kind of money,” he said.
To date, the firm has created approximately $100 million in portfolio value through equity sales, enterprise growth and other means, including deals in European football and ticketing ventures, but as he indicated in an interview with Sportico in February, he wants to create increased access and education for athletes curious about the venture capital space.
“A lot of people have made money off your back as an athlete,” Colston said. “Can we open some doors to where you can participate in the economy that you’ve created?
“I’ve always seen the education gap when it comes to athletes and venture capital. You get tired of the mascot roles coming up over and over…There’s been a lack of access. It’s about how as a collective, can we take this opportunity as athletes to educate and share deals with each other?”
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