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>> Bloomberg Business of Soccer, from

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>> This is a special edition of the

Bloomberg Business of Sports, The

Business of Soccer. I'm Vanessa Podomo

Maglione, and I'm diving in behind the

scenes of the beautiful game as we get

ready for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in

just a few days. Now, we're looking at

all aspects of the business of soccer,

not just the World Cup. We're looking at

the global football market and the money

behind the most popular sport in the

world. Today, we are joined in the

studio by Matt Rosetti. He's the founder

and managing partner of Underdog Global

Partners, a private equity firm whose

sports entities include Campobasso FC

and Napoli Basketball. Welcome to the

Bloomberg Business of Soccer, Matt.

We're excited to have you in the studio

today. And to kick off, you know, this

conversation, just introduce us to

Underdog and what your mission is there.

>> Well, Vanessa, first off, thanks for

having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

In fact, it's crazy that the World Cup

is just a week away. We're just talking

about this before the the the episode.

>> Absolutely nuts.

>> It's like five years, six years just

flashed before our eyes and it's here.

Uh, so it's great to be here. My name is

Matt Rosetti, as you mentioned, founder

and managing partner of Underdog Global

Partners.

So, we're focused, uh, we're private

equity firm, as you mentioned,

mentioned, focused on the business of

investing and operating undervalued

sports assets. We have three

subsidiaries. One houses our sports

franchises, so we right now own four

professional sports franchises, soccer

and basketball teams all over the world.

Our second is real estate, so we do a

lot of infrastructure projects related

to arenas, academies, sports-related

real estate developments. And then we

have an advisory subsidiary which

focuses on putting deals together for

other private equity partners and

high-net-worth and family offices in our

network who are also looking to jump

into the sports journey which now has

become sports has become, as you know,

better than anybody a a true asset class

and we're we're really proud to be part

of it. I didn't expect to find myself at

this stage in my career in the business

of sports. So my journey I think is a

little unique. You know, as an operator

I started in marketing and media. I

don't know if you want to get into all

of that background.

>> I mean, it's obviously very interesting

how you get to the point where you then

start investing into sports teams, like

you said, and as as an asset class.

>> So my background is actually on the

media and marketing side which being

here in Bloomberg gives me a lot of a

lot of motivation and brings brings me

back to my old days. I used to spend a

lot of time here when I had my agency. I

started a a media and marketing agency

called North Six Agency in late 2009. It

was actually named North Six Agency

after North Six Avenue which was the

street where my grandparents, uh,

Italian immigrants immigrated to here in

Mount Vernon, New York, just north of

the Bronx.

And we just built, you know, we built a

great business, put my head down, start

built the business from my basement,

worked my butt off, and over the span of

about a decade or so we turned it into

one of the top 50 independently held,

uh, media and marketing firms in

privately held media and marketing firms

in the US and I exited the business and

wanted to just start doing something

new. I couldn't retire. In fact, my

family, my wife, my kids, there's no way

they would let me retire. So I wanted to

just dedicate my life to things I was

more passionate about. It was a dream of

mine to buy the soccer team where my

grandparents immigrated from and kind of

build this Cinderella story and build

them back to a top club in Italy. It was

2019-2020,

so this was just when Ryan Reynolds was

getting involved with Wrexham and I was

like, you know what? I think we could do

a very similar thing out in Italy with

this club called Campobasso.

And that's how I got started in this. We

wound up joining hands with some great

partners behind me. Mark Consuelos,

Kelly Ripa joined our project. Dan

Doyle, Angelo Aposto. I mean, these are

all guys who have really backed me for

quite a long time now. And we just

turned Campobasso into the Cinderella

story. We took it from a fifth-tier

amateur team. We won two championships,

two promotions. This just this past

season, we finished fourth in Serie C.

We were only a few wins away from a

promotion to Serie B, which for that fan

base would be the first time in

40-some-odd years they would be in the

second tier. And that's how I got

started in sports ownership. And then

just like anything else, you know, you

build a network and you learn and I

started to study more of the business

side. So, my passion turned into more of

a enterprising, you know, business,

entrepreneurial mindset. And we wound up

acquiring other assets and then we

rolled all of these assets into what

today is Underdog Global Partners. And

for me, it's been an incredible journey.

I mean, to wake up and get out of bed

every day and love what I do and work in

my passion comes with a lot of obviously

it comes with the same pressures and

stresses that anything else does. And

I'm still learning in many ways. But

I've great great partners around us and

I I tell my kids all the time, if you

get out of school and you can spend you

can spend every day of your life working

in your passion, you've you've certainly

done something right. And that's that's

how I feel.

>> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like being

able to especially like you said work in

and buy the team that your grandparents,

you know, were from. About that and

trying to build up club teams from a

certain like from the level five to

level three to hopefully to Serie A at

the time. Tell us about the business of

building smaller club teams into hoping

to to grow them to the top level.

>> Well, what I found quickly, Vanessa, was

that a lot of the clubs in Italy, in

Europe, not just in Italy, but in

Europe, regardless of the level, they

weren't commercialized properly. So, on

on one hand, the beauty of the clubs and

the asset is that they're so rooted in

their community and the culture. The

culture is

the culture [snorts] is so incredible

over there. It's, you know, it's it's

visceral. It's passion and you can't put

a price on that. But, on the commercial

side, there was a lot of what I viewed

as low-hanging fruit that just wasn't

being

optimized or prioritized properly. So,

for example, you know, building media

rights, you know, putting the games on

streaming TV, merchandising.

In our case, uh sponsorships, you know,

the Campobasso project for me was very

interesting because there's about

300,000 people who live in that region

in Italy, but there's 1.2 million

immigrants from that region of Italy who

live in the United States and Canada.

So, our vision and my vision for that

project was really to export Campobasso

into North America and use that as a way

to engage fans and sponsors and really

create a platform that represented the

underdog. Hence, you know, Underdog

Global Partners, obviously. I thought it

was just a really great uh platform for

that represented the underdog values and

the underdog journey that, you know,

that my life uh represented and I, you

know, I have so much I have so much I

have a debt of gratitude, obviously, to

my grandparents and my parents who, you

know, came here and sacrificed so much

for me and for my family members. And I

felt like this club, in a small way,

could really represent those values. And

just in on the commercial side, none of

those things, I think that that

storytelling and that there's a lot of

media that goes behind that that just

wasn't being um wasn't being leveraged

properly. Uh so, that was the first

thing we concentrated on was just how do

we tell this story in a way that engages

fans that are not just soccer fans, but

really can relate to this underdog

journey and this immigrant journey that

really brought me to the investment in

the first place.

>> And

can you explain a little bit about the

different tiers the tier system?

Obviously, I think when people think of,

you know, promotion and things like

that, obviously, we talk about Wrexham,

like you had mentioned, and people kind

of understand how promotion works, but

what is the differences in the business

at that at those different points, at

those different tiers?

>> So, it's funny, Vanessa, because I

obviously I'm I'm an entrepreneur, so

I'm sort of an eternal optimist. I'm You

know, you talk about

risk tolerance. You know, I'm definitely

on more of the uh more of the aggressive

side of risk tolerance. So, I always

look at promotion relegation as a

blessing because you can in our case,

like in Campobasso, you can go rescue a

team or buy an asset that is extremely

undervalued. It needs a lot of work, you

know, cuz don't get me wrong, it takes a

lot of work to get these clubs promoted,

and it's sports, so at the end of the

day there's no guarantees.

But, the upside the upside is there. If

you you know, if you accomplish what you

set out to accomplish and you bring the

team up in tiers, you know, you buy an

asset for you know, for 1X and two or

three years later that asset is worth

15X, and it's incredible. But, the flip

side to that is the relegation side

where I've seen just as many In fact,

I've seen many more stories of uh

foreign investors, American investors go

into these European clubs who maybe were

in over their head, they didn't have the

right network, they didn't understand

the local

you know, cultural nuances, they didn't

speak the language, they didn't know

soccer, whatever for one reason or

another, and they wound up taking a team

from the first or second tier, and then

all of a sudden they picked their eyes

up. They're you know, they open their

eyes, and two or three years later,

guess what? They're in the fourth tier

or the fifth tier, and 90% of their the

value of their investment was wiped out.

So, you know, there's two sides to that

coin, and I think just like anything

else, I think you need really good

operating teams. I think you need a very

I think you need a very deep respect and

understanding of the local cultures and

the local traditions cuz sometimes when

these American or foreign groups go into

Europe, sometimes they don't prioritize

the history of the clubs. And like in in

my case, you know, Italian is not

my first language, but I have been

fortunate I speak it fluently, and I've

done probably I don't know, 100 150

press conferences now over the past five

or six years in Italy, and every one of

them's been in Italian, even though you

know, I struggle relative to how I speak

English. But, you know, little things

like that I think are important to show

the connection to the community and that

you're there to respect them. You know,

you're there to be of service to them in

the community and the fans and we're

talking about this earlier. These are

clubs that have been passed down from

generation to generation to generation

and um you know, if you go in there and

sort of elbow your way into these

community-based clubs with an overly

commercial uh mindset, it can be a

recipe for disaster.

>> Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, obviously

you have that emotional connection to

Campobasso, but when you're looking at

other assets, when you looked into

buying, you know, acquiring the Napoli

basketball team and and other assets

you're looking to, how do you, you know,

look at those assets, you know,

how would you What are you looking at

when you're looking at them? What's

interesting? You know, how do you

measure those those risks so you set

like you don't end up like you said

having 90% of your investment wiped out?

>> No doubt. Well, so when you talk about

the Napoli basketball project, so that

that was our that's our latest project

that we're going into our second year of

ownership. It's been

successful beyond my my wildest

imagination for for many reasons. I

mean, we're a year into the investment

and we're not we the team hasn't been in

the playoffs for 20 years. We were one

game away from making the playoffs this

year. We're in the process of building a

state-of-the-art arena which will be one

of the most prominent arenas in all of

European sports. Uh we're talking to the

NBA about becoming an expansion

franchise for NBA Europe. We're doing

the same with EuroLeague. me just as

somebody who was looking at this

investment, you know, beginning two two

and a half years ago, it's been an

incredible journey. Uh but the thing

that interested me in in in that

particular one was when you look at

football, Vanessa, it's the primary

sport in Europe, no doubt about it,

right? So, you can take a team like a

Wrexham in my opinion or a team like a

Campobasso, which are secondary markets

or tertiary markets depending on how you

look at it,

and you can build them into very viable

assets because you're talking about the

primary sport in in the in the

continent, right? In the case of

basketball, basketball is growing faster

than any sport in Europe. You have you

have the NBA investing in in uh Europe.

You have EuroLeague putting a lot of

resources into building their commercial

platform. Now with the NCAA, there's

becoming a player trading economy with

these European clubs and these European

players that never existed before. But

nevertheless, it still is it's a

secondary sport still today. So, my

thesis and our thesis at UGP when we

looked at the Napoli basketball deal

was, "Let's go into a primary city in

Europe with a secondary sport." Whereas

in soccer, we were looking at it as a

secondary city but a primary sport. And

that was really the thesis. And then you

looked at the multiples at the time,

basketball multiples were trading at,

you know, anywhere from one to one and a

half X revenue, whereas soccer multiples

are, you know, six to 10 X revenue

depending on, you know, what type of

club you're looking at. So, I felt like

we could pick up an amazing asset on the

backdrop of being, you know, being the

fastest growing sport in Europe in a

primary city that was exploding with

tourism and you know, the America's Cup

was just just announced that it chose

Naples as its host city and the Formula

1 is being rumored to be going there and

the Amalfi Coast is in its backyard. So,

I was really looking at Naples as an

incredible brand that could be exported

internationally and could become a

basketball platform for really, you

know, there's 20 million Italian

immigrants and most of them identify

with Naples being from Southern Italy.

So, that's how we looked at that project

and I think the thesis was we could pick

this up at a discount and even you know,

12-18 months since the acquisition, you

look at the average multiple of a

European basketball team, it's like four

to five X revenue. So, even just that

alone, it's about, you know, four times

what we paid for it. But the thesis was,

"If we're going to do a secondary sport,

we're doing it in a primary city. If

we're going to do a primary sport in the

case of Campobasso, a secondary city

could work out." And then obviously, we

get into this Napoli soccer deal which

has been all over the headlines and

we're no longer in in now we're in

primary sport and primary city, which is

a whole different thesis.

>> Right. Exac- exactly what I wanted to to

ask you about Matt as we're talking

about, you know, Napoli and the city

there. So, James Horncastle by The

Athletic had done this report recently

that Underdog was looking into investing

into Napoli soccer, the Serie A team in

in the market.

What can you say about your looking into

the team?

>> I would be lying if I said this was our

vision at UGP and my vision from day

one, but quickly after we bought the

Napoli basketball asset,

it it became apparent to me that there

was a much larger play to create

something much much bigger than even I

and our my partners at UGP I think ever

envisioned. And that was to bring

together basketball and soccer and other

sports by the way for that matter and

create this multi-sport

platform power powerhouse platform in

Naples. And I think you know, I can give

you all the data points on why I think

Naples is in my mind one of the most

unique

and valuable cities and brands in the

world. And we were looking at this and

saying, all right, we got this

basketball team. We have an arena being

built.

The number one club in this city is the

soccer team. It's been here for you said

celebrating its hundredth year it's it's

a hundredth year anniversary this

upcoming season. Obviously, Maradona

played there. It's a one team city,

which I think was very interesting. You

go to a lot of European cities, you

know, London has like 20 teams. Madrid

has several teams, Atletico and Real

obviously being the primary tenants in

that city. Milan has Inter and AC Milan,

Rome has Lazio and Roma. Napoli just had

one team. It was just Napoli.

So, I liked the idea we liked the idea

at UGP of merging all of those assets

together. And if you looked at from a

business side of things, if you look at

soccer franchises in the world, three of

the top four are multi-sport platforms.

Uh, Madrid number one, I think Man U is

number two, and then three and four were

Barcelona and Bayern, okay? So, we were

just looking at all of that and saying,

imagine if we had this multi-sport

platform, we already have the basketball

team, we have an arena behind it, we get

the soccer team, and then obviously we

would talk about investing significantly

in the stadium and infrastructure and

all that stuff behind it, and we thought

like overnight, you know, we would be

looking at one of the top 10 to 15 most

valuable soccer brands even cuz even

though we basketball's, you know,

primary soccer brand in the world, and

then you look at it 5, 7, 10 years out

as you commercialize that brand. Naples

has a massive, massive international

community. In fact, Naples, believe it

or not, is only the fifth most populous

city

of Neapolitans in the world. Think about

that. And there's 4 million people in

Naples, okay? It's not like a tiny city.

But if you look at

São Paulo, Buenos Aires, I think I think

Toronto, I don't I'm not I'm not sure

about Toronto, but

Naples is actually the fifth most

populous four cities across the world

that have more Neapolitans in those

cities than in Naples, and Naples has 4

million people living there. So, just to

give you an idea of sort of what type of

international potential we felt that

brand had, and um

and then I got to work, you know, and

then we spent spent 6 months getting to

know the who I have so much respect for

the De Laurentiis family. Aurelio De

Laurentiis bought the club 20-some odd

years ago out of bankruptcy and now has

built it into one of the top 30 most

valuable soccer brands in the world, a

perennial Champions League contender,

and I went in there, you know, talking

to him without any selfish

interest at the time. I said, just, you

know, if there's an opportunity for us

to partner together, we have the

basketball team, you have the soccer

team, and

and then the conversations obviously

evolved and materialized and turned into

something more serious, and obviously

can't talk too much about it, but we'll

we'll see where it goes.

>> I think that's the interesting thing is

that, you know, that in the report it

had said the team was not for sale,

technically. So, you went into those

conversations

with the hope that you could do

something together or did the

conversations just evolve into

we would love to potentially buy this

club?

>> Well, I think the the thing that we

always came back to in our conversations

which I completely respected being, you

know,

remember Vanessa like you know, I was an

entrepreneur who invested in sports

because I was passionate about it and

then as a consequence of that it's

turned into an enterprise with my with

UGP in the private equity firm that

we're building but I'm not I'm not some

hedge fund manager who's scrutinizing

spreadsheets and looking at numbers and

saying the three you know, the five to

seven-year exit is like you know, I'm

looking at this I went into this first

and foremost obviously now we have a

financial discipline and an enterprise

behind us but I went into this because I

was passionate about it and it was about

my legacy and going back to the

conversations

with the De Laurentiis family for Napoli

it was our conversations began about

legacy. The numbers were always

something if we get to that stage we'll

figure that part out but you know, when

you take a club and I've seen it in

Campobasso, I've seen it now in Napoli

basketball, you know, you pour your

heart and soul as an operator and a

president into these clubs. It's 25

hours a day, it's eight days a week,

it's 366 it's literally you're working

more than you believed you ever could

work

and so I understand that the importance

is legacy and that was really the crux

of most of our initial conversations was

we'll work the numbers out but how do we

figure out potentially a legacy for you.

So you know, taking this club in 2004

from bankruptcy building it to where it

is now

you know, he can't just sell it to some

fund who's going to say look five years

from now this thing's going to be worth

X and we're going to flip it. You know,

this is about and you know, he has a he

said it along you know, he told me he

said Matt I have a responsibility to the

100 million uh Neapolitans across the

world most of whom are Napoli supporters

and Napoli fans.

If this club ever gets handed off it

needs to be handed off to the right

person. So, for me, I felt a a great a

deep uh responsibility and sense of you

know, sense of responsibility to show

that

I'm motivated and I can take this club

into the future and I can do everything

that honors the tradition and the legacy

that he's built, but also I can add

maybe a layer of innovation and uh

international appeal to the club that

maybe you know, it's it hasn't um it

hasn't

focused on for one reason or another.

And again, at the end of the day,

revenue means more investment in the

club. More investment in the club means

means a more competitive product. So,

you know, we're not talking about

distributions and we're not talking

about

dividends. We're talking about

increasing our our revenue base, which

will put us in a position to invest in

the club, which then makes the club more

competitive and gives it back to the

community, which is what they're all

about.

>> Mhm. And when you're looking at, you

know, if the deal does go through, what

are those things that you're looking at

that you want to, you know, maybe get

into right away that you feel like maybe

like you were saying, we're a little bit

underlooked at they're undervalued right

now or they just need a little bit more

investment through for the club?

>> first the first [clears throat] Vanessa

would be infrastructure.

>> Mhm.

>> The Maradona stadium was built uh in the

19 late 1950s, early 1960s, I think.

It's never really undergone any sort of

considerable upgrades. They're talking

about Italy competing for the 2032,

I believe it is, European Cup. And

stadiums are a problem in Italy all over

the place. Naples, obviously, it's the

third largest city in Italy. Naples

needs to be a host city. So, the first

thing we do we would do is and we've

already been discussing this. We've had

we've had pretty advanced conversations

with the city of Naples, who's been

incredible uh to us and the mayor. You

know, we would invest in infrastructure

to really bring that stadium to become

one of the modern-day gems and jewels of

European football.

The club for one reason or another

hasn't really invested in ancillary

infrastructure. So, youth academies, uh

community centers, things of that

nature. And you look at most of the

football talent in Italy, it comes from

southern Italy. Comes from Naples, you

know, comes from Rome south, Rome and

Rome south.

But most of the talent there at the ages

of, you know, 12, even even before 12,

the ages of 10 to 18, they all leave to

go to the north.

So I think that's something we would

look to change, you know, we would

really look to invest in a lot of that

begins with infrastructure just because

they don't have the necessary fields and

academies and infrastructure required to

nurture that type of talent at a young

age. So those are things we do. And then

obviously the international appeal, you

know, Naples isn't Naples is an

international brand, Naples, the Amalfi

Coast and Naples, you know, all of these

Naples has now become, I believe,

it's the youngest city in all of Italy

by demographic. It's the number two

fastest growing tourist uh destination,

I believe, in all of Europe, certainly

in Italy, but I think it might be even

in all of Europe. You have tons of uh

capital and investment pouring into

Naples. And look at And look at our

Campobasso. I love Campobasso, it's my

baby. But Campobasso, the entire

population of Campobasso is about

50,000.

>> Wow.

>> So just one one area of Naples is like,

you know, five, six times the size of

the entire city of Campobasso. So when

you think about just the opportunities

around that, uh they're incredible. And

you know, if we would have done this 30,

40 years ago, obviously Naples it was a

different Naples back then. Uh Naples

now is, in my opinion, is

one of the most beautiful and advanced

and and sophisticated and elegant cities

in in in the world. And uh we're proud

to represent it.

>> And when you're talking about investing

in the infrastructure of the stadium,

are you talking about, you know,

renovating the stadium or building a new

one?

>> Our our vision would certainly be to

renovate the existing stadium. There's a

lot of land around the stadium that can

be optimized, you know, we're And

obviously you have the Maradona brand

there, which is not owned by the team,

but that's a whole 'nother commercial

opportunity that would be really

interesting, I think, to

to evaluate. And I've developed a really

good relationship with Diego Maradona's

uh

namesake, his son Diego Maradona Jr. So,

the Maradona brand, I don't know if have

you been to You said you haven't been to

Naples, right? We got to get you down

there. If you I don't know if you like

pizza and gelato.

>> Well, you know, who does? It's

disgusting.

>> It's the birthplace of pizza, you know.

>> Yeah. Uh-huh.

>> And and but my only my favorite food

over there is a sfogliatella, which is

like a I don't know if you know

sfogliatella, it's like a

a pastry with a layered pastry with

>> We're going to have to I'm going there

for my honeymoon, so we're going to get

all the recommendations up here. Yeah.

>> But, you know, if you were to Naples,

there's And and I you know, I I'm a very

spiritual person. I would never put, you

know, I would never put the Lord next to

anybody. But, there is like there's

statues of Jesus and then there's

statues of Maradona, and they're side by

side, okay? There's no one who's who's

above the other. And

>> [clears throat]

>> Maradona literally, you know, is is a

living, breathing,

um you know, figure that his spirit runs

through the blood of their people and

through the streets of the city. And

um just going back to what you're

talking about in terms of where we would

invest in the infrastructure, we would

certainly look to do things

commercially, not a commercially viable,

no doubt, but things that also pay

homage to his his legacy and his spirit

in a way that, in my opinion, is

probably not being being optimized. And

I just a little little uh statistic for

you. I believe Don't quote me on the

numbers, but it's well into the hundreds

of millions of dollars of revenue is

generated annually by the Maradona

brand, okay? By the Maradona name. And

did you know that I believe it's 90

between 96 and 98% of that revenue is

counterfeit.

>> Uh

Oh, wow. Okay.

>> so let me just just to give you a sense

of how much demand there is.

>> Right.

>> But, how much you know, there's so much

opportunity.

>> Right. Absolutely. Well, Maz, we're

wrapping up here. You know, I want to

just get your take on, like you were

saying, if you were able to build this

into an entire entity, Napoli soccer,

basketball, and be able to really dive

into the multi-platform, multi you know,

club

ownership, what are your, you know, main

goals for that? How do you see that, you

know, fitting into the global, you know,

sports market?

>> Well, look, I think I come from

obviously I come from a entrepreneurial

background. I built a business and, you

know, we wound up we were very fortunate

to have an asset along our journey

before we exited. We did several mergers

and acquisitions. We bought smaller

companies and merged them in with our

platform. Then I ultimately sold our

company. So, this whole concept of

integration and M&A and synergies and

all of that stuff, I I I I had a, you

know,

I had a good amount of experience

through my entrepreneurial journey

dealing with them and managing those

types of

those types of opportunities. And And

that to me is the beauty of this

platform that we already have a

basketball team with an arena behind it

with a fan base that's grow that's

growing but still is the secondary fan

base in the city compared to the soccer

team. So, now you add the soccer team on

top of that and think about just how

much how much

how much value and how many synergies

that creates. You're literally acquiring

customers just like you would look at

with a corporate, you know, M&A

transaction. You're a big motivation for

doing an a merger and acquisition is

because you're you're customer

acquisition, right? You have a built-in

customer base in the case of the soccer

team that's in the hundreds of millions,

okay? So, you're acquiring that customer

base, integrating it with basketball,

the fastest growing sport in Europe and

one of the most amazing and fastest

growing cities in Europe, and then you

put the infrastructure investments

behind them with the arena and

basketball and the stadium and the

ancillary projects that we would build

around the stadium and soccer. And to me

it's just a magical combination and, you

know, obviously there's people very you

were much smarter than me that are, you

know, looking at numbers and creating

pro formas about what it could be worth

and, you know, what the multiple is and

I'm looking at it and saying, you know,

we can scrutinize the numbers until

we're blue in the face. I know with a

thousand percent, you know, conviction

in my heart of hearts that if we were

able to sort of merge all of this and

build this vision together,

you know, 5 to 10 years from now we

would be sitting on one of the certainly

the top five most valuable sports

enterprises in the world and that's what

we're motivated to build and sometimes

you have to I know you you talked about

some of the speculation around the

numbers and obviously I can't comment on

if they're

they're accurate or not, but certainly

there's an argument to be made for why

you should be willing to pay a premium

now for to put yourself in a position to

build something that can be I believe

one of the most valuable sporting assets

in the world 10 years from now and

beyond the financial return to me, it's

about building something that

is about the legacy and is about

creating an amazing global community and

galvanizing them and bring them together

through sports in this case basketball

and soccer and other stuff that to me

would be would be a dream come true if

we were able to do this.

>> Well, cuz on the reported number just

you know, on that it's about 2 billion

euros. Like you said, you can't comment

on that specifically, but it would make

them you know, Napoli the most valued

team in Italy. So do you believe that?

Do you believe that the the club really

should be up up into that one of the

most valuable teams in in Italy in

Europe like you were saying overall?

>> No question. I I think when you look at

the Napoli brand, there there's one

variable which obviously you have to

evaluate risk in these deals. So I'm

we're not going into this blindly saying

there's no risk. There is risk, of

course, there's huge risk and I and I'm

happy to sort of flag what I believe is

the biggest risk, but

Napoli as a brand to me has unlimited

upside. You're talking about I I talked

about it just on the basketball project.

Just in the United States alone there's

20 million Italian Americans. We talked

to the NBA about this and to EuroLeague

about this. There's 20 million Italian

Americans.

You know, I don't know the number, but

it's like 90% of them come from or the

descendants of Southern Italian

immigrants. So they identify with

Naples. Naples is the capital of the

south of Italy. They don't identify with

Rome. They don't identify with Milano.

So,

uh you know, by the way, nothing against

Rome. I love Rome. Rome I was My dream

was to live in Rome. So, I I love Rome,

but when you talk about the

international potential of the Napoli

brand, I believe it's one of the most

unique uniquely valuable assets in terms

of its potential out of any

international sporting asset in the

world. You know, maybe outside of

Obviously, Real Madrid is powerhouse and

Real Madrid stands on its own, but when

you look about a sports brand

internationally in Europe that could

create this type of appeal globally

tapping into those types of communities.

I think in São Paulo alone, there's like

8 million people of Neapolitan descent.

It's something insane.

>> Yeah.

>> Uh the upside is is limitless. It just

needs to be structured and organized and

managed properly. And you know, through

So, we're talking about all types of

things in terms of innovation,

rebuilding retail stores, fan clubs, all

of that stuff. You know, a whole whole

host of other things.

>> Mhm.

>> The risk in my opinion, I know you

didn't ask me, but I'll preempt the

question. You know, you have to go into

these deals eyes wide open. So, the

Premier League we talked about this in

the uh in the way in the the green room.

The Premier League is like a machine

right now. It's a juggernaut in you

know, global football.

I think even the English Championship is

like ranked the fourth or fifth most

competitive league in the world, which

is insane. The second tier of England is

a top five league. But anyway, so I you

know, a lot of it you're banking on

Serie A and Italian football and that in

some uh respects is out of you our

control and out of your control when you

look at, you know, TV rights and if you

look at the Champions League performance

of these teams, you look at the Italian

national team, which hasn't made the

World Cup for I I don't even want to say

it.

>> Heartbreaking, yeah.

>> My three daughters, Viviana, Valentina,

Simona, it's almost unthinkable that I I

think my only my only daughter who's

seen a World Cup is Viviana. She was

born in 2010. It's insane.

>> It's crazy.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah, which is, you know, it's terrible

for for Italian soccer and you know, we

hope that you you get better.

>> We we need you back. Are you still We

need you back on the pitch. We need the

ball in so.

>> All right. Well, I'm Puerto Rican. Uh

so, I you know, maybe it's through my

marriage.

>> we can work on the golden sit on the

golden passports. That's not a problem.

>> Um, so Matt, just as we're closing up

here, you know, you were talking a lot

about Naples and, you know, how you were

talking to the NBA about the property.

So, is that where you are looking to

build an NBA Euro franchise in Naples?

>> Yeah, so we were, look, and again, the

NBA, we have a great relationship with

the NBA. I have to just be careful about

what we can and can't say on the record,

but, you know, they've been very

gracious to us. Um, we've had incredible

meetings with them. Originally, there

were 12, you know, the NBA's expanding

into Europe. There's 12 pre-selected

markets for expansion franchises from,

you know, London to Madrid to Barcelona

and so on and so forth. And in Italy,

the pre-selected markets were Rome and

Milan. No no no secret why we pointed

those two cities out. And we had the

basketball team in Naples. We had a

great season. And we were looking at and

I wanted the NBA and EuroLeague, by the

way, as well, which right now is the

preeminent league outside of the NBA.

I wanted and we wanted at UGP, we wanted

both of those leagues to see the vision

that we had at UGP for Napoli. And why

should Napoli, why Napoli not only could

but should be

a major global brand worthy of

becoming an expansion franchise at the

highest level of global basketball,

whether that's the NBA, EuroLeague, you

know, we can sort of see how that plays

out. We're trying to have conversations

with with both of them and we're

fortunate to be at a pretty, I would

say, a pretty good stage with both with

both parties.

Uh, but that was our vision and I wanted

the NBA to see the same vision I saw.

When we bought a basketball team in

Europe, it, you know, it wasn't just

Napoli. It was we were looking at Rome

and we were looking at Milano and we

were looking at Bologna and we were

looking at Venice and, you know, Italy

has so many amazing, you know, cities

that are iconic brands.

Uh, but we chose Napoli. And we chose

Napoli for all the reasons I told you

and um, for me, it was really about how

do we show the EuroLeague and then how

do we show the NBA that

there is no city in the world,

particularly in Europe, in my mind, that

is inferior from a value standpoint,

from a tourism standpoint, from upside

potential when it comes to sporting,

than the city of Naples. And again, like

I feel a very, you know, I put the

jersey on when I'm when I'm representing

the clubs, whether it's Campobasso or

our our women's team in Rome,

Donnarumma, or our Canadian team, Supra,

or certainly Napoli Basket. I put the

jersey on and I take a great deal of

pride and great responsibility to

represent um the fan base is there, and

I believe in it. And we believe that

Naples can compete at the highest of the

highest levels of any basketball

pyramid, whatever league that might be.

>> Matt Rosetta, founder and managing

partner of Underdog Global Partners,

thanks for joining the Bloomberg

Business of Soccer. Really super

appreciate [music] it.

>> Vanessa, always a pleasure. Thanks for

having me.

>> That's it for today, everyone. Be sure

to tune in to the Bloomberg Business of

Sports wherever you get your podcast,

and [music] look out for special

editions on the feed of the Bloomberg

Business of Soccer as we get ready for

the summer of soccer. I'm Vanessa

Perdomo Maglione. This is the Bloomberg

Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio

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