Two conversations at the CAA World Congress of Sports that should be amplified came on the final day. There were back-to-back, one-on-ones with two sports power brokers, Clearlake Capital co-founder Behdad Eghbali and sports industrialist/investor Clara Wu Tsai, and both shared insight into their investment thesis that should be clipped and saved. Here is why they stood out:
In her interview with Kara Swisher, Wu Tsai was refreshingly honest about the decision to buy the New York Liberty in 2019 (for a reported $10 million to $14 million), and the concerted efforts she and her husband, Joe, have made in becoming one of the WNBA’s most popular teams, which won a title in 2024. “Even though it looks genius in hindsight, it was pretty radical at the time to buy the team,” she said of the team that was playing in a small venue in White Plains, N.Y., at the time. “But we were the logical buyers because we own Barclays Center. It’s embarrassing; it’s a major team in a major market and these women should be playing in a world-class arena.”
They looked at the books, and she admitted it wasn’t a good business. “But we did see that they were the best female basketball players in the world,” she recalled. “We were playing in the best media market in the world and in a town that loves basketball. So, we thought, OK, those fundamentals seem interesting.” Their concern was over the lack of fan support and the amount of time and work it would take to turn things around. “We knew we would lose some money,” she said. “And in the first days, we had 2,000 people in an arena that sits 18,000. The question was, how long were we going to have to live with 2,000 people in the arena?”
So they invested heavily, improving facilities, the player experience and the executive team. What I also appreciated was her steely focus that the players are the product — the core fundamental. “Everything starts with the players,” she stressed. “The biggest investment you can make is in your players, because they’re the product. The first thing was to be able to attract great players that wanted to play for your franchise.” She backed that up by personally flying to Turkey in 2023 to recruit Breanna Stewart when she was a free agent. When asked what she said to land Stewart, her answer was naively refreshing. “I just listened to her,” she said. “We were early in our ownership, and I didn’t know that much about the WNBA and the history. I listened to her, and what her hopes and dreams were for the league, and what she wanted. We found that we were aligned, because she wanted to win, but she also wanted to elevate standards for the league. We were aligned on that vision.”
That signing gave the Liberty massive credibility and was the foundation of the team’s success. What also stood out was Wu Tsai’s long-term commitment: this isn’t a quick fix or side hobby — she wants to leave a legacy. “We want to build something with sustained excellence that’s going to stand the test of time,” she said. “All the investments that we’re making are really about that.” In a time in which ownership is under more scrutiny than ever, Wu Tsai is invested in sports for the right reasons.
The other takeaway — maybe not surprising — was you have two very successful business leaders, who are sports investors and incredibly bullish on the sector’s future. That could be seen as playing to the audience, inhaling their own exhaust or having a keen understanding of future business fundamentals — you’re free to choose.
“Sports, as a category, is still in the early days in viewership, fandom, fan engagement and the opportunity to really touch a lot of lives, even touch people in a world with AI, with content and with traditional media,” Eghbali said. “We see sports as passion, as religion and being 24/7/365 days a year and part of everyone’s lives.”
They both stressed that sports is more powerful in an era of AI-generated content. “Sports is maybe one of the few sectors that is AI-proof,” Eghbali said. “We think it’s a multihundred-billion-dollar opportunity, and we’re maybe at halftime of that opportunity. We think it will be a mainstay investment category for investors in the decades to come.”
Wu Tsai agreed: “AI is making sure that content is abundant, infinite and predictable, but live sports is the opposite of that. Live sports is, by nature, finite, and it’s also unpredictable. The world is becoming flooded with content and that really increases the value of live sports. Team owners are going to see it in two places: We’re going to see more people coming to games, but we’re also going to see more people watching. So, rising demand and limited supply, and that’s why I’m very positive on the value of sports.”
Again, comments to clip and save for the future.
Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
