Venture Capital Investments in Sports and Entertainment

The venture capital funding world has entered a new sector - this is the always changing sector of Sports and Entertainment. Investments in the entertainment world have been around for a few years already, like the enormous 0 Million investment in the Da Vinci Code film in 2005. And (in a humoristic way) if we remember the book "The Godfather", also there we can find an "investment" in the famous singer Johnny Fontane, a godson of Corleone's, who has come from Hollywood to ask the Godfather's help in getting a movie role that will revitalize his flagging career. Jack Woltz, the head of the studio, will not give Fontane the part, but Don Corleone (The Godfather) explains to Johnny: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

The costs estimates for creating and marketing a film, given by http://www.imdb.com, the 2005 average marketing cost of million a film. (Marketing costs may be higher for larger films but in many cases sponsors help settle these costs.) the calculation for what the return is from an investment in a film includes the factor that a studio naturally gets the proceeds from approximately half the tickets sold at the USA box office, and the overall take from the box office is roughly one-third of the money a studio earns after a film has gone to play overseas and becomes a DVD or movie on pay TV.

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The new sector of sports investments is receiving millions of dollars. Recent investments in sports goods producers and distributors include an investment of Million committed by Allied Capital Corporation to support the buyout of Augusta Sportswear Group by private equity firm Quad-C Management. Augusta was founded in 1977, and is among the largest suppliers of blank athletic uniforms in the U.S. The company sells over 52,000 SKUs of team uniforms, athletic apparel, outerwear and school-inspired products to over 40,000 customers, consisting of uniform suppliers, custom decorators and promotional products distributors.

Another recent investment is of Million in Golf Club Maker Nickent in Equity Investment. "We are pleased to announce this investment in Nickent," commented Anthony Moore, Co-Chairman and President of Equus and Chairman of Nickent. "This, combined with our debt financing in June, positions the Fund to receive dual benefits of current income and potential capital gains. We look forward to working with Nickent and its experienced management team."

Nickent is a market leader in the rapidly expanding, hybrid club segment of the golf industry and is an emerging leader in game-enhancement technology.

All these investments are happening now. One last example is Seatwave. Seatwave, Europe's largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, is an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for theatre, sports, music and other live events. Seatwave recently announced it has raised million in Series C funding led by Fidelity Ventures. Fidelity Ventures is joined by existing investors Atlas Venture, Mangrove Capital Partners and Adinvest. Seatwave was launched in 2007 and has more than 500,000 tickets on sale at any given time, 25 times more than eBay.

Venture Capital Investments in Sports and Entertainment

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The Physically Challenged in the Nigerian Entertainment Industry

Late Ray Charles had lost his sight at the age of seven and his younger brother, two years earlier. The world he was once saw and basked in its beauty and serenity had become dark and misty. In the face of hardship and seemingly insurmountable mountains as he travelled wearily on life's path, he found solace in music which turned out to be an escape route that late Ray Charles walked upon triumphantly into stardom. Such was the life of this great artiste(though blind), who played the piano with dexterity that "RAY" a biopic movie was released in 2004 starring Jamie Foxx and directed by Taylor Hackford. Our parents would certainly have a nostalgic feeling, reliving hit songs such as "I got a woman", "Georgia", "Hit the Road Jack", amongst others and with a dozen Grammy awards and others coupled with ground breaking achievements recorded in his profile, Ray Charles who passed on to glory on June 10, 2004 was truly a legend.

"This track is so delicious, I go by the way of Cobilicious" was the intro of the rap lyrics Cobhams Asuquo reeled out in Dekunle Fuji's successful track "No Lele", though many Nigerians were unaware of his 'nil vision state'. His popularity soared amongst the populace when he performed the beautiful thought provoking chorus in the song "Lagi Mo" (The Roof Top MCs) which saw the song hitting the number one spot on some Nigerian chart shows. He won the HIP Hop world Awards 2007 for the "producer of the year category", increasing the number of statuettes he'd already received. He is presently one of the highly sought after producers in the music industry, making guest appearances on TV programmes and reality show (Project Fame West Africa, season 1) along with the solicitation for his services which extends to Corporate bodies, banks (Sky bank's advert with the Akuna matata song)

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The icy hands of death almost took away Yinka Ayefele in 1999 when he was involved in an auto crash. The crash affected his spinal chord and sentenced him to life on a wheel chair. Through the fiery trials and the stop of the pity partying, he was bold enough to put the ordeal behind him, and bursting forth like water from a rock to quench our thirst with refreshing exciting gospel flavour. Fame, fortune, local and international awards have willingly found their way into his life.

The Nigerian music terrain can boast of this duo who have succeeded on its stage, but can the same be said of the movie industry. We've seen physically challenged roles (visually impaired/ lame) being performed by able bodied thespians to the best of their abilities, but wouldn't it be a surprise to millions of movie viewers for medically proven, physically challenged people to naturally perform such roles assigned to their able bodied counterparts. Who says there are no talented ones among them whose acting skills can't be brushed up, after all not every A-list thespian studied theatre arts or attended schools that specialized in harnessing such talents.

There are a lot of talented physically challenged people out there rotting away simply because no one has dared to give them a chance. After all the scripts can be converted into Braille letters for them to read, at least we know their sense of hearing is hyper functional than that of the sight seeing fellow. Quite a number of TV Reality shows have hit the screens these past couple of years (dominantly in the Entertainment sector) with new ones emerging by the day, such as Gulder Ultimate search, AMBO, Next movie star, The Intern, Maltina Family dance all, Star Quest, Football with Fash, The Twelve Ambassadors, Big Brother Nigeria, Apprentice Africa, Idols West Africa, Nokia First Chance, Project Fame West Africa.

No reality TV show has been made for the physically challenged probably borne out of fear of not securing sponsors (who are focused on making returns for their investments), or fear of outright rejection by the teeming viewers. Who says a reality show that the physically challenged can function in can't be conceived and birthed, its all about ingenuity and who can tell whether such a reality show can end up being the best among the lot, nothing is impossible!

No one chooses to be born with a disability, a microscopic percentage makes a touch down on plant earth with disabilities, while a dominant proportion can be attributed to 'the carelessness of man, accidents and in some cases 'African remote controlled incidents. Stevie wonder and late Ray Charles were given opportunities to clinch the tickets to stardom, which they appreciatively did, simply because someone believed in them and created opportunities for them to show the world what they had. Let's help the physically challenged live their dreams in Nigeria, for there is without an iota of doubt, ability in disability!.

So long... auggiepo@yahoo.com

The Physically Challenged in the Nigerian Entertainment Industry

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