Goldman Sachs in food, retail venture with richest US baseball, football clubs

21 October 2008

In a coming together of unlikely partners, the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, two of the strongest brands in the American sports pantheon, have joined Wall Street's legendary investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Dallas-based private equity firm CIC Partners to form a food and retail company.

The company, Legends Hospitality Management, will offer a broad range of sports business services with an initial focus on operating catering, concessions, retail merchandising and other facility management enterprises for major sports and entertainment facilities.

Former Pizza Hut president Michael Rowlings has been selected to lead the new enterpriseas chairman & CEO.

The Yankees are the most successful franchise in American baseball history, having won a record 26 World Series titles. The franchise also spends the most money on players, with a $209 million opening-day payroll this season, its 10th straight year leading the league. Forbes magazine values the Yankees at $1.3 billion, the most of baseball's 30 teams.

Dallas Cowboys earned the name ''America's Team'' while winning five Super Bowl American football championships with Hall of Fame players such as Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett. Forbes magazine valued the team at a league-best $1.6 billion in 2008.

Legends has been granted the exclusive right to operate concessions, catering and merchandising services at the new, state-of-the-art Yankees and Cowboys stadiums, worth $1.3 billion and $1.1 billion each, on a multi-year basis. Legends intend to expand beyond these anchor teams to provide its services to professional and college sports teams and other event facilities worldwide.