Looks like Blackstone might be buying Jersey Mike's. I wonder how this will effect our agreement.
Jersey Mike's being acquired for$8 billion
- Thread starter RC1978
- Start date
Blackstone? WTF? That is one nefarious cabal…
Interesting transaction to watch. Let us see if the deal gets done.
Would Jersey Mike's boss Peter Cancro who suddenly gets billions choose to give it away? Maybe it goes to buying a pro sports club, maybe it goes to Rutgers academics or sports, perhaps it goes something else.
This one has been in the works for more than a year, as I wrote on TKR. Here is my post from August 2023 describing a conversation between Jersey Mike's boss Peter Cancro and CNBC host, Rutgers grad, and Targum editor Becky Quick.
Back in April 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported the same Blackstone buyout news.
Who at Rutgers is in Peter's ear about a donation to Rutgers? The school doesn't have an athletic director and president is moving on, so I am afraid nobody is home to grab this potential major gift.
Pete is a RU fan no doubt, I suspect something will come our way
Screw that. Take it in NIL.
It’s not as if he’s not worth a lot of money before a sale. Forbes has his net worth at 5.6B.
at some point.. some program us going to treat big NIL donors as if they were owners of a sports franchise. There are more rich guys wanting to own pro sports teams then there are available pro sports teams.
Rutgers should look st that angle. Have AD and coaches “work” with big money donors.. what does a Woody Johnson get from owning the Jets other than abuse and headaches.
There should be be a way ti finesse thus idea as aproduct.. an experience to sell to ultra wealthy.
He spoke to the football team at practice last year
That's a lot of cabbage for a lettuce sandwich.
Probably bad news for the quality of subs and cheesesteaks at JM’s going forward.
Maybe he should donate big or pay for naming rights to an arena or something like that. It may show he follows our teams..,😜
Good point. Strange that we're living in this world, but here we are and your idea makes sense.
I think this is a good question. I posed a question in another thread - would schools take their ADs private like the academies so they can pursue this kind of funding relationship.
I like this. I would go with the "NIL athletic board of directors" or something like that. You invest X dollars for X amount of years and you are on the board, or raise X amount. You have a say in athletic development on campus with the AD serving as the "president" of this board. Not sure the legality, but might be a way to bring in a ton of money.
Doesn’t this already happen?
ADs have just done it for their own personal use of funds.
How many big donors get access to HC Schiano/Pike just because of their money?
Wasn’t Schiano rehired basically because donors said they would only pay for him and not pay for another coach?
What exactly were the Towers’ qualifications for having input on hiring a football coach?
Bad example. Amy Towers is chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors. So she has quite a bit of input.
But your point stands.
It's a good outside the box idea. RU isn't going to get anywhere pressing it's relatively small fanbase for donations. Not until it does lots of winning consistently and from the energy and moment that generates, increases the fanbase over time until there are enough people that donating little bits actually adds up to something.
Finding ways to get big money donations early on is, IMO, a better path to success for RU athletics NIL funding. Funding NIL will lead to more winning. More winning will lead to a bigger fanbase. Etc.
I'd limit such a board to strategic decisions and avoid letting anybody interfere with daily AD or coaching decisions.
They can get more face time with coaches, maybe. But such people trying to influence how coaches coach should be entirely off limits - that's a path to chaos. It would get out and no good coach would ever come here. The same could be true of the AD job, but ADs have to negotiate politics as part of their job anyway.
I think some schools have something like that for football... I forgot where it was, but I heard something like that.
here's a story from last year on donor collectives.. linky
True.. but it is chaos with a big NIL fund.... it is chaos about which 5-stars to buy and which highly-capable coordinators to hire. Heck.. Ohio State hired Chip Kelley as a coordinator. If the cost of the money we need to compete comes with some chaos.. well, that's the price of admission. And if we get there.. then we can start reeling it in... as demand to support Rutgers increases the amount of power (or illusion of power) you have to surrender decreases.
It won't be easy.
How about this corollary theory:
Rutgers hiring of a President and AD would not really end up with a powerful capable AD. And success Hobbs had here was a surprise.. he was largely a political animal... so was Mulcahy... no need to mention the DEI hire. Pernetti had the most sports experience and he was sacrificed by a President who didn't give a lick about sports.
Maybe a committee that is so focused on football.. or basketball, that they would plunk down a lot of money for the job... maybe they'd do a better job. They'd all be successful enough in real life to afford such a hobby.
Rutgers hiring of a President and AD would not really end up with a powerful capable AD. And success Hobbs had here was a surprise.. he was largely a political animal... so was Mulcahy... no need to mention the DEI hire. Pernetti had the most sports experience and he was sacrificed by a President who didn't give a lick about sports.
Maybe a committee that is so focused on football.. or basketball, that they would plunk down a lot of money for the job... maybe they'd do a better job. They'd all be successful enough in real life to afford such a hobby.
Unless........they get rid of donor money altogether.
Create an actual level playing field (at least more level than currently) and make ADs operate solely on conference distractions.
It would remove the feeling of "debt owed" to donors for their money ("I need to get something for my money") and also provide guardrails among player compensation (set % of revenue) and everyone working on a similar scale (at least within conferences).
The problem is that athletic departments, administration staff and coaching staffs are addicted to the money and likely would balk at any attempts to limit spending ability or salaries.
Money talks, and bullshit walks. It's pretty much the way it goes at every university and in many businesses with controlling shareholders.
Slightly off topic, but is there a connection between Jersey Mike's and Tastees subs? They operate behind the counter in a similar production line manner. One on the slicer, passed to one dressing the sub, passed to one on the register (and bags it if it's to go). Also the order by number is very close with 7 turkey, 8 roast beef, for example. I'll go to Tastees any day of the week over JM, by the way.
I like my local deli much more...
But for a chain- I am not a huge JJ fan. I hadn't been to a JM in years but went last month and their sandwich was really good. Just saying
I think both JM and JJ are good for chains. Way ahead of Subway. For the love of God, no Chas Dodd Subway references, please!
Not everyone lives in Jersey.
Jersey Mikes brought legit subs and cheesesteaks to those of us that live elsewhere and I am grateful.
Jersey Mikes brought legit subs and cheesesteaks to those of us that live elsewhere and I am grateful.
Agree. And they're also good for allergies. Not excited about what Blackrock will mean in that regard.
Yup, PE's are there for the short term gain for their investors, not building brands that stand the test of time. They'll slowly nickel and dime every aspect for the next few years. Then you'll hear about a store closing here or there, in a couple years more, mass closures. Finally, another PE will buy it cheap and pick through the bones.
