Listing the PSL could be a worthy goal

ith (comparatively) lots of space and (generally) glorious weather, it’s no surprise SA is sports mad. This week’s Cover Story (page 16) takes a look at the growing sports industry, and finds it in rude health, especially the dominant codes.

And among them soccer is beginning to show its potential. The health of the professional game is now rubbing off on the national team, Bafana Bafana, both on and off the field.

It all raises an interesting question: how long before we see a deeper investment market in sport? Investing in any sports franchise, especially a football team in this modern age of multimillion dollar wages is something any selfrespecting investment guru would probably warn against. As much money as teams such as the Manchester Uniteds and Chelseas of this world attract, almost as much strolls out the door in the salaries of their big-name players.

That is the European game. Locally, however, the game is in a very different space.

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the most lucrative on the continent and is in the top 10 globally. But though footballers’ salaries are rising fast, they are nowhere near as crippling to a team or the league’s long-term prospects as they are in some of the world’s more famous and highly regarded leagues.

Viewership of the league is growing and has come to dominate SuperSport, the sports channel of Naspers’s African pay-TV operation, MultiChoice. Along with the national team, Bafana Bafana, PSL matches made up all top 10 sporting events viewed on the channel last year.

In fact they dominate the top 30. The league signed a five-year broadcasting contract with SuperSport in 2012. When it ends, the broadcast rights will revert to the league, something even the English Football Association hasn’t achieved.

A listing of the business that runs professional football is something worth exploring, and it would make an enticing investment if it ever came to pass.