What I just posted in HFCanes...
I don't trust the Athletic's accuracy on this story. Obviously Dundon buying in is true, but the spin they are putting on this, that he rescued the league that couldn't make week2 payroll is a little dubious.
1. They didn't get to week two and say "Dang, we ran out of money" and then call around, find Dundon who agrees on a whim to just toss $250M their way. No, they've obviously been in talks with him prior to this and he was probably a planned investor for a while now. Maybe he was just waiting to make sure the league could get itself off the ground, and the big thing is their app which is going to revolutionize sports viewing and fantasy sports. It works, and maybe Dundon wanted to see that it works first. But certainly a $250M deal didn't just fall into place within matter of days.
2. The excuse that it's because they would miss payroll. The total contract value in the league for the entire season is $34M, so about $3.4M each week. They are also paying $800k/week for stadium usage, plus it sounds like they're possibly paying the networks to air the games, they also have travel, insurance and marketing. One savvy fan I heard from in a facebook group who has experience with this type of thing estimates that their year expenses for all of that is $25M. With payroll, their weekly expenses would be $6M. So a $250M investment could fund this league for 4 seasons.
So it looks like Dundon had his eye on this all along, and the $250M number isn't a one-time life preserver but a long-term buy in figure based on the total valuation of the league to give him a majority stake and become chairman. The Athletic puts this in a negative light "Oh look, this new league can't make payroll!" when in fact this is obviously a huge positive for the league.
