Porkbelly futures and plain-vanilla interest rate swaps not exciting enough?
Well now you can invest in a pitcher! For $50,000, you can buy 4% of 25-year-old minor league relief pitcher Randy Newsom's future Major League earnings. That means that he'll need to earn $1.25 million in the majors before you start raking it in.
Newsom has set up Real Sports Investments LLC to broker the deal, and he describes it this way:
Investing in a player is similar to investing in a company. If the company makes money, the investors get paid in the form of a dividend. If an athlete you own shares in makes it to the big leagues, then you will be paid a percentage of his contract .... Investors can also trade their shares to other willing buyers and sellers via this website. Shares will increase or decrease in value based on the athlete's future earning potential and supply and demand.
It's certainly an interesting idea, and Newsom is hoping to get other players to sign up to offer a portion of their future earnings.
One concern is that at 25, Newsom has never pitched past Double-A, although he did notch 18 saves there last year. But the idea certainly makes sense and Newsom definitely has a future in business, if not in pitching.
Ready to start your due diligence? Watch this YouTube video of him pitching and decide whether you think he has a future.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-27-2008 @ 6:48AM
al coholic said...
It wouldn't surprise me if this catches on. It's like owning a racehorse and watching it run.
I can see it now...... Fast forward to the game announcers in 2010. "Well, Bob, Newsome pitched a heck of a game today. That ought to make the shareholders happy." Suddenly his stats appear on the screen, followed by a readout of his latest dividends.
The scene shifts to a bar where Bob Costas is interviewing the first guy that invested in Newsome. "I knew he could do it", he yells while chugging a Bud Light.
Only in America, folks.