In a recent meeting, I floated an idea: CF Montréal as a tenant of the 4C Creative, Commercial, Cultural Campus, playing in a new stadium with a retractable roof.
The response caught me off guard.
“The owner would pay you to take it off his hands.”
At first, I dismissed it as exaggeration. But the more I reflected—on the team’s on-field struggles, reported financial losses, and broader structural challenges—the more I understood the underlying point.
“Good Companies Are Bought, Not Sold”
Because while CF Montréal is valued at roughly $430M USD (per Sportico), finding a buyer at that level is not necessarily straightforward. Hence why a business is ultimately what a buyer is willing to pay for it, and sometimes, buyers simply don’t exist.
The following is another “case study” at the forthcoming Academy & Study of Entrepreneurship, or ASE, in the “Financial Engineering” class.
The Reality: Value vs. Viability
This isn’t about the club lacking intrinsic value. It’s about context:
- Reported annual losses (~$20M/year)
- Stadium limitations (no roof in a potentially shifting MLS calendar). A potential “threat” in SWOT terms: if MLS eventually shifts toward a more winter-aligned schedule, a non-roofed stadium in Montreal becomes a structural disadvantage.
- Market dynamics relative to U.S.-based franchises
- Ownership priorities (with Bologna FC clearly a major focus)
In that light, the earlier comment—while blunt—wasn’t entirely irrational.
A Different Approach: Roll, Don’t Sell
Which raises the question:
Instead of selling CF Montréal outright… what if the solution is to roll it into something bigger?
Proposed Framework (purely theoretical, natch):
- Joey Saputo rolls 80–100% of CF Montréal into Granicus Sports Entertainment (GSE)
- Valuation determined at fair market value—not necessarily the headline $430M, given losses and structural risks
- GSE does not pay cash upfront
- Instead, GSE: Takes over operations Absorbs ongoing losses Invests in growth and infrastructure
From Saputo’s perspective, this is not an exit—it’s a conversion:
- From a standalone, loss-generating asset
- Into equity in a broader, multi-asset sports platform
And importantly, investors tend to like what investors & sellers call “schmuck insurance”—alignment through retained ownership (if he retains 20%).
Why This Could Work for Saputo
Let’s be fair: Joey Saputo deserves a ton of credit for the vision to launch the team and respect for covering losses. It’s also normal that with a team in the Serie A, an MLS team may not command the same attention it deserves. As part of the Saputo family, he also may not need liquidity, per se.
But he may want:
- To stem ongoing losses
- To address the stadium constraint
- To focus attention on Bologna FC
Under this model:
- He retains upside through equity in GSE
- He offloads operational burden
- He participates in something potentially much larger
Why This Could Work for GSE
For Granicus Sports Entertainment, this changes everything.
- Immediate acquisition of a Tier 1 North American sports asset
- A platform to deploy capital (to invest in the club’s operation) in LOIs already secured
- Acceleration of the 4C Campus development
- Tangible proof of execution when approaching @MLB (important to stress to the @Montreal_Expos faithful so they don’t show up to @WatchMojo HQ with pitchforks and rescind calling their children Ashkan Tremblay or Ashkan Smith)!
Because here’s the reality:
You don’t win expansion bids with vision alone. You win with demonstrated capability.
To me, CF Montréal becomes a priority, but to MLB, it becomes:
- A proof of concept
- A live operating asset
- A bridge to MLB credibility
The Flywheel Effect
Once that first asset is in place, the model compounds:
- Ability to bring in seasoned operators (e.g., someone like Dan Ventrelle)
- Formalize roles for key figures (e.g., Dan Evans as ambassador within baseball circles)
- Expand into adjacent verticals: Youth Games (via WatchMojo ecosystem) Potential premium/professional hockey league
- Build toward a MLSE / Monumental Sports-style platform
Suddenly:
- MLB pays attention, we really accelerate taking the #PeanutProject from “somewhere between improbable and impossible” to increasingly, inevitable (listen to the song, yes, the song, It’s Inevitable)
- NBA and NFL take note (no longer mere surveys or polls, but action and outputs)
- The city—and its institutions—start returning calls
Momentum changes everything.
The Bigger Vision
Longer term, this evolves beyond individual teams:
- Multi-sport ecosystem
- Content + IP layer
- Infrastructure (4C Campus)
- Potential Olympic ambitions
What starts as a soccer asset becomes a sports and entertainment platform.
A Personal Note on Building Winning Teams
I’ve spent over 20 years on the pitch as a striker—averaging roughly 2.5 goals per game in 11-a-side, and over 3 in futsal. If the community has put their faith and trust in me to build a world-class baseball organization and field a championship-winning baseball team, I assure you soccer (futbol) is more of a natural extension and manifestation for me.
More importantly, I’ve been fortunate to play on teams that won consistently—often going undefeated.
Was it talent? Sure.
But it was also:
- Chemistry
- Structure
- Relentless execution
The same principles apply off the field.
And if there’s one thing I’ve demonstrated—through WatchMojo and beyond—it’s the ability to recruit, build, and scale winning organizations.
The Open Question
Of course, all of this hinges on one thing:
Is Joey Saputo interested?
That’s not something I can answer.
But what I can say is this:
There are moments where assets don’t need to be sold—they need to be repositioned.
And in doing so, they can become the foundation for something far greater than what they were on their own.