Massis seals Ticketmaster deal, lands cash boost for the coffers | OneFootball

São Paulo has reached an agreement with Ticketmaster and secured an advance of R$ 140 million from its new partner, which will be responsible for managing ticket sales and the club’s membership program for the next five years.

As AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR reported in advance at the end of July, the Morumbi club had been seeking an advance on funds from the new partnership in order to somewhat ease the financial crisis it has been facing. The amount requested by the board at the time was slightly higher, at R$ 250 million.

For the change in ticketing operator to be finalized, it still needs final approval from the club’s governance bodies, including review by the Deliberative Council.

Structure of the Operation with Ticketmaster

The R$ 140 million advanced to Tricolor is divided into two commercial fronts:

Membership Program and Ticketing: R$ 110 million made available as an advance on revenue, to be repaid by the club over the course of the contract period, with interest charges applied.

Box 29A: R$ 30 million related to the transfer of the commercial exploitation rights of the 595-seat corporate space located at MorumBIS.

NewC’s Bid and Liability Restructuring

To take over the membership program, São Paulo will have to pay the termination penalty of Feng’s contract, which had been renewed at the beginning of 2025 by former marketing director Eduardo Toni (with an 11% clause on the first monthly payment of new members).

The São Paulo board also evaluated a competing proposal from NewC worth R$ 500 million — the company responsible for facial recognition at Palmeiras’ stadium.

The offer included taking over the box office operations, the membership program, and the surface rights to Morumbi.

However, the club’s bylaws prohibit the president from assigning surface rights, making the deal with NewC unfeasible and sealing the partnership with Ticketmaster, with whom São Paulo already had close ties, since the company is part of the same holding company as Live Nation, also a Tricolor partner for staging shows at Morumbi.

The asset-based proposal provides for the creation of a Real Estate Investment Fund (FII) linked to Morumbi’s surface rights, which could reach an investment of close to R$ 500 million in the long term (8 to 10 years) to pay off costly bank debts.

Parallel to the ticketing bid, the Danish company NewC — which took part in the original bidding process —, together with a financial partner, presented the club’s political groups with an alternative offer focused on debt restructuring.

Official Position of the Club

In a statement, São Paulo clarified that the technical analysis of the ticketing operator has been concluded and is following the normal stages of internal governance.

Regarding the project presented by NewC, the Tricolor board stressed that the financial initiative is asset-related in nature and will be handled completely independently from the ticketing bid. The club is awaiting receipt of the formal proposal from the partner group in order to schedule in-person meetings and assess the feasibility of the liability restructuring.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.