Insights,NEWSROOM

StubHub Strikes Out: Syndicated loans of ticket reseller pricing at a discount after losing deal with Major League Baseball (MLB)

By Luis Miguel Tejada

Monday 27th of February – Major League Baseball releases an official statement announcing its partnership with online ticket marketplace SeatGeek to become MLB’s official ticket marketplace in a five-year deal. This announcement marks the end of MLB’s 16-year partnership with ticket reseller StubHub as its official ticket marketplace.

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Uncertainty around the renewal of StubHub’s deal with MLB and its potential impact on the company’s revenues may have generated concern for its creditors. Bid prices for StubHub’s USD denominated syndicated loans had been steadily declining on the three-month period leading to the official announcement of MLB’s partnership with SeatGeek; this decline can be observed using SOLVE’s loan composite data. Bid prices saw discounts of 800 and 1100 basis points (bps) for StubHub’s Term loan B with 02/12/2027 maturity and incremental term loan B with 02/12/2027 maturity respectively (Figure 1).

Composite Bid-Offer spreads also widened as market liquidity for these loans deteriorated, reaching new highs after MLB’s official partnership announcement with SeatGeek (Figure 2).