--- title: "Sharks owner Marco Masotti still ‘not giving up’ on franchise despite not breaking even" description: "The franchise’s US-based owner is as committed as he was five years ago when he bought the club and aims to be around for a long time." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "SWIMMING UPSTREAM" author: "Craig Ray" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/craig-ray/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-02-sharks-owner-marco-masotti-still-not-giving-up-on-franchise-despite-not-breaking-even/" published: "2026-08-02T11:50:01" updated: "2026-08-02T11:50:04" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 1471 --- # Sharks owner Marco Masotti still ‘not giving up’ on franchise despite not breaking even > The franchise’s US-based owner is as committed as he was five years ago when he bought the club and aims to be around for a long time. By Craig Ray · Published 2 August 2026, 13:50 SAST · Updated 2 August 2026, 13:50 SAST ## Key points - Marco Masotti, a New York-based lawyer who bought a 51% stake five years ago, remains the Sharks’ principal backer — funding a loss-making franchise from Manhattan and refusing to walk away despite heavy personal outlay and not breaking even. - He’s overhauled the club’s structure, producing a 2024 Challenge Cup win but inconsistent URC form and a missed 2026 play-off as a chance to reset. - Masotti argues private owners are effectively subsidising Springbok rugby, criticises Saru’s funding model (14 professional unions is unsustainable) and wants the top four clubs to cooperate business-wise, not just compete on the field. - Co-investors fret “what if Marco stops?” yet he’s adamant he’s in for the long haul, targeting URC competitiveness within 1-2 seasons and genuine Champions Cup contention by around year eight. ## Content As unlikely as it sounds, lawyer Marco Masotti runs the Sharks from a high-rise in Manhattan, New York City, checking in once a week, working after hours and on weekends on Sharks business and flying to Durban when he can. He is the major financier of the whole operation, but he cannot run the day-to-day admin from 13,200km away. There must be easier ways for the global head of private equity at a prestigious New York law firm to spend his free time. But Masotti, who is from Amanzimtoti, is mad about rugby and the Sharks, so they sit somewhere between a legitimate business venture and a passion project for him. Five years ago, when Masotti led the MVM consortium that bought a 51% controlling stake in the Sharks, his ambition was to turn a struggling provincial union into something resembling a global superclub. Although he has never explicitly stated that the Sharks were aiming to be the “Liverpool or Manchester United” of rugby, it’s a phrase that has been bandied about since he took over in 2021. It’s not a comparison he particularly enjoys. “I think we have achieved a lot, but also made mistakes. You can’t really look at it as one period either,” Masotti told Daily Maverick in an interview from Manhattan. “We came in the middle of Covid and I would probably describe the first two years as a rescue operation. The Sharks really needed to be rescued – they were haemorrhaging players, there were no fans in the stands and they were heading the way of some of the other franchises that have been battling in South Africa. “It was more about shoring it up financially during that initial period and bringing in some players who provided a little bit more profile to the franchise. We were very successful in that regard and did okay on the rugby field.” Five years on, Masotti is candid about what he bought into. It’s not a business that makes money – yet. On the field, the Sharks won the secondary European Challenge Cup in 2024 and have been hit and miss in qualifying for the United Rugby Championship (URC) playoffs. They missed out altogether in 2026, which Masotti sees as a chance to reset. He has rebuilt the franchise’s off-field operation along lines he compares openly to American major-league ownership. The old model, he said, had key functions isolated from each other. “We had a head of recruitment sitting with management, not close to the coach, like it’s just... it makes no sense.” ![United Rugby Championship: Ospreys v Hollywoodbets Sharks](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/gFqGsNSvEM_htiUo5t-3GaELcnQ=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2992/TL_2553129_399620.jpg) *Sharks utility back Zekhethelo Siyaya makes a break during the United Rugby Championship match against the Ospreys on 18 April 2026 in Bridgend, Wales. (Photo: Gruffydd Thomas / Gallo Images)* Masotti installed a chief of staff, a general manager and a dedicated recruitment committee under Ruan Jacobs, with Mike Leslie on commercial deals and current CEO Shaun Bryans, a former banker, staying on in a supervisory role. ### Operation Isandlwana The restructuring extends to how rugby itself is planned. After a season in which he says 27% of the squad was injured at one point, Masotti sat down last December and, using AI, drew up what he calls “Operation Isandlwana”, in reference to the famous battle in 1879 when Zulu warriors defeated the British army. The plan is splitting the season into three distinct phases rather than treating it as one block – an early, away-heavy stretch typically without Springboks in the squad, followed by two further phases built around when the Boks are released back to the franchise. Masotti is also leaning harder on data. His general manager and analytics lead, Dave Williams, sends him cohesion metrics before matches that predict the margin of victory or defeat. “It’s astonishing to me how accurate it is in rugby,” he reveals. “This \[owning the Sharks\] is an investment. It is a little bit of a passion project. I think that’s what sports teams are. You’re investing in community development, media and entertainment, the sport itself. It has so many benefits. In sports, it’s a little bit like artwork. If you sell it one day, that’s when you make the return. I think the Sharks are going to be a much more valuable franchise than when I invested in them.” Masotti won’t put a number on what he has personally sunk into the franchise, deflecting the question when it’s put to him directly. What he does disclose is that despite being the head of the consortium, the actual investment has been mostly his own money. There is a handful of American friends who “didn’t put in a lot of money” but wanted to feel invested in a rugby team, and six South Africans who came in at the start and whom he hasn’t asked to keep funding the operation. ![Marco Masotti, head of US-based private equity consortium MVM Holdings. (Photo: Supplied)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/zZssInCp-MSMrV4rSKf2Zy-eiQg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/Craig-sharksstake3.jpg) *Marco Masotti, head of US-based private equity consortium MVM Holdings. (Photo: Supplied)* The Americans, he said, keep telling him to spend more to win. The South Africans worry about the size of the hole. “What happens if Marco stops?” is how he characterises their anxiety. ### Tough environment Fortunately, he has no intention of walking away just yet, but the environment is challenging. It’s no secret that South Africa’s leading four clubs – the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers – have at times been at loggerheads with the South African Rugby Union (Saru). The Sharks were one of the clubs that blocked Saru’s potential equity sale to another American consortium two years ago, believing the deal was undervalued and not transparent enough. Although the deal was blocked, the tension between the clubs and Saru is never far from the surface. Saru’s mandate is to fund all rugby in South Africa, which requires a great deal of spending on the other 10 unions that make up the membership. The four URC clubs might receive the biggest income from Saru annually, but they also carry the biggest costs – particularly players’ wages. Saru identifies players of national interest and compensates the unions, but the general feeling is that it’s not enough. Masotti believes that private owners like him are not just funding their franchises, but are in effect subsidising the entire South African professional game, including the Springboks. “You’re basically financing South African rugby and the Springboks, because you’re paying the compensation on the Springboks and you get money payments. ![Makazole Mapimpi of the Sharks during the Champions Cup match against Union Bordeaux-Bègles at Kings Park in Durban on 14 January 2023. (Photo: Steve Haag / Gallo Images / Getty Images)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/CEvWxHYNUdUMglksXGVdpyaCPs8=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1246231469.jpg) *Makazole Mapimpi of the Sharks during the Champions Cup match against Union Bordeaux-Bègles at Kings Park in Durban on 14 January 2023. (Photo: Steve Haag / Gallo Images / Getty Images)* “And then the goalposts keep on getting moved. You need to be getting a bigger share of the pie to stay competitive, but it is going more to the Springboks and less and less to the union. So the financial obligation of the rugby system is increasingly being put on you,” he said. ### Getting to a sustainable structure Pressed on what should change, Masotti stopped short of a direct attack on Saru. But he didn’t hide his view that the structure of 14 professional unions all drawing on the same pool of funding is unsustainable. “I’m not sure Saru is divvying up the pie right, because there’s 14 mouths to feed, not just the four of us in the URC,” Masotti said. “My personal feeling is we shouldn’t have 14 professional unions sucking funding from Saru. That’s probably something you can’t say.” He feels the Sharks, Bulls, Stormers and Lions should cooperate more like the franchises do in the US’s National Football League, competing on the field while running the business side jointly so that the financial model no longer leans so heavily on individual owners to keep the whole ­pyramid standing. “If I’m at the Saru level, I’m also trying to do what’s right for the Springboks. But sometimes it takes a little bit more discussion, a little bit more thought-out decision-making. Right now, too much of the obligation is being put on someone like me.” None of this has cooled any of Masotti’s enthusiasm for the Sharks, though. “I’m in this for the long term. It’s my passion. I’m not giving up,” he said. He believes that the Sharks will be genuinely competitive in the URC within a season or two, and in the Champions Cup by “probably the eighth year” of his ownership. “I think the role of the owner is to support the budget, but by always sticking to a plan.” Whether that plan survives contact with South African rugby’s funding politics is, by Masotti’s own account, still an open question. “Something’s got to give to make it sustainable,” he said. “Springbok rugby and the South African rugby ecosystem really do need the clubs and club rugby to be successful to sustain Springbok rugby.” **DM** *This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.* ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/pElO80bVzJ2jeRb8Eew-ykRoqEM=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2995/DM-310726_276433.jpg)