So why does a firm - which has managed over C$1.2 billion of total investor capital, and generally doesn’t get into bed with brands worth less than $25m – acquire a club with no tangible assets, no history and no strong brand.

Indeed it’s arguable if Treaty even has a fanbase of any commercial value, with 855 supporters, on average, attending home matches at Limerick’s Markets Field - (fourth from bottom on Extratime’s League Averages index, 2022).

The Pitch spoke to the key movers in football’s most curious buyout, a deal which takes place 7,000kms away from Tricor’s Vancouver base.

But first let’s determine the value of Treaty, with no significant purchase price paid for the club that we know of, rather fees agreed through immediate and strategic investment into the future.

Last year we looked at Waterford FC – a different type of takeover - which at the time was on sale for €1.3m – a price it did not come close to achieving ultimately - but just like Treaty, one which possessed no tangible assets, and whose market price reflected heavy liabilities.

Treaty FC has no significant liabilities or debts, but what it does have aplenty – at least in the eyes of Tricor and its investment partner Ciara McCormack – is a large stock of Enterprise Value and Equity Upside.

In football club valuations, such intangible assets, represent a virtual portfolio of no fixed resources, rather a forecasted value which might be achieved by that club or organisation into the future.

Speaking with Tricor in Vancouver and to Ciara McCormack, it is this future potential where the true value of Treaty lies, based on a strategic enterprise which began the moment the firm’s Chairman Rod Senft approved the acquisition, following a golf trip to Ireland in 2022.

This includes plans to acquire its own playing and training facilities – whether a deal can be done with Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership may soon be explored – as well as the purchase of land to replace UL and other ‘borrowed’ training facilities.

Tricor’s Principal of Diversified Investments, Chuck Cosman, repeatedly describes the acquisition as representing “exceptional potential” for Tricor within the mid-west a major urban and geographical region, where no other League of Ireland clubs operate.

“It’s an enormous catchment area and we really want to engage the full group that this can be a leading professional organisation - we know rugby and hurling are exceptional in the area, and we know soccer can be too,” he explained.

“We want to avoid over-promising, we want to be slow and steady and do it right and people will start to trust us.” 

For a lead investor Cosman is reluctant to talk about money or how much has initially been paid for the Limerick club for its Year One operations, indeed he won’t even speculate if that initial fee is in the six figures, as we understand it to sit at approximately €200-300,000.

Certainly there’s enough in reserve to finance the appointment of a new CEO, in McCormack, and three additional support staff who will come in, in the short-term.

The Tricor acquisition of Treaty United has its roots in Yale, long before the foundation of the Limerick club in 2020, where it entered a Women’s team in the League of Ireland, followed by a Men’s side.

It was at the New Haven Ivy League school that McCormack – who would go on to play eight-times for the Rep of Ireland - met and befriended Reilly Senft, a medical student who would end up training at UCC’s Medical School.

Although both from the same area of Vancouver, the pair’s first introduction at Yale formed a lifelong friendship which endures to this day.

McCormack is an impressive individual, not just because she’s the first female football CEO in Ireland, and not even through her business foundation of TOPP Soccer, a company which offers and supports players into scholarships and guides footballers through dedicated pathway programmes.

The daughter of west Cork and Mayo parents, McCormack is a formidable character, having blown the whistle on an abuse scandal and cover-up which blighted Canadian Football for more than a decade.

Her actions, along with those of 13 former Under-20 Canada internationals, detailed events that took place in 2008 while Bob Birarda was coach of both the U-20 national team and a member of staff at Vancouver Whitecaps.

Last year Birarda was given a two year sentence, with three-years on probation, after admitting three counts of sexual assault and a string of other charges.

As a result of the scandal, McCormack left Canada to play football professionally in Europe, in Norway and Denmark – one of the first players from North America coming to Europe to play – and from there she reached out to Noel King then with the Irish Women’s team, eventually playing for Ireland.

She returned to Canada in 2011, establishing TOPP Soccer, before travelling to Australia to play before another stint with the Irish team, eventually deciding to establish a Women’s team here, settling on Treaty United after some support from Mark Scanlon in the FAI.

She impressed the Board at Treaty by improving standards through the introduction of new players, before approaching Rod Senft last year about an investment partnership to buy the club.

Like Chuck Cosman, McCormack is all about the growth potential – that Enterprise Value and Equity Upside – and in common with both executives – making sure that Treaty United achieves its true financial value.

“How do you make it work financially? It’s about growing, and about choosing to grow big,” she told The Pitch.

“The strategy must be to build-up and get out into the community, making relationships with business, to show that we are a stable group and this is a stable thing, and then to enhance the professionalism around that.”

Republic tickets surge in price despite fall in standards

EVEN in the most optimistic sporting environment, a 27 per cent rise in ticket prices represents a leap.

When those assets are Republic of Ireland season tickets for 2024, with no qualifying campaigns or serious competitive fixtures to speak of – outside of UEFA Nations League fixtures - such a hike might be seen as a stretch.

Market forces being what they are, and with 2024 set to be a financially fallow period for the FAI, the association this week moved to increase the price of Family Season Tickets, following a busy, albeit ultimately disappointing 2023.

In response to a query from The Pitch about why the renewal rate price of a family ticket had increased from €360 to €460 for next year, a spokesperson said the new value still represented a cost of less than €20 per ticket, per game.

"The Football Association of Ireland launched the renewal phase of the 2024 Ireland MNT Season Ticket Package with a price freeze being extended for a third year across the majority of categories, including all adult season ticket starting at €150.

"Family tickets for both renewals and new tickets have been aligned to one price of €460, which equates to €76 each game (less than €20 per person) for a family of four, and more family tickets have been made available for 2024.”

Inclusion in Sport hearing overshadowed by alleged racism incident

LAST Wednesday the issue of racism in sport raised its head at a Joint Oireachtas Sports Committee hearing, entitled Inclusion in Sport.

The meeting was attended by GAA Director General Tom Ryan, and a number of equality and grassroots officers from the FAI and IRFU.

However it was Gymnastics Ireland at the centre of things, even though they were not present, when questions were asked about a recently-viral video from a GI event, were entered into the record by Chair (Acting) Christopher O’Sullivan.

The Cork TD pointed to the fact that the incident brought negative focus on Ireland, after a black girl was allegedly deliberately ignored in a medal presentation while all of her team-mates were handed awards at a 2022 Santry competition.

The issue received global attention after US star and four-times Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles, brought attention to the matter and reached out to the girl’s family.

What was stunning was that neither Sport Ireland or the Federation of Irish Sport, brought no sanction or penalty against Gymnastics Ireland, which has since apologised.

Sport Ireland gave its standard response through CEO Una May, that she would like to “remind everybody that Sport Ireland is not a regulatory body” – however it does have control to issue funding penalties and a sanction here would have sent a clear message.

Chief Executive of the Federation of Irish Sport - which represents sports bodies and NGBs - Mary O’Connor, confirmed that there “hasn’t been any repercussions on (Gymnastics Ireland’s) membership” of the organisation.