Atalanta No Longer Queen Of The Provinces As Investment Arrives

The news came out of the blue and was more than unexpected, to say the least.

Rumours gathered steam last week that Atalanta were to be the latest Italian side to succumb to American investment. Multiple reports suggested that an investment fund called KKR was closing in on the purchase of La Dea for around €350m ($397m) for an 85% share of the club.

However, KKR representatives swiftly denied any involvement in talks to buy the club, saying the firm had ‘never considered’ an approach to buying Atalanta.

Yet over the weekend the news then did arrive that reports were partially right. Atalanta would be getting new American owners, not KKR, but rather Bain Capital’s co-chairman Stephen Pagliuca.

Pagliuca (no relation to Italian goalkeeping legend Gianluca), co-owner of the Boston Celtics and co-chairman of Boston-based Bain Capital, is heading a group of investors that have bought a 55% stake in Atalanta.

A formal press release was subsequently published by Atalanta, stating that indeed the deal had been agreed between the Percassi family and Pagliuca, who has roots in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

The Percassi family, which has owned the club since 2010, will retain 45% share of the club. Antonio Percassi, current president of the Bergamo side, is set to share duties with Pagliuca, who will become co-chairman. Luca Percassi, Antonio’s son, is set to remain in his capacity as CEO of the club.

As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Pagliuca’s decision to buy Atalanta is not through Bain, but his own venture with other investors after three months of lengthy negotiations and due diligence on the club’s accounts.

It’s thought that Atalanta is valued at around €440m ($498m).

Atalanta are now the latest in a long line of Italian clubs that have been snapped up by North American investors over the last few years. Milan, Roma, Venezia, Parma, Fiorentina, Spezia, Bologna, Pisa, SPAL and Genoa are all owned by investors on the other side of the Atlantic. Genoa were bought out by Miami-based fund 777 Partners just last November.

Unlike some of the aforementioned sides, with the incoming owners inheriting massive debts, Atalanta are arguably the best-run side in Italy. The Percassi family have been held up for years now as model owners for their exceptional running of the club.

With most of the big clubs in Serie A swimming in eye-watering debt, Atalanta are one of the precious few clubs to be in the green.  A combination of an excellent youth system, a coach in Gian Piero Gasperini who has transformed Atalanta to be a side far better than the sum of their parts, and selling some of their marquee players for extraordinary profit (known as plusvalenza in Italy) has resulted in the club ending 2020 with revenue of €152m ($172m).

Another key factor that would’ve no doubt appealed to Pagliuca and investors is the fact that Atalanta own their stadium, again, another rarity in Italy. The Percassi family bought the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia from the Bergamo city council in 2017 for around €9m ($10m) and set about renovating it.

The Curva Nord was the first section to undergo work and was reopened in late 2019, and while the pandemic has halted further work, the rest of the stadium is scheduled to be completely renovated by the summer of 2023.

When finished, the 23k-capacity stadium will give Atalanta a massive advantage on many of their rivals with all of the current top six, bar Juventus, in various stages of stadium redevelopment. This issue, which plagued James Pallotta’s time at Roma in the 2010s and has proved equally as frustrating for current Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso, isn’t something Pagliuca and his partners need to worry about.

The extra revenue will prove pivotal in keeping Atalanta competitive at the summit of Serie A, even if they retain their model of selling one big player every year under the new ownership.

With the number of North American owners now nearly rivalling their Italian equivalents in Serie A, the hope is that an outside perspective can help modernise the league and bring it in line with the 21^st century.

But for Atalanta, the future looks positively rosy. Known as la Regina delle provinciali (the Queen of the provinces) for their ability to consistently swim with the sharks in Serie A, but those days are gone.

Everything is now set up for Atalanta to be the new shark in the ocean on a long-term basis, and that’s a good thing for Serie A.