Gordon Pointe/HOVF Files Additional Materials

Gordon Pointe Acquisition Corp. (GPAQ), released additional information this morning regarding their transaction with HOF Village, Inc., via an 8-K and a presentation.  However, the information provided was still pretty light on details.  There was a conference call as well, where we got to hear from James Dolan, GPAQ’s Chairman and CEO, and Mike Crawford, HOFV’s CEO, where they provided a little more color to HOFV’s plans.

Essentially, the presentation and conference call chose to focus more on future plans and strategies, and more specifically, Phase II and III of the HOF Village opportunity.  Unfortunately, Phase II is not expected to be completed until between 2021 and 2023 (there are multiple projects associated with Phase II and not all will be completed by E2021). However, it is expected that by 2021 HOFV will have total revenue of $71.5 million and an adjusted EBITDA of $17.2 million. By 2023, when Phase II should be completed, total revenue jumps to $131.4 million with an adjusted EBITDA of $44.4 million.  HOFV, which is currently in Phase I, is expected to generate revenue of $7.1 million in 2019.

So the question is, are investors willing to wait that gap of at least two years between now and 2021 to see the features of Phase II come into play?  After all, 2019E revenues of $7.1 million aren’t generally enough to get investors up out of bed.

Well, what also needs to be considered is Mike Crawford, the CEO of HOFV. If you review Crawford’s background he led the development of the Shanghai Disney location, considered to be the most profitable Disney location in the world. Plus, he also led the development of a project at Disneyland, California, and Cirque du Soleil (Tokyo) and a Four Seasons Resort in Vietnam (Hoi An). Clearly, he has significant experience with both resorts and theme parks and really, the HOF Village is essentially the football version of a Disney theme park, complete with water park. So Crawford’s got the “playbook” down cold.   But still…this company is basically early stage with the promise of a successful future in 2+ years. This is why the presentation was light on providing current financial details.  The story isn’t compelling as of today, it’s compelling in the future.

What is also interesting is the additional focus of media.  Part of HOFV’s plans is to produce content for distribution via its access to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Archive, but the intention is also to create new content – full length feature films, live and taped television specials, studio shows, live sports events, books and artwork.  Again, very similar to Disney and Universal Studios.

In summary, if HOFV can execute and keep to its timeline, this “could” be a very interesting company.  The problem is, two years is a long time for public investors. The GPAQ/HOFV teams have their work cut out for them with generating demand to push the GPAQ share price over trust value.  That’s not to say they can’t do that, but they are going to have to find investors that are willing to wait to see the share price move post-close.

Lastly, the information provided also indicated a “late Q4 2019 close”.  GPAQ’s extended deadline runs out on October 31st, so that means they are probably going to have to extend again a little further out. However, we should know soon once they file their proxy.