Nighthawks investor returns to his Nebraska roots

The Omaha Nighthawks have a new part owner, a sports-minded Omaha native who believes the team not only gives players an opportunity for success but investors an opportunity to make money.

Zach Nelson, CEO of the computer software company NetSuite Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., expects to turn his investment into a profit as the Nighthawks win on the field and gain Omaha fans. Pro sports is a business, after all, and he's helping to attract more investors to the fledgling United Football League team.

“It's a very strong league financially and strategically,” he said. “When you see the quality of the football and the quality of the business plan, it's amazing.”

Nelson is solidly connected to California business leaders, including the league's founder, investment banker Bill Hambrecht, who also owns the UFL's Las Vegas team. NetSuite is 50 percent owned by Lawrence Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corp. and, according to Forbes magazine, the sixth-richest person in the world.

Nelson's company also has connections in the sports world. Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, serves on NetSuite's board of directors.

Nelson, 49, received compensation of $3.2 million at NetSuite last year. While he declined to disclose his exact share of the Nighthawks or how much he invested, last week he sold company stock worth $382,000, leaving him with NetSuite shares worth $19.3 million.

He said he holds “a good piece of ownership” of the Nighthawks.

“We're going to be excited to get some other investors from Omaha or Silicon Valley or elsewhere.”

The team already held one gathering for potential investors at Omaha's Happy Hollow Club.

Initial investors should expect to put up big bucks to own a piece of the team, he said, but in the future, it's possible that small shares could be sold to average fans.

That's not unheard of. The NFL's Green Bay Packers, for example, are a nonprofit corporation owned by 112,158 stockholders.

Money aside, Nelson's enthusiasm for the Nighthawks could have its origins at Mount Michael High School outside Elkhorn, where he played halfback and linebacker in football and forward in basketball on teams that played in state tournaments.

After graduating in 1979, Nelson earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Stanford University and worked for Oracle and other computer-based California companies. At one of them, he approved a $1.3 million ad buy for a 30-second TV commercial during the 1998 Super Bowl.

He became CEO of NetSuite in 2002. The company's sales totaled $167 million last year, but it lost $23 million. In the first half of 2010, revenues hit a record $91 million, while the loss totaled $14 million. Business software is a highly competitive business, and NetSuite's financial report shows significant spending on product development.

Besides running the business, Nelson has been involved in the new football league since early last year.

“I was super-impressed with the quality of the football,” he said. “It's NFL-quality football. I kept talking about how Omaha is the perfect sort of city for what Bill (Hambrecht) was trying to do in sports.”

When Hambrecht agreed to start the Omaha team, Nelson said, “I had to put my money where my mouth was.”

Nelson's late parents, Bob and Margaret Nelson, raised 10 children at their home in the Florence area, and he still visits Omaha regularly. At the College World Series this year, he kept imagining how the Nighthawks' games will look at Rosenblatt Stadium.

In announcing Nelson as a minority owner of the Omaha franchise, league officials said they and Nelson will work in coming weeks to attract Omahans and other potential investors “who share a belief that the Nighthawks are an important asset to the city.”

UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue said the Omaha franchise has become an attractive investment opportunity in a short time.

“We are excited that Zach Nelson has recognized the potential of the organization,” he said.

Nelson said he isn't worried about Omaha's history of financially shaky professional sports teams. He said the UFL has found a financially viable level of football between the NFL and college teams.

“There are a lot of possibilities today with where the league goes,” Nelson said, largely because there are so many high-quality football players who, for one reason or another, aren't playing in the National Football League.

“I certainly think that football as a professional sport is under-distributed in North America,” he said. “The (UFL) plan is based on super-high-quality football, and it succeeded well last year."

With the addition of Omaha and Norfolk, Va., starting play in 2011, as new teams, “it's a very serious opportunity,” Nelson said.

Omaha has embraced the Nighthawks even though the first game isn't until Sept. 24, he said, citing the team's league-leading season-ticket sales and the crowd of 1,600 who turned out to see players at a mini-camp last month in La Vista.

Even though he went elsewhere for college, Nelson said he remains a loyal Nebraskan and considers the “N” in NetSuite and the “N” in Nighthawks to stand for his home state.

When the company's stock began selling on the New York Stock Exchange, Nelson was thrilled at its ticket symbol: N.

Contact the writer:

444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com

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