Dog Shows Are New Target for Private Equity Firm GF Sports

(Bloomberg) -- GF Sports, the investment business backed by private equity firm GF Capital Management & Advisors, is going to the dogs.

The company is teaming up with the 136-year-old American Kennel Club -- a nonprofit dedicated to promoting purebred canines -- on a joint venture that will take dog shows on tour later this year.

The idea is to capitalize on the popularity of the annual AKC Meet the Breeds event, which was held in New York’s Jacob K. Javits Center earlier this month. GF Sports will help bring the show to three additional cities, including Philadelphia and Nashville, Tennessee.

Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

GF Sports owns professional tennis tournaments in Uniondale, New York, and Atlanta, along with the National Lacrosse League’s New York Riptide team, also in Uniondale, and the Wolf Pack Ninjas live-event platform. It’s a past owner of the Blue Man Group stage show, which it sold to Cirque du Soleil in 2017.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the better-known event held each February at New York’s Madison Square Garden, isn’t part of the new pact.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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