why the sudden rush of American Billionaires to buy English football teams?
By smuggeridge
@smuggeridge (2148)
April 27, 2007 11:12am CST
In the last few years Man utd, Liverpool and Aston Villa have been bought out by rich Americans. In the last week Arsenal have been subject to rumours of a takeover by Billionaire stan Kroenke (owner of NFLs St Louis Rams, NBAs Denver Nuggets and NHLs Colorado Avalanche) and to my delight the mighty Southampton are in a takeover approach by Paul Allen (Co-Founder of microsoft and the 19th richest man in the world and owner of the Seattle Seahawks).
What is it that appeals to these super rich which suddenly makes them want to takeover all these english teams, do they really believe that there is money in football?
Is all this activity good for English football, what happens when these Americans get bored and decide they are no longer interested in these clubs? are they just going to forget about them?
4 responses
@thrwbckjay67 (2870)
• United States
27 Apr 07
There really is a lot of money to be had in Premiership football... speaking as an American fan of Premiership action, I think that these owners understand that, while their teams in the U.S. are in high-powered and high-yielding leagues, that they can never match the worldwide earning potential that a Man U. or Arsenal has around the world. There are Premiership fans everywhere... just as there are Serie A, Ligue 1, La Liga, etc... the money is in worldwide marketing... ask the NBA how they feel about having the influx of international players (Yao Ming was a HUGE WIN for the NBA in China.)
The thing is, bored or not, they will make them money. And then American owners know that, while they own the teams, they can get experienced people to run these teams on a regular basis and keep the quality up. Besides, they take a fair amount of the best U.S. players anyways, as well as the best internationally (Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Essien, Owen just to name a quiet few)... so there will always be quality there
@smuggeridge (2148)
•
27 Apr 07
In reality however very few people have ever made money from football, the expense that is needed to reach the top is huge, Chelsea have spent some £300 million to reach the top and still they are struggling to overhaul man utd. Last year chelsea recorded a loss ofd £90million, man Utd and Liverpool are the same. If these investors are doing it because they believe they can make a quick buck they are dreaming. When you consider the expense of paying top player £100,000 per week or £30million just to buy them it is a very expensive business.
How long before these super rich realise that they are not going to make a lot of money?, to stay at the top any profit has to be re-invested. Will this result in these billionaires eventually giving up and selling up, or is this just more of a hobby?
@joey_matthews (8354)
•
8 Jan 08
I heard both tottenham and "newcastle" was, although I know a gordy owns newscastle and i have read they have american backers but if it's true I don't know. anywell less of the stealing newcastle who should be called "the seahorses" and the "magpies".
It's money talking, they see our games going well and I strongly believe they want to mess it up.
Personally I'm voting and wishing for the fa to put a limit on what can be spent and how many forien owners can be in a position to rule a team, wouldn't happen but it annoying. I wished chelsea wasn't owned by a loser, I wished they had gone down when they're team was full of classic o.a.p's.
~Joey
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
28 Apr 07
The American slang of "Show me the Money" is the root cause. The success of football in establishing itself as the biggest sport worldwide is the reason for the spurt of American billionaires taking over football teams. The English clubs are more attractive as despite their popularity their valuations are pretty reasonable and the Americans are licking their fingers at that.
Given the lure of the game in England and also it's popularity in Asia and the other parts of the world, the American Billionaires are making a beeline to buy these clubs.
Cheers!
Ram
@mattyg2k7 (215)
•
22 Jun 07
its simple there has never been as much money as there is now at the clubs in the premier league now all the big clubs get somthing in the region of 50 milion pounds just from tv each year and then you need to put ticket prices and selling of memrobelia on to p and it is a great buisness for people to get into
