U.S. Owners See Link From Goals to Profits By Jack Bell March 7, 2007 Extra Time
The passel of American businessmen who have bought some of the top clubs in England, initially purely as investments, will inevitably become emotionally involved in their teams and the game of soccer, according to Dan Jones, a partner in the sports business group at Deloitte in London. Theres no question that the people coming in here have not been fans of the clubs that they have bought, Jones said last week in a telephone interview. But it becomes emotional pretty quickly. In the beginning, Tom Hicks was only an investor in the Dallas Stars, but winning the Stanley Cup was the biggest high hes ever had in business. Hicks, with George N. Gillett Jr., who owns the Montreal Canadiens, recently completed the acquisition of Liverpool of the English Premier League. (Yesterday, Liverpool eliminated Barcelona, the defending champion, from the European Champions League.) Last month, Jones and Deloitte released their annual Football Money League report, which said that two Premier League teams owned by Americans were among the top 10 revenue-producing clubs in the world (No. 4 Manchester United and No. 10 Liverpool). A third team, Aston Villa, which is owned by Randy Lerner, is right outside the top 20 and is expected to move up because of a new sponsorship deal with Nike. Lerner also runs the Cleveland Browns. I dont think weve seen the end, and we will see more clubs change hands; the question is how far down the pyramid it reaches, Jones said. Right now, its pretty much been limited to the top tier. But theres speculation about Tottenham, Newcastle, Arsenal as well. We are not at the end of the process. The top two clubs, according to the report, are Real Madrid ($373.6 million in revenue), which maintained its top spot from last season, and Barcelona ($331.3 million), which moved up from sixth. England has eight clubs in the top 20, Italy four, Germany three, Spain two and Scotland, France and Portugal one each. Five European clubs have revenues higher than the Washington Redskins, the top-producing ($303 million) franchise in the United States, according to the report, which cites Forbes.com as its source. The reason there has been so much action in England is that the teams are limited companies, owned by shareholders, Jones said. In a country like Spain, Real and Barcelona are literally clubs owned by the fans. Their most important asset is the fans. Only last week, two more European clubs, Millwall in England and Marseille in France, were bought by North Americans. Deloittes report is based on figures from the 2005-6 season, with information culled from each clubs financial statements. The revenues, a combined $4.2 billion for the top 20 clubs, do not include player transfer fees and are based on exchange rates as of June 30, 2006. Asked about fan backlash, particularly in England when Manchester United was bought in a highly leveraged deal by Malcolm Glazer, Jones said: It was turbulent at the time, and some people took a permanent dislike to the arrangement. But, ultimately, has it damaged the club? The answer is no. Finally, Jones was asked why people like Glazer, Lerner, Hicks and Gillett chose to invest in soccer teams overseas rather than in Major League Soccer. Investors like Phil Anschutz are not small-time investors, Jones said. But in M.L.S., it is a slower burn and a longer term. Guys who run teams in the big four American sports realize how long it can take to break through. Simply investing in M.L.S. is a different proposition. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/sports/soccer/07soccer.html?_r=1&ref=socce r&oref=slogin [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/kOt0.A/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/GtUolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Please use [email protected] for general discussion. To unsubscribe send a blank message (from the email account in question) to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Join as a full member of IMUSA today: http://www.imusa.org/join.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imusa/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imusa/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
