As with any investment the idea would to be to gain an appreciating asset mate... That said I agree. The tiny Chinese fella who's bought Albion (and looks about 12 ffs) paid circa £150m for the club. £80m for 10% of Liverpool sounds noddy.
It isn't though. As due to PL FFP clubs have to become largely self financing. Even Roman who bought Chelsea for reasons other than profit, has sunk circa £1BN into the club, and it's current value is virtually exactly that figure. So he could walk away with it having not cost him a bean Football club profit comes largely from exit strategies. Sit on the asset and ride the wave of the PL with its crazy TV deals and ever growing worldwide appeal.
For every Chelsea that spends money and clubs profile grows to match there are several QPRs that spend a lot of money and don't see club grow in value as much. If you're going to invest you have to invest a lot before it pays you back. Lukewarm investment of just a Few hundred million is money down the drain. The era of values going up exponentially can't last forever either. Eventally it will have to slow to match GDP growth. The bubble will eventually burst. It migh be next year, 5 years or 10 years but it's going to burst evntually.
Do you subscribe to the FT? Good read, and I used to get it every day at my old gym, Fitness First, till they went all downmarket to compete with Pure Gym. I occasionally get one passed through on nights that's been picked up on the train, but I couldn't afford subscription.
Hmmm. Never really sure why the Yanks are into Football. Don't get me wrong, they saved us from, er, the previous Yanks, but I always thought FSG would re-capitalise and sell-on, considering RBS gave them the club on the cheap after a distressed sale on the supposed basis that they were ready to expand the ground. Okay, six years later.... I'm convinced FSG don't see themselves at Liverpool in ten years time: if they did they would n't have taken so long to expand the ground.
Value has gone from what £300m when they bought Liverpool, to now £700m+. Would be stupid if they weren't considering it
The new TV deal means it's almost impossible not to make a profit in the PL. It's like Brewster's millions. Everton got £47.5m for Stones and we raised £71m without selling a first XI player. Printing money.
Tbf, Forbes were valuing LFC at £650m (@ $ibn) that Hicks was ridiculously holding out for months before the 2008 crash. The sale was drastically low because of H&G's debts and the fact that because of their (H&G's) defaults, RBS effectively owned the club and were only bound to sell it at a cost that would cover their own stake in it. Again, to re-iterate, they got the club on the cheap because they were supposedly ready to expand the ground 'imminently'. in the words of RBS.
To be fair, that illustrates my point. The more money comes in the more you have to pay to hold onto your position. The money didn't flow to the owners as profit it had to be reinvested back into the club just to prevent back sliding.
Yes, but what is not spent on infrastructure is effectively swallowed up by the fact that player prices are going through the roof. Why would Palace otherwise be paying £20m, never mind £30m, for Benteke? And United paying £100m for Pogba? They wouldn't have paid that for Messi two seasons ago. The telly money will be the new norm in a year's time. We'll be pissing ouself getting £30m for the likes of Benteke, but shocked that any European team will be asking £50m for a decent replacement knowing that it's us or another Prem team buying.
Not necessarily, the teams buying these players at these prices are #desperate to either stay in the PL or make a statement. If you want to buy inside the PL there's a premium but there are still quality players outside the PL. A few of these cheap deals fund the more expensive PL ones. Karius and Matip for less than £5m would be £50m if bought from PL clubs, and we can expect that much if sold them to PL clubs in the future.
Pre the TV deal, investing in sports franchises aren't particularly profitable - owning a winning team is more of sat stud symbol for the rich and famous. But with the lucrative TV deal coming into play, and the weakening pound, we become a more interesting option. I fully expect the Chinese to buy a minority share in the club with the long term view of becoming the majority share. FSG have come in and increased the value of the asset and very smart businessmen. The interesting thing now is which Chinese investor will win - the Everbrite group are the ones mentioned in the papers but Reuters have reported that the Wanda group are also interested who are even bigger and very aggressive.
There are many examples apart from Pogba which suggest that the prices of players are going through the roof. Mustafi is valued by Wenger to be £25m but the sellers want £50m. Once a Premiership club is buying the price doubles. This is how the premiership windfall is being distributed across the continent.
I've not looked at the investment in QPR vs the equity value so can't comment mate, I assume you have? The 'investment' is either debt put against the club or converted into equity that is offset by the increase in value Of course there are cautionary tales, Lerner and Villa being one. But there's also money to be made which is why they keep queueing up to have a pop at it mate.
Exclusive: China Everbright Limited refutes reports of Liverpool takeover bid ibt.uk/A6cNS via @IBTimesUK #LFC
Of course. It makes sense for huge investment organisations like the Abu Dhabis Corporation, the Emirates, The Qataris, the Chinese CIC, the Russian billionaires. A successful club costing a fraction of their portfolio can only enhance their overall investment portfolio and the more high profile the better. It is now a game for top billionaires only. A middling billionaire hesitating to spend the cash has no chance because it is all about recruiting the very top players to play the champions league and keeping the high profile.
There's two types here. 1. The arabs and the russian oligarch... these never expected to do anything but gain status. The emirates brand is plasters across the globe, the man city of new york for example.. its all about showing off their country and investment power. 2. the guy who thinks its a good investment for brand. Do companies invest in F1 for profit? No. they invest to get the name out.. So in case anyone missed this, New England Sports Ventures was formed in 2001 to buy the red sox. it was a regional group in the back arse of yankland. They built a regional cable company on the back of that. This lot were flirting with fulham before we ran onto the rocks and they saw a bargain and came in and got us for a STEAL. they have then grown into a mult national organisation where frankly they don't know where they are going next. They literally pissed thier pants with glee the first asian tour we did. They got the shock of their lives two years later when nobody turned up. They have given LFC interest free loans to balance the books, and have built on a self sustaining model. LFC will pay for its own stand but the capital came from them. they expected us to pay £77 to do it... the shock they got was massive and as a result i think they will back off. We have opened global markets to their US products and warrior/NB etc but there is only o far they can go. Compared to the arabs or the chinese these guys are small time. They will do what they do and having a deepish pocket to fund us up to a point was needed to stabilise the club. As of now LFC need someone to say hey... to compete even if that anfield road end is "marginal" we need to get it done. we need someone to be saying to klopp sure sure you want to train guys but theres 50mil right here... say what you need..
