Pearlman is returning to the States to take up the position as President of the Kaplan Levien Sports Group https://www.swanseacity.com/news/pearlman-leave-swans-coo-post
Well that’s one wage if the payroll. Did sweet ta in my book. Birch has been brought in to sell the club, that’s what he has done at most clubs he’s been at. So let’s hope he gets us decent owners.
He secured control of the Stadium for the Swans for the remaining 35/36 years of the Lease term, taking out the Council and The Ospreys. That gives, amongst other things, ‘control’ of the Premier Club, and the lion’s share of that income stream. Further, if they manage to sell the Naming Rights, all that income will be for the Swans, rather than being shared with Ospreys.
I suspect that Birch’s priority is to stabilise the club financially. As Birch himself has said, the Yanks would only get their money back by getting promotion back to the PL ...... but they appear to be reluctant to speculate by investing more. So, with the value of their investment ‘under water’, will they bite the bullet and crystallise their loss, or will they hope that by balancing the books, we could surprise ourselves one season and secure promotion? What’s the Club worth today? Far, far less than they paid for it - and the £:$ exchange rate has gone against them
Double whammy relegation plus the Dollar exchange rate means they are well out of pocket. Birch will balance the books as he always does, this season if he can get rid of the last of the high earners, then possibly next year with the last of the parachute payments make a push for promotion. My personal opinion is that, Kaplin and Levin have our club like an albatross around there neck and want rid of it. DC United are staying to take off and they want to concentrate on them.
This is what he said only 10 days ago: “Looking forward to Manic Monday.....Some very tasty interesting games to look forward to......I need to do some work though but sod it why have dogs and bark yourself...My Bro can do it as he cant stand tennis.”
Pearlman also thought up the City Centre shop and the Fan Zone - neither were roaring successes. Additionally, he effectively decided to disband the Vice Presidents Club, a group of mostly older diehard fans (including my 81 years old uncle) which was formed during the Vetch Field days. They helped the club enormously during the dark days with donations and fundraising to save the club from bankruptcy. He steamrollered them out of the small hospitality room they’d occupied since the Liberty opened, refused them an alternative room and knocked the two adjacent rooms into one and called it the Legends Lounge. He offered them seats in this new lounge for 2018-19 season but raised the price from £810 to £1385 per year, to be paid in advance by the end of March of 2017-18 relegation season. Only a handful of VP’s took up the offer and last season there were many empty seats in this new lounge and in the West Stand as a high percentage of VP’s stopped going altogether, in disgust at the way they’d been treated.