Can the change of ownership be a money spinner for Liverpool FC?
The Liverpool Football Club are edging closer to a takeover and as the matter is pending the court’s decision at the moment, the Liverpool fans are keeping their fingers crossed.
The general opinion about the takeover is that it will be extremely beneficial for the Club and that is true to a large extent but there is no guarantee about the proposed new owners, but the good thing is that they have a credible record.
If the sale goes through for the initial bid of 300 million pounds, Hicks and Gillet regime is likely to incur a 144 million pound loss and such a huge loss can make anyone lose sanity so their actions are understandable, if not justified.
Liverpool Football Club is not a bad piece of business to invest in, after all until two years ago it was the most successful club in English football, and if the debt at the club can be gotten rid of Liverpool football club guarantees a profit of 30-50
million pounds every year, as was the case before Hicks and Gillet regime burdened the club with such a huge loan.
Perhaps it also can be said the Liverpool has a greater potential than Manchester United and Arsenal to make profits from the club, despite of both the clubs being miles ahead of Liverpool when it come to matters on the pitch.
Lets have a look at some facts:
David Moores sold the club for 185 million pounds three years ago and today it is being sold at 300 million pounds and that value is deemed too less by the current owners, which means that if Hicks and Gillet had played their cards right they would have
been walking off with a huge profit but they did not. If they had not defaulted on loan payments, if they had started the work on a new ground and if they had invested in new players at the club, Liverpool would have been in much better financial shape but
they did not and are now facing the brunt of it.
It can only be hoped that the new set of owners, John Henry and the 17 investors making up the group, have the needed capital to buy the club outright, pay off the loans and have the intention to keep the club for a longer period of time to reap profits
on a long-term basis rather than a year-to-year basis.
With the previous regime, it was seen that they had increased the revenues generated by bringing in electronic sponsor boards, exploring the Asian markets and making the online and in-store club shop better, and even with the new shirt sponsorship deal with
Standard Chartered Bank.
However, there still remain horizons that can be explored, just like United, Chelsea, Arsenal and City do. They have secondary sponsorship deals with the likes of Audi, Kia, Hublot, Swiss Air, Emirates, Samsung etc. All of whom are willing to pay more exclusively
to one British Club.
Moreover, if Liverpool manage to procure the funds to build a new stadium with at least extra 15-20k seats then the revenues will almost double, if the hospitality and the corporate boxes are also included.
Along with it will be the TV deals, as from next season onwards individual clubs will be able to negotiate their own deal independently, and this can potentially be a money spinner.
The association with the Boston Red Sox is also likely to increase Liverpool’s popularity in the United States, which remains a market that has so far not been exploited fully by any of the Premier League clubs.
Summing it up, the takeover and a set of smart owners can put Liverpool on the threshold of greatness just the fact that if the loan is gotten rid of, Liverpool will be able to save the 30 million pounds interest that they were paying every year, and if
they can spend the same amount in player purchases every year than even trophies will start coming.
So for just Liverpool’s sake let’s just hope the sale goes through.
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