Many Liverpool fans probably woke up this morning scratching their heads over the deal that sees Basketball star LeBron James linking up with Fenway Sports Group. The most perplexing part for many is that James now as a minor stake in Liverpool Football Club, but before we get to that, let’s just explain why the deal was struck.
Fenway Sports Management (just like the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC and Roush Fenway Motorsport) is owned by Fenway Sports Group, but they are not one and the same thing. FSM is a sports marketing firm, and it has been looking to expand its portfolio under the guidance of Chairman Sam Kennedy. LeBron James’s sports marketing firm LRMR Marketing & Branding is run by Maverick Carter, He is a close friend of LeBron James but also has close links with John Henry and Tom Werner.
Carter was looking to expand James global reach across the world. “King James” as he is known, already earns $15million a year from his contract at the Miami Heat, while he gets an additional $30m yearly from marketing products. The Basketball player has made it clear that he doesn’t only want to be the best player on the court, he wants to be a very successful businessman in his own right too, and what attracted James and Carter to FSM was its global reach. FSM is part of a large collection of “blue chip” global companies including Liverpool at FSG, and they felt in pure business terms, the two would work best together.
FSM has never taken on individual clients before however, and to guarantee that James gets something out of the deal no matter what, he was given a stake in Liverpool FC in good faith as part of the deal to show they are committed to improving the “brand recognition” of both. The Reds will help promote James around the world, while James will be able to do the same in kind. According to Reds Chairman Tom Werner, the deal would not have been possible without LFC’s global reach:
“Without purchasing Liverpool, we never would have been able to have this conversation. . . We believe this will be a powerful collaboration between FSM and LRMR and LeBron. There are very few athletes who can match his global reach, appeal and iconic status. We are very excited that LeBron will be part of the Liverpool FC family. LeBron and Liverpool each has a powerful presence internationally, with particular strength in Asia, but we feel the business opportunities for both working and being identified together in emerging international markets will result in unforeseen opportunities that neither would have been able to realize alone.”
Effectively Fenway Sports Group are hoping that both can boost each other’s profile around the world. Look at how Werner mentions Asia specifically in the quote above. Many Reds fans will feel that this collaboration will benefit LeBron James, but how will it benefit the Reds at all? In Asia, especially China, James is a household name, and the association with the basketball player to the Reds can only be good for marketing purposes in the emerging market there. Although still behind football as China’s most popular sport, Basketball has at least 300million followers in China according to Forbes Magazine and James is the second highest shirt seller behind Kobe Bryant. In addition, the Reds have massive support in places such as Malaysia, Korea, Thailand and Japan, which will extend the reach of James’s name, and there can be no coincidence that the Reds announced a tour of three of those four countries the day after the LeBron James deal was announced.
So is selling off a piece of Liverpool to James a good or a bad thing? Many traditionalists may feel that selling part of the club for pure commercial reasons is not the Liverpool Way, but in the globalised economy we now live in, a link to one of the world’s most recogisable stars can be no bad thing. James maybe focused on making himself a “global icon” and raking in the money, but his name, especially in Asia could help Liverpool rake in the cash and boost our own commercial revenues, pushing us into a completely different stratosphere to rival football clubs. FSG is definitely about profit, but I think John Henry & Co see a bigger picture than making a quick buck out of LeBron James at the expense of LFC. An overarching global strategy will be put in place so ALL areas of FSG’s business will benefit financially from the link up, and that can only be a good thing for Liverpool in the future.
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INTRODUCING CRYSIS 2!
I think another thing that is easily missed by this deal is that this now puts a global sports star at the top table of our club. Now, purely from an on field perspective, I can only see that as a posotive. To get where he is, he completely understands commitment, passion, desire, drive, discipline and passion. If he has any involvement with the team, how can this be anything other than good.
Fenway sports group are indeed gurus in sports management. This is another profit making avenue. In no distant time they will overtake many sports organisations in the world.
If he wears a Liverpool shirt in America or Asia then that will boost overseas shirt sales massively and attract new fans. If that money finds its way into our transfer kitty then it’s a great bit of business.
Interesting article, but there’s another possible motive in contention here. Maybe this is just another step in FSM’s master plan to attract world-class athletes to all of their sporting ventures.
Perhaps on some level it would appeal to Lionel Messi to hang around with Rafael Nadal, LeBron James, and Lewis Hamilton on Tom Henry’s yacht. Sure that might sound slightly flippant, but the underlying principle essentially holds true: talent attracts talent, and while it will always be attractive for sportsmen to actually play with fellow superstars, when you are clearly the best in your field, you have to look for peers outside of your own realm.
In the meantime, might it not sound pretty interesting to an impressionable young superstar-in-the-making who is attracting the interest of Manchester United, AC Milan, Real Madrid, and Liverpool to court the possibility of counting LeBron James among his FaceBook friends? Like it or not, that appears to be where the cult of superstardom is heading.
James.
You’ll Never Walk Alone.
I agree with Matt G on the possibility of increased transfer money. But I also think that if Stevie G told me that drinking Lucozade s
Sport would make me healthier I wouldn’t believe him on face value. So I remain sat on the fence with this one, I know the splinters may very well hurt. It’s unusual and could work but for once I’m yet to be totally convinced by FSG on this one.
as a die-hard liverpool supporter from asia, i can safely say that liverpool is a big name with or without lebron james..
in asia, liverpool is one of the biggest football clubs as far as brand value is concerned, our only threat being the scum from manchester.. liverpool is a bigger name in asia(except china) than lebron james..
having said that, i think this deal will benefit both the parties involved and i think this deal will help to raise liverpool’s profile in america more than in asia..
LFC don’t need him,it’s just another way of greedy yanks deriving & taking profits out of the club to enhance their sports clubs in America! G & H were doing it all the time! LFC supporter groups should have been allowed to buy the club,that way all the profits would go back into the club! If NESV were allowed to buy the club for 300mil(cheap),then supporters PLUS Steve MORGAN should have been able to do the same thing!BROUGHTON and co. should have thought of that!!!