When asked about the significance of Basketball star LeBron James buying Liverpool Football Club, Chairman Tom Werner told CNN:
“Liverpool is just one component. The most important part of the deal is that because we don’t represent the interest of 100 athletes or 500 athletes, we’re going to be able to focus on how to create opportunities for LeBron.”
On the face of it, this look likes a slightly worrying quote from our Chairman. After all, wasn’t the deal hailed by FSG as being beneficial to LeBron James and to Liverpool in equal measure? The above comment seems to suggest that James will be getting the greatest benefit out of the deal. It isn’t quite as straight forward as this however.
The deal between FSM, FSG’s marketing arm, and James’s LRMR Marketing company, is a strategic partnership which is certainly primarily focused on increasing James economic global reach. As a partner with FSG, he inevitably becomes part of the consortium which consists of John Henry, Tom Werner and the New York Times amongst its 13 different investors. As Liverpool FC is owned by FSG, it was felt that as part of the deal, James should be given a stake to seal the agreement in good faith. The NBA star couldn’t be given a stake in the Boston Red Sox for a number of reasons. Firstly he is a New York Yankees fan, and secondly he now plays for the Miami Heat who are Divisional Play-off rivals to the Boston Celtics, making James a hate figure in Boston. With the Reds, FSG’s second biggest asset, it was always more than likely to be used in the agreement.
Continue Reading on Page 2 . . .
[bet_365 type=’generic’ size=’468′ af_code=’365_061434′]
Right then, I think this article was a very well written one and I believe from the research you have provided, there need not be any reason to panic.
What you talking about Willis?
lmoa
Panic stations over nothing. They’ve given LJ a small sharehold in FSG who own LFC. Thus he has a small share in LFC. I have a small share in Santander Bank. Good for me, almost irrelevant for the bank. However it does give us good reach in the US and far east. It’s nothing but providing a profitable poster boy for us and an excellent investment for LJ when FSG eventually sell the club (hopefully not for a long period yet). Listen I know the H&G era has left us all a little paranoid and suspiscious but these are not those clowns. Things are looking up, let’s stop finding reasons not to hold your head up high.
Your headline doesn’t match the overall essence of your piece. Your a smart kid, you know the club is in very good hands for the first time in 20 years.
no where is it concerning. I don’t see anything that is ‘concerning’ . are lfc big in the usa, no, that’s why its a small component. lebron is name they purchased for their AMERICAN business. giving him a stake in our club is just a sweetner. the player will probably come over to one game in the year while doing business in the UK. read the full details of the deal. it has NOTHING to do with us. I think that’s what our chairman should have said, that however might has sent the bloger in a tail spin saying, our chairman doesn’t care who has shares in LFC!!….. my gran Angela used to say – you can’t win against ignorance. DO PROPER RESEARCH BEFORE PUTTING PEN TO PAPER. IDIOT!!
did u read the whole article or just the heading???
They are using LFC to feed the ‘RED SOCKS’ which is ‘THEIR’ sport. LFC money has already been used to finance a massive contract!( 140mil over 5 years) for one of Red Socks players !!!
How are they using LFC money? WE don’t have any! Don’t forget ‘they’ bailed us out to the tune of £300 million only 6 months ago. This is not a plaything for them, like Man City or Chelsea. They are out to make money, and so they should be. If they make money, we make money. You’d have to be extremely well off (Abramovich etc) or extremely stupid ( Hicks & Gillet) to buy a football club and not have a plan for making it make it’s own money.
Without FSG, we’d be resigned to playing in the Championship next season by now. Reina etc would be signed to other clubs and Suarez, Carroll etc would be somewhere else.
We have a future, thanks to FSG. We were two hours away from following Leeds.
You are talking utter rubbish! Boston red Sox have their own money, just like Liverpool. It’s not as if Boston are some back street, no mark franchise!
liverpool is a club that has the capacity to grow. look at man utd, they pay huge sums in interest and still operate and sign players, due to high gate recipts and a high turn over on the sales through sponsors and forein markets. Liverpool has a massive waiting list on season tickets, FSG know this and could easily fill a 70 000 seater stadium. If we get more publicity and sponsorship and break untapped forein markets with the help of other assetts. this all increases revenue. liverpool have the potential to be very profitable and above all debt free. You will probably find that each assett will help each other out, lebron is successful and so are the red socks, liverpool on the other hand need work. if liverpool become successful again and one of the other assets takes a dip, you can use liverpool to help them out. If they are all succesfull (what FSG want) then all assetts will be generating massive profits which will then ensure a massive fund to dip into if any of the assetts have a dip! Yes Investors will take money out but, I belive what they are saying, if you have success on the field then it keeps fans and investors happy!
The stake Le Bron has been given as part of the deal is tiny. However such is LeBron’s appeal that to have him “on board” can only be beneficial can’t it?
I would look at it as a symbiotic relation rather that one party benefitting.
James would like more exposure in Asia where LFC thrives. The full impact of how much James will be marketed alongside LFC will be evident during the China, Korea and Malaysia tour in July.
Likewise I am quite sure LFC will be organising a tour of US is coming year, probably even at the end of next season. Tagging LeBron James with Liverpool tour could do the club loads of good. Imagine a basketball superstar wearing LFC jearsey during LFC touring USA? Ever thought the publicity and impact LFC would create then?
The bit about China certainly rings true. Basketball is huge there (the NBA have several offices in China). I say forget James, sing Yoa Min and parade him around in a Liverpool shirt and you could easily have a few million shirt sales in China!
stanley, very disingenuous comment. get a bottle of cop on will ya? think about it logically, our club, that the americans spend ages buying is going to take a back seat to lebron. that our market share is not valuable. get a brain please.
Davewestaus, how the dingo hell are ya!! well me oul chopper, so we funded a red sox player. Jesus they kept that one quite from us. so we actually funded this player, now I thought the red sox bought him through their owners fenway sport…Jesus crikey blue bell!! I want the story mate, can I have the link that says Liverpool purchased him, not fenway, who are a bit mad for buying the big names in the states, they have been doing this since they took over the red sox many years ago, but using broke Liverpool , well I never mate. anyways this one is big, so you are going to send me that link. isn’t it AMAZING how the nasty media never picked up this and DaveWestAustralia did….you bleeding gollah!!?
dh, I am Australian and I find it annoying that you use phrases like how the dingo hell are ya? We don’t actually talk like that. But saying that, what Davewestaus was saying about Liverpool funding the purchase of a Red Sox player is ridiculous. And by the way, the name is Red Sox, not Red Socks. The Boston Red Sox are a highly successful franchise in Major League Baseball, a franchise who consistently reach the playoffs, and over recent years, have made it to the World Series a few times. The Red Sox finance their own deals, just like Liverpool will finance their own deals with the profits made. As far as Lebron James, it was Fenway Sports Management that signed him. FSM are a company in their own rights that are part of the Fenway Sports Group holding company. Fenway Sports Group also own a Nascar racing team as well as a television station. So, in fact, FSG own 5 companies, Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, New England Sports Network, Roush Fenway Racing and FSM. So, why would the signing of Lebron James to one of FSG’s companies mean a huge and concerning impact for Liverpool? Utterly ridiculous.