San Francisco 49ers’ investment arm to pay reduced price for recently relegated English soccer club Leeds United.
www.sportspromedia.com
I wonder what the 49ers Enterprises takeover of Leeds means? As in, how much financial clout does this investment group have? Can't find a lot of information on them. A bit mysterious. Hence can't get any context as to whether under their ownership, Leeds may have the capacity to match it with the larger clubs. Or at least gain promotion back to the Premier League and hold themselves there as a consistent performer.
I remember about a decade ago, reading about an American owner of several major league American sports franchises, went to the UK to investigate buying one of the larger (not the absolute largest group) football (soccer) clubs. Might have been the likes of Villa or Newcastle. He took one look at the financial landscape, how much money was required (and lost) and got on the first plane home. Gives some perspective of how much it takes to be competitive, that an American major league sports owner even saw it as prohibitive to the point that it was out of his league.
Well, as a Niners fan I can tell you that the ownership group of the Niners are…what’s the word to use…bloody ordinary. Ok that’s two words. Anyway.
The Niners are owned by the York family. John and Denise York and their son Jed (who is also the CEO of the Niners.)
Denise is the sister of Eddie De Bartolo who used to own the Niners through their golden age. He was regarded as the best owner in the NFL but ran into some nefarious legal problems outside of the NFL and was forced to relinquish his hold on the Niners. He wanted to sell them, but his sister Denise and her *smile* husband ended up securing ownership rights after a bitter legal battle. The two are estranged as a result.
The De Bartolo family made its wealth from construction and property activities. Denise and her side of the family are worth about $5 billion USD.
Anyway, Denise’s fwit husband John York - who knew absolutely nothing about NFL football - totally and utterly mis managed the Niners and ran them into the ground. They went through CEO after CEO and coach after coach. The Bay Area hate the Yorks with a passion.
In the end, John York stepped aside and handed the reins over to his son Jed who, thankfully, has done a much better job of running the Niners. But even he has his critics in the Bay Area.
All up….in my personal opinion, based on their track record with the Niners, not a good ownership group for Leeds.
