Prominent US billionaires who had been linked with potential investment in Liverpool are in the frame to acquire an NFL team.
Josh Harris and David Blitzer, co-founders of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), had been linked late last year with a move to get involved in some capacity with Fenway Sports Group when it emerged that John Henry and Co were looking to recapitalise their Liverpool business through a partial sale.
Sources had told the ECHO back in November that there was some level of interest from HBSE in a Reds stake after the duo had been part of one of the consortia, led by former Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton, to have taken part in the bidding process for Chelsea last year, losing out at the final hurdle to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
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Harris and Blitzer, separately and not through HBSE, have shareholdings in Crystal Palace, meaning any investment play in another Premier League team would require them to divest their interest in the South London club. Blitzer's investment vehicle, Global Football Holdings, has ownership stakes in European teams Brondby IF, AD Alcorcon, ADO Den Haag and FC Augsburg.
But for Harris and Blitzer, who own the Philadelphia 76ers NBA team and the New Jersey Devils NHL franchise, they have another investment opportunity that they are focused on at present.
According to ESPN, and via the Philadelphia Inquirer, Harris and Blitzer are part of a bid to take over the ‘for sale’ Washington Commanders NFL franchise, with a price tag of around $6bn set to be achieved, something that would set a record for the sale of a sporting asset. Also part of the Harris/Blitzer bid is said to be billionaire Mitchell Rales, co-founder of the Washington-based Fortune 500 company Danaher Corporation, as well as NBA legend Magic Johnson.
The ‘for sale’ signs went up on the Commanders back in November following controversy surrounding current owner Dan Snyder and a ‘toxic’ workplace culture, as described by a Washington Post report that shed light on the controversy.
Since then a clutch of potential suitors, including a consortia featuring Amazon founder Jeff Bezons, rap mogul Jay-Z and Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey, have been linked.
Liverpool principal owner Henry had been erroneously linked with a move through FSG, something that would have been forbidden by NFL rules due to private equity or institutional investment not being allowed. FSG have such partners through the stakes held by the likes of RedBird Capital Parters and Arctos Sports Partners.
But with Harris and Blitzer at the forefront of such a major deal in North American sport, it seems unlikely that they would be pushing hard to clinch another deal that could be worth into the high hundreds of millions for a slice of Liverpool at the very same time, particularly given the hoops that they would need to jump through to divest interest in Palace.
At the Sportico Invest in Sports conference in New York back in October, an event where the ECHO were in attendance, Blitzer was pressed on his and Harris' decision to pursue a Chelsea deal while being shareholders in Crystal Palace.
"At the end of the day I love Crystal Palace, and people who know me well will know I love Crystal Palace," said the 53-year-old.
"But there are a handful of teams/brands out there on a global basis, and Chelsea is one of them. The opportunity to invest in that particular situation with a very small number of people, frankly, given it was a complicated situation, we were comfortable giving that our best shot.
"We would have had to divest our interest in Crystal Palace had that come through. If that had happened it would have been a really sad day in one sense, but again back to the investment part it would have been a really interesting investment in terms of what's out there for Chelsea. Then I would have probably had to hide a little bit when I went to London."
Earlier this month, in an exclusive interview with the ECHO, Henry revealed that the process that FSG started late last year had “identified potential investors for the club,” going on to state they retained a long-term commitment to Liverpool.
The identity of just who those potential investors are has not been made public. In November of last year, the ECHO was told by well-placed US sources who had been consistent in their stance that the rumoured Qatar takeover talks were false, said that a preferred outcome for FSG would be to bring on board a ‘strategic partner’, potentially a media and entertainment company. That would bring both capital and expertise and allow FSG to scale the business moving forward, potentially accreting a minority stake into a full shareholding in the future, and providing them with an exit route further down the line.
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