Here are your Liverpool evening headlines for Wednesday, April 6.
Phone call and email that sparked FSG £300m Liverpool takeover
Prior to acquiring Liverpool in 2010, Fenway Sports Group had been on the hunt for more sporting additions to their empire, writes Dave Powell.
FSG, then known as New England Sports Ventures, had already delivered success with the Boston Red Sox baseball team that they had owned since 2002, ending an 86-year wait for a World Series title. The first arrived in 2004, and another came along in 2007 as John Henry and Tom Werner changed the fortunes of a storied organisation that had been forced to live in the past.
In 2022 the focus for FSG's next power play is to acquire an NBA franchise, and there is potential that an expansion team in either Las Vegas or Seattle could be that route into the world's biggest basketball league, something that FSG partner and basketball icon LeBron James will likely front. Twelve years ago the same thoughts were in the mind of Henry and Werner as they sought to grow their empire, but a deal never materialised.
They would soon buy Liverpool, though, and according to The Athletic, FSG's path to ending the ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett may have been aided by the presence of an ardent Reds fan among their staff in Boston.
FSG were on the lookout for new opportunities already, and the Premier League was fertile ground with its booming media rights deal and global appeal, not to mention the valuations of clubs then being far lower than it would have cost to gain entry into a major market in the US such as the NFL. And, for a company that likes to grow value, there was plenty of scope that existed within Liverpool, as evidenced by the £300m sum paid for the club turning into a £3bn valuation in just 12 years - a valuation that now stands above the Red Sox, who had been the cornerstone of FSG's operations.
According to The Athletic, Joe Januzewski, a member of the Red Sox's corporate partnerships team, was a huge Reds supporter and had made that known to the hierarchy at Fenway Park.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
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John Henry speaks out on future plans for FSG
Liverpool principal owner John Henry believes the continued growth of Fenway Sports Group is what will be able to sustain success for their teams at the very top.
Under the ownership of FSG since 2010, the Reds have managed to return to the summit of English football, winning their first league title in 30 years in 2020 as well as lifting the Champions League in 2019. They have managed to achieve success by spending less their many of their rivals and through being able to support their ambitions through growing revenues. Then, of course, they have managed to hire the right people in the right positions, Jurgen Klopp the most perfect example of that.
FSG will make it 20 years in charge of the Boston Red Sox this year, the team that began it all for Henry and Tom Werner after they founded FSG, which was then known as New England Sports Ventures. The same levers that were pulled to deliver success to Liverpool were used in Boston, with the ownership banishing an 86-year World Series hoodoo for the Red Sox when they delivered the 2004 title. Since then they have been crowned baseball's kings on three other occasions; 2007, 2013 and 2018.
The FSG that exists in 2022 has many of the same pieces in place that it did in 2002, but a name change and focus on business success through accretion has helped them become the third largest sporting empire in world sport, with a value just shy of $10bn, only bettered by the Arsenal-owning Kroenke Group in second place and Formula One owners Liberty Media.
As well as Liverpool and the Red Sox there is also the NASCAR team RFK Racing as part of the stable, as well as the recently acquired Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team. Add to that businesses such as Fenway Sports Management, Fenway Sports Group Real Estate, the NESN TV network and investments into businesses such as basketball icon LeBron James' SpringHill Entertainment company and the growth of the business is clear.
FSG have been good at adding businesses that add value to their teams. By owning NESN they have been rights holders of Red Sox TV coverage in their region, and through growing their relationship with James, who converted his two per cent in Liverpool to one per cent of FSG last year, they have been able to leverage his pull and global appeal in their link up with Nike, the firm where James has a $1bn lifetime contract.
As Liverpool chase down an unprecedented quadruple, quite what happens when Klopp decides to end his time at Anfield raises question marks over whether the current levels of success can be sustained. But Henry believes that success has been achieved for its teams through the growth of FSG, and with the empire set to enter into what is being coined in Boston as 'FSG 3.0', aided by the arrival of business building investors such as RedBird Capital Partners at the table, with the private equity firm who have a keen interest in analytics - like Henry - buying an 11 per cent stake in FSG last year for $750m, FSG's growth shows not signs of abating, only accelerating.
READ THE FULL STORY FROM DAVE POWELL HERE.
