It's almost a year since RedBird Capital Partners acquired an 11 per cent stake in Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group.
Having seen RedBall, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with baseball analytics guru Billy Beane fail to clinch a deal for a larger stake in FSG towards the end of 2020, RedBird founder and managing partner Gerry Cardinale returned to the table in early 2021 with his private equity fund and a deal worth $750m was struck.
FSG received a welcome injection of capital during the pandemic and were able to continue with their plans for investment and expansion across their sporting portfolio, while John Henry and Tom Werner were also able to bring in the skills, expertise and capital of Cardinale, a man who had a relationship with Henry and Werner dating back some 20 years.
The capital injection was never meant to directly fund transfer spend for Liverpool, it was meant to give FSG the ability to push ahead with plans such as the redevelopment of Anfield Road in Liverpool and the regeneration of real estate around Fenway Park in Boston, as well as providing them the necessary ammunition to go out and expand their sporting portfolio, something that was done in November with the acquisition of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team, a deal that valued the Penguins at $900m.
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Year two will see more expansion for FSG and more of RedBird's influence being felt, with the growth of the company and the ability to generate greater revenue streams through repeated re-investment part of the plan to make sure that their stable of teams continue to challenge at the very highest level.
For Cardinale, he and FSG have been in the same circles for two decades, with the New York financier having made two attempts to acquire Liverpool in 2008 before the club was eventually wrestled away from the grasp of Tom Hicks and George Gillet by FSG in 2010.
Cardinale, who has previously not ruled out owing Liverpool in the future, although stating that was not the intention of his initial deal with FSG, has spoken on what year two might have in store for both he and FSG in a revealing interview with the Boston Globe.
Cardinale told the Globe: "I’ve been watching them now for 20 years - which is so funny, right? – we’ve been circling each other on the same assets.
"Here I am 20 years later, where we all went together with them. It cost me a hell of a lot more, but I still have the conviction around it."
RedBird have interests in football themselves, owning the French second division side Toulouse and having a small stake in Spanish side Malaga, while FSG's future plans are likely to involve an NBA acquisition; potentially an expansion franchise in either Las Vegas or Seattle. FSG have also been linked with the Brazilian marke t and football clubs such as Cruzeiro, which was sold to Barcelona legend Ronaldo last year; Athletico Paranaense and Internacional.
RedBird had been linked in the media with interest in Chelsea over the weekend, something that RedBird sources informed the ECHO was untrue, reaffirming their commitment to the long term with FSG. They have no interest in divesting their interests.
"Everything’s in play, I would say," said Cardinale, who also owns the XFL alongside actor Dwayne Johnson and Johnson's ex-wife Dany Garcia, when asked by the Globe on what comes next.
"I would be very disappointed if I don’t significantly increase the amount of capital that we’ve invested in Fenway to date for more opportunities.
"I hope and I think we’re going to have that opportunity to do so. That’s what buying into that platform should be all about.
"We now have a real seat at the table and an ability to influence decisions. But we know this investment thesis wasn’t us coming in and doing anything other than playing a supporting role, and I’m absolutely OK with that. It’s rare. I haven’t done that a lot, but I would definitely do it in this case, because these guys are world class and it’s a privilege to be in the same room with them.
"The bar has never been higher in terms of what really fits in the (FSG) portfolio.
"You should think about us looking to add other teams and the businesses around them, you should look at us building businesses within the platform itself, like I’ve done in my career at RedBird and Goldman, and you should look at continuing to evaluate the constructs."
