If he did, would there be any effect on the Jets? Sources - New York Jets owner Woody Johnson interested in buying English Premier League club Chelsea (espn.com)
I think he'd have to "Sources have told ESPN's James Olley that Abramovich is seeking around £3 billion ($3.93 billion) for the club" ....Doofus Woody aint got that kind of dough without selling the Jets. something to hope for!
He'd be mad to do it imo. The returns are nowhere near what the NFL offer and reduce drastically if the team arent winning things. Most of the value in Chelsea is in the real estate value of the stadium rather than the club itself. Abrahmovic has loaned over £1.5bn to the club over the years, the new owner will have to continue doing this to keep them competitive, I think there's no way Abrahmovic gets that much for Chelsea.
Wiki has his net worth at $4.2B of which the Jets are valued at $3.2B... He's a wanna be rich multiple sport owner.. not happening. He will be 75 next month, that's the age where he needs to kick estate planning into high gear, it's not the time to try to buy another team. Which rich billionaire in his/her right mind would fund woody given how his Jets ownership has gone. The only thing he's got right is the franchises value has increased from the $635mm he bought it for to $3.2B... not due to him, its all because NFL franchises have soared in value in general and us idiots paid for his new stadium with our PSL's.
That's probably an old number - I think Forbes put the Jets at over four billion a year or two ago. But, you're right about the appreciation in American sports franchises, especially the NFL; they don't need to make a lot of money every year as long as the value keeps going up - less taxes to pay that way. Is that not the case in big time soccer? Maybe somebody across the pond can speak to the growth of value over there.
It's a completely different system. There is no growth in value, most clubs don't make a profit ever. There is no franchise system or collective bargaining. Player contracts are fully guaranteed at signing. There's realistically no salary cap and wage growth is off the scale because you are competing in a global market. The financial regulation in the game is near nonexistent. It's not uncommon for clubs to be on the verge of bankruptcy on a near permanent basis. The owner has to provide the funds for players and developments, normally in the form of loans, and the club - at best - meets its day to day running turning a small profit. Abramovic has loaned Chelsea over £1.5bn to get it where it is (they were never a top 5 club before). The only way he, or anyone, makes money is by selling at a profit. With other very wealthy operators buying clubs as basically playthings then the odds are he'll never have a better shot at recouping that than now.
I don't know anything about international soccer but I can't see how this is a good financial move for Woody the Rube unless somebody goes in with him and even then . . . ? I honestly can't see him ever selling the Jets. It's too lucrative even if the Jets lose for the next 100 years. Then there's his idiot co-owner brother, Christopher. I honestly don't know if Woody is 51% and Christopher is 49%, 50/50 or even how much stake Christopher Johnson has at all while I'm at it. I did recently see that Christopher Johnson's estimated worth is $6.3 billion dollars, but I don't know how accurate that is. I'm thinking Woody's is somewhere around the same? The only reason I can think of that Woody the Rube might be entertaining this is that his wife loved England. Then again you can just buy a house there.
There's an old saying here: How do you make a small fortune in football? Start off with a large fortune.
I guess what I'm looking for is some history of sales in the league. How much did Abramovich pay for the team and how much will it sell for now? How much has he put in during his tenure? What about teams that are held for ten or twenty years or more before being sold? You say that there is no growth in value but it looks like the answer to my questions is that he bought the team in 2003 for $197 million and it is now valued at $3.2 billion; could he have put three billion into it since he owned it to get to a break even point now? There must be some value because it looks like the ballpark for offers is around four billion and they're starting to come in. Chelsea F.C. Reportedly Receives Numerous $4B Bids (frontofficesports.com)
There isn't much history to go on really. Chelsea were the first to go down this route, hence the relative lack of cost in the purchase. The previous owner had been bankrolled by a fan who had been killed in a helicopter accident and didn't have the resources to keep it going. (I think he'd bought it for £1 to save the club from bankruptcy). Owners were generally benevolent benefactors in the past, fans with some wealth, who ran the club as a labour of love. Revenues have skyrocketed since then but so have costs. Soccer clubs as businesses to generate profit or wealth is a very new phenomenon. Abramovic will make money on the sale, not as much as it appears at face value because of the debt he's accumulated (1.5bn, pounds not dollars) but whoever buys it will struggle to. They are buying high and have to pump more money in to stand still. If they can't maintain the current success level then the club value will plummet.
Abramovic now sanctioned by UK government. Chelsea as an asset has been frozen. Sale is on hold. Announced just now.
Yep, just clicked on the thread to say that. Here's the link I saw: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60690362
