Prospective Chelsea buyer Todd Boehly sees footballing success as a means to making profits from his potential investment in the club, according to The Telegraph’s Matt Law.
The consortium led by Boehly has reportedly entered a five-day period of exclusivity to sign a purchase agreement after becoming the preferred bidder to buy Chelsea.
American private equity firm Clearlake Capital will hold the majority of Chelsea’s shares, 60 percent according to Sky News, but Boehly is still expected to be in charge of day-to-day control of the club.
In total, the Boehly group has reportedly offered more than the £4.25billion recently pledged by Sir Jim Ratcliffe to acquire the west London club.
Obviously, these businessmen are hoping to make profit from their investment in the end.
However, based on Law’s claims, Boehly’s track record suggests a business model that would please the fans.
“The best way he sees making money out of sports is to be successful on the pitch,” The Telegraph journalist told the London is Blue podcast.
“The value of the Dodgers has gone up ridiculously since his involvement and I imagine that will be his mantra with Chelsea too.
“The only way to actually grow this brand and make it even more valuable will be to make it as successful as possible.
“They will make an effort to get Chelsea back to a stage where they’re competing more in the Premier League.”
This is arguably a very similar model to which Roman Abramovich has used at Chelsea in the last two decades.
Instead of taking dividends from the club’s annual revenues, the Russian billionaire solely focused on increasing its market value.
Even after putting the reported £1.54b loans into the equation, Abramovich could have sold the club for profit if he had not been hit by sanctions.
The Boehly-Clearlake group has reportedly committed not to sell a controlling stake in Chelsea for at least 10 years, which makes the business model even more sensible from their point of view.
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