New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
CT investment firm CEO leads acquisition of soccer giant Chelsea
GREENWICH — Todd Boehly, the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of investment firm Eldridge, is playing an instrumental role in the planned multibillion-dollar acquisition of Chelsea Football Club, one of the world’s soccer powerhouses.
Chelsea has agreed to be sold for about $3 billion, a record amount for a sports organization, the London-based team announced last week. Boehly, who is also a part-owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, is leading the new ownership group with Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter, Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and private equity firm Clearlake Capital.
A message left this week for an Eldridge spokesperson seeking comment from Boehly on the acquisition was not immediately returned.
The deal also calls for the new owners to commit an additional 1.75 billion pounds, the equivalent of about $2.2 billion, for further investment in the club. The total would include funding for Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium, its women’s team and its academy to develop youth players.
Chelsea officials said they expect the sale to be completed later this month, with the transaction requiring approval by the British government.
Current Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who bought the club in 2003 for an estimated $230 million, cannot benefit from the sale. The Russian oligarch was forced to sell Chelsea in the wake of the British government’s crackdown on wealthy Russians with connections to President Vladimir Putin, in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
“Proceeds will be deposited into a frozen UK bank account with the intention to donate 100 percent to charitable causes as confirmed by Roman Abramovich,” Chelsea said in a statement.
Boehly co-founded Eldridge in 2015. The Greenwich-based holding company has invested in more than 70 businesses, across sectors, including sports and gaming, media, financial services, real estate and technology. Its main offices are at 600 Steamboat Road.
In addition to being partowner of the Dodgers, Boehly also has minority ownership stakes in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers; the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks; DraftKings, one of the biggest fantasy sports and betting companies; and e-sports organization Cloud9.
Before starting Eldridge, Boehly served as president of Guggenheim Partners and founded the firm’s credit business. Walter, the Dodgers owner, is CEO of Guggenheim.
Boehly knows Chelsea’s home city well, having studied at the London School of Economics.
Several other Premier
League teams are owned, to varying extents, by Americans — a list that includes Arsenal, Aston Villa, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester United and West Ham United.
“The motivation to buy sports teams is partly bragging rights and partly because they’ve turned out to be good investments,” Lawrence J. White, a professor of economics at New York University, said in an interview. “The same thing has applied when the American rich guys have started looking abroad. They’re seeing British football as an opportunity. And they’re not the only ones. Saudi Arabians, Qataris, Emiratis and at least one Russian oligarch (Abramovich) have decided they want to be soccer team owners as well.”
Boehly’s consortium is taking over one of the most successful teams in European club soccer — underpinned by net spending of more than $1 billion on players since Abramovich bought the club. Under Abramovich’s ownership, Chelsea’s men’s team has won 21 trophies, including five Premier League titles, two UEFA Champions League titles and this year’s Club World Cup.
The Chelsea women’s team is also a perennial contender. On Sunday, it won the Women’s Super League title for a thirdstraight season.
Last Saturday, Boehly attended Chelsea’s most-recent Premier League match at Stamford Bridge, a game in which it squandered a two-goal lead and had to settle for a 2-2 draw with the visiting Wolves. The team bounced back Wednesday with 3-0 win against Leeds.
With two games left in the 2021-22 season, Chelsea sits third in the Premier League. If it finishes third or fourth, it will qualify for another season in the Champions League. The team will not finish higher than third because there are not enough games left for it to catch first-placed Manchester City or second-placed Liverpool. But the Blues will have another shot at silverware when they face Liverpool in the FA Cup final on Saturday.
While the acquisition by Boehly’s group would constitute a record amount for a sports team — surpassing the $2.3 billion paid for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers in 2018 — Chelsea’s valuation could climb even higher in the next few years, in large part because of the Premier League’s broadcasting windfall. Between 2022 and 2025, the league’s international broadcasting rights will total 5.05 billion pounds, equal to about $6.2 billion, while UK broadcast rights will be worth 5 billion pounds, The Athletic reported earlier this year. It will mark the first time that the league’s international broadcasting rights have exceeded domestic rights.
“Most of the watching happens via TV or streaming, and that just looks like it’s going to continue to increase,” White said. “People pay per view or advertisers see the viewers as valuable. Either way, the owners of the franchises are going to be the recipients of that increased value.”