American ownership of sports institutions is a unique way of American owners borrowing money against the asset & pay almost nothing in taxes compared to what they would pay in the USA...
You can’t borrow money against any sport assets in the States..
That’s why Corporate America is all over English clubs..
https://theconversation.com/football-in-europe-is-being-transformed-by-us-private-equity-firms-heres-how-157445Who are the investors?
So who are these major American private equity investors taking over European football? Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the owner of English Premier League champions Liverpool, is reportedly on the verge of selling over 10% of the club to US investor RedBird Capital Partners for around £540 million. RedBird appears intent on building a global network of football investments. This would be on the back of the £4.7 million recently invested into the club by basketball superstar Lebron James.
Basketball player hangs off the basket.
Los Angeles Lakers’ forward LeBron James scoring against Charlotte Hornets in March, 2021. UPI/Alamy Live News
In December, ALK Capital – another American sports investment business – acquired the English club Burnley via a leveraged buyout (similar to how the Glazer family bought Manchester United in 2005). Leveraging essentially means using a club as collateral to secure a loan in order to buy it.
The situation is similar elsewhere. RedBird already holds a stake in French club Toulouse, while Bordeaux (General American Capital Partners and King Street Capital Management) and AS Nancy (New City Capital) are also US-owned. Meanwhile, Troyes FC was bought last year by City Football Group, in which Californian private equity investor Silver Lake owns shares.
The story is the same in Italy, where the Elliott Management Corporation owns AC Milan and where a private equity consortium consisting of CVC Capital Partners, Advent Capital Management and FSI Capital are pursuing the acquisition of a £1.5 billion stake in the new media business of premier league Serie A.
CVC and Advent are reportedly keen on striking a similar deal with German Football’s Bundesliga International, which handles overseas media rights sales.
At Manchester United, there has been a long-running fan campaign to remove the Glazers.
Even at Liverpool, not everyone is happy with FSG.
That’s because blank cheques off the field don’t necessarily bring blank cheques on the field. Most fans know that investors are interested in one thing: making money. The problem is, maximising profits often means eroding the connections between clubs and the communities in which they are located.