New England Sports Ventures, the group who own the Red Sox, will pay $476 million for Liverpool Football Club.
Martin Broughton, Liverpool’s chairman, has said that this is a “great day” for the club. The deal will be made final one there owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who had wanted a higher price. However it seems that they will give their go-ahead to complete the deal as early as Friday.
Broughton said “This is a great day for Liverpool Football Club and the supporters”. He feels confident that things will progress with the Red Sox owners. He looks forward to Liverpool FC being revitalized by the company in the same manor as the Boston Red Sox.
He also feels relieved that the team will not be burden with a massive debt as they were with Hicks and Gillet.
“I can understand why there might be an instant reaction about them being American. But being American is not a problem, leveraged ownership of a football club is the problem.
“I just hope we can deliver what we have set out to do. We have found the right owners. There will be money to invest in the squad.
“It is all about winning, that is their philosophy. You have to look at what they have done. This is all going to be about not "What we promise to do" but to see what "We do actually do" on their part.
“If you look at the Boston Red Sox, they have taken a major traditional team, previously successful but not at their peak, and resuscitated it to be a winner.
“They understand winning on the field helps winning off the field and makes the investment an attractive investment and they have a track record to prove it.
“They have been the most successful team since acquiring the Red Sox in 2001 - there are parallels with Liverpool.”
The Chairman also believes that the Red Sox owners will be able to provide the much needed cash to pay for transfers and building a new stadium or possibly redeveloping Anfield Park.
“They don't want any hostages to fortune, very sensibly, so they're not going to make any comments about how much (money) or anything like that,' he said.
“Let's look at what they have done at Boston, what they said in Boston, what they have done in terms of investing in players and I think you get a high degree of confidence of their willingness to do that.
“If you look at the Boston Red Sox, when they arrived everyone said "We have to build a new stadium, this one is clapped out".
“They looked at it, its tradition, and decided to invest heavily to reinvent Fenway Park, rather than move to a new stadium.
“There is definitely a commitment to invest in a stadium and we will finish up with a 60,000+ seater stadium. Where they haven't finalised their view is whether that should be the new stadium or whether there are still opportunities to build at Anfield itself.'
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