Uncertainty surrounds Cobblers takeover

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Uncertainty is surrounding the takeover of Northampton Town by a mystery Indian consortium.   One question has always been what the motivation would be to acquire a League 2 club, albeit one in a reasonably prosperous area with some potential for progress.   

Nearly a month has passed since chairman David Cardoza announced the heads of terms agreement with the mystery buyers, leaving rumour to fill the void of information coming from the club.

United’s tour boosts sponsors

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Manchester United’s 17th successive summer pre-season tour, this year in the United States, has been meticulously planned both in footballing terms, to keep the demands on players within bounds, and also to boost sponsors.   The club is working tirelessly to deliver for their sponsors with the entertaining of every VIP guest a personalised experience.

Becks get his Miami stadium

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After many setbacks David Beckham has finally got permission to build a privately funded stadium in Miami for his MLS franchise.  The 25,000 capacity stadium will be built on the site of the Orange Bowl and next to the stadium of the Miami Marlins baseball team.

Beckham has been working on the project since 2014.  Plans to build a stadium on a waterfront site next to a basketball arena were rejected.   At one time it looked as if the project would never come to fruition.

Networking at Real

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Access to the Palco executive box at Real Madrid’s Bernebau stadium is higly prized.  As well as watching the football, it is where Spain’s political and business elite come to network.

However, Madrid’s new left-wing mayor, Manuela Carmena, won’t be putting in an appearance.   She hasn’t been invited yet anyway, but if she was, she would turn down the invitation.   She doesn’t like the traditional closeness between Madrid’s businessmen and politicians, something which has worked to Real Madrid’s advantage.

Super size shirts

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Knowing the market for your merchandise in football or any part of the economy involves identifying niche markets that you can satisfy. There are some very large fans around and three clubs are producing their 2015-16 shirts in 6XL size.

The three clubs are Arsenal, Aston Villa and Norwich City, but there is no reason to suppose that they have more very large fans than any other clubs. Some clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, sell 5XL shirts.

Villa talks dead in water

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Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has said that takeover talks for the club are ‘dead in the water’.   Exclusivity had been granted to a mystery consortium over a £150m takeover, but talks collapsed.

This means that Randy Lerner has failed to sell the club for a second successive summer.   The question that arises is, why?   There is a healthy appetite for acquiring Premiership clubs given the new television deal which means that they require less in the way of subsidy from a new owner.

Wembley may cost Spurs and Chelsea more

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Renting Wembley for home games while their stadiuims are redeveloped may cost Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur a lot more than they anticipated.   Chelsea had offered £11m a year, but Wembley may require £15m.

In addition, it may charge additional venue costs, such as security, which could run into millions of pounds. However, the clubs could derive revenue from the increased capacity available to them at Wembley.