How has New England Sports Ventures (NESV) made a success of the Boston Red Sox after they bought them in 2002? Two years later, the team won the baseball World Series for the first time in 86 years. However, the formula deployed with the Red Sox will not transfer easily to football and Liverpool. Indeed, there are a number of differences.
How has New England Sports Ventures (NESV) made a success of the Boston Red Sox after they bought them in 2002? Two years later, the team won the baseball World Series for the first time in 86 years. However, the formula deployed with the Red Sox will not transfer easily to football and Liverpool. Indeed, there are a number of differences.
Three main factors lay behind the Boston success. First, the owners exploited the ageing landmark stadium, Fenway Park, which dates back to 1912 is located centrally in Boston, near to the Boston University campus and served by the ‘T’ subway line. They rejected the option of building a new stadium next door. It is interesting that they want to explore the option of expanding the club’s Anfield stadium to a 60,000 capacity before going ahead with the proposed Stanley Park stadium. At Boston the refurbishments were used as a justification for raising ticket prices, but nevertheless the new owners did succeed in boosting attendances.
Secondly, they raked in profits from controlling their own cable television stadium. This is not really an option at Liverpool where television revenues are largely out of the club’s control.
Third, they hired Bill James, a statistician admired by baseball geeks, and used analysis of batting averages and pitching records to buy cheap players whose talents he believed had been underestimated. Baseball is a game that probably allows more scope for stattos than football. In any case NESV cannot really go for a free spending strategy, given the likely impact of the Uefa financial fair play rules.
The strategy in Boston was to reinvigorate a regional fan base in New England. Liverpool needs to establish itself as a global brand and win more fans in Asia, which was the attraction of having an Asian owner.
It’s also worth noting that NESV will pay £200m in cash to pay off acqusition debt and another £40m in cash to pay off non-bank liabilities. £60m would be in the form of a loan from Royal Bank of Scotland to provide working capital and funding for stadium facilities.