From Snoop Dogg to Tom Brady, stars flock to English second-tier clubs
LONDON: When Snoop Dogg sang the praises of Swansea City, it signaled the unlikely arrival of the latest celebrity owner in the once unfashionable Championship, English football's second tier. The American rapper has joined the Welsh club's ownership structure, investing an undisclosed sum to rub shoulders with former Real Madrid stalwart and World Cup finalist Luka Modric, who has also sunk his money into the club.
'The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working-class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me,' Snoop said in an introductory video. In North Wales, Wrexham are dreaming of an extraordinary promotion to the Premier League this season on the back of the enthusiastic and lucrative support of Hollywood star Ryan 'Deadpool' Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney.
Meanwhile, former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady has a minority stake in Birmingham City, very much the second club in England's second city after Premier League outfit Aston Villa. His arrival in 2023 was not met with universal approval, with one fan asking 'Tom Brady, who's he?' in the Amazon Prime Video series 'Built in Birmingham: Brady and the Blues' which follows his early, whirlwind involvement in the club that includes the sacking of manager Wayne Rooney.
Brady says his is a 'visionary role' and he tries—not always successfully—to pass on his experience of winning seven Super Bowl winner's rings to the Birmingham players and their young manager, Chris Davies. But why do so many celebrities want to invest a slice of their fortunes into the Championship?
Christopher Winn, course leader at the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB), told AFP the principal reason was because they see it as an attractive investment—with the carrot of the Premier League's riches if the team can gain promotion proving irresistible. 'There is the notion of long-term returns, in other words buying low (in a lower league) and selling high,' Winn told AFP.
'While on-field success and subsequent off-field returns are no guarantee, should the promised land of the Premier League be reached, a significant profit would likely be generated on any future sale of the club, in other words generating returns for investors well beyond their initial investment and operational outlay. 'Granted, that does not mean the investors are all out to make a return—football can often be a game of utility maximization after all, and for some a personally funded passion project.'
'We could make money'
Brady's friend and co-owner at Birmingham, the New York-based investor Tom Wagner, reveals in the documentary they originally tried to buy a Premier League team but the deal fell through. Then the chance to snap up Birmingham presented itself.
'We thought we could make some money, have a good return, which is our ultimate objective, so we just couldn't pass it up,' Wagner says. Birmingham manager Davies has quickly felt the effect of having a sporting icon breathing down his neck—he good-naturedly recounted to The Times that his attempts to relax on a family holiday in the Maldives were disrupted by Brady insisting on scheduling daily conference calls at the children's dinner time.
In Wagner and Brady's first season, Birmingham crashed down into League One, or England's third division, but with Davies in charge they emphatically secured promotion to the Championship this year, romping away with the League One title with a record points total.
That was largely due to the Americans' injection of funds for new players such as forward Jay Stansfield, acquired from Premier League club Fulham for £15 million ($20.3 million), a huge fee for League One. Celebrities are active behind the scenes at other Championship clubs.
Birmingham kicked off the season last week with a 1-1 home draw against Ipswich Town, who count multi-million-selling music star Ed Sheeran among their financial backers. Ipswich confirmed last year that Sheeran had bought a 1.4 percent stake in his local club and he has been the shirt sponsor for the last four years – although in a cautionary tale for other star owners, his involvement did not stop Ipswich being relegated from the Premier League last season. — AFP
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