Roman Abramovich’s Ownership of Chelsea FC Ends, Team Bought for $3.1B by Investors

By: Don Driggers

Chelsea FC takeover was recently completed when Roman Abramovich’s 19 Years as owner ended. Roman Abramovich’s 19-year spell as Chelsea owner is over after the club announced recently that the takeover led by Todd Boehly had been completed.

Todd Boehly, an owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and a group of deep-pocketed investors have bought Chelsea Football Club, a British soccer team.

The New York Post announced that on May 30 that he and a consortium of investors had purchased the team for £2.5 billion, or more than $3.1 billion.

Boehly is best known for using massive amounts of money to pack a payroll and ensure the most amount of talent for his teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers have had some of their best seasons under his leadership.

In the 2021-2022 season, The New York Post reports, Chelsea had the Premier League’s second-highest payroll at £355 million. Liverpool came in fourth at £314 million, according to soccer site Marca. Meanwhile, sources close to Chelsea’s new owners note that Boehly’s Dodgers have 30 people hired to study “data analytics” — a practice commonly used to seek strong players at good prices, as portrayed in the movie “Moneyball” — while Chelsea presently has four.

The deal to purchase the Chelsea club is huge. Clearlake and Boehly, who each have put down more than $1 billion in equity in the deal, share governance control over budgets including payroll. Sources close to Clearlake insist that the firm is less focused on slashing costs than on focused on growing revenue, which they said was recently less than £500 million, versus Manchester United’s estimated £700 million in revenue. The plan is to seize opportunities for naming rights and sponsorships, the sources said.

Wall Street sources are skeptical of the deal with The New York Post reporting, nevertheless, bankers close to the deal note that profits face at least one massive obstacle — a pledge to rebuild Chelsea’s 117-year-old Stamford Bridge stadium in London at an estimated cost of more than £1 billion to increase its seating capacity.

NY Post reported: Sources close to Clearlake insist that the firm is less focused on slashing costs than on focused on growing revenue, which they said was recently less than £500 million, versus Manchester United’s estimated £700 million in revenue. The plan is to seize opportunities for naming rights and sponsorships, the sources said

Fans worry that the upshot will be more luxury suites and higher ticket prices for fans — with Boehly scrambling to tamp down concerns about the latter in recent weeks.

“You need to put £1 billion into a new building and they lose money,” a sports banker said. “I’m not a big fan of this deal.”