FSG Approve $750m Investment, LeBron Partnership

In the financial pandemonium that is the post-covid world, money news has tended to be bad news for sports teams, invariably culminating in reports of lost revenue or wage cuts or stories in a similarly depressing vein.

Not so for Liverpool and their parent company, Fenway Sports Group — at least this week — as news broke that not only have the company approved a $750m investment from RedBird Capital — signifying a purchase of 10% of its shares, pending approval from Major League Baseball — but global sports icon LeBron James has been announced as the company’s new partner.

Exactly how these developments will affect the Reds remains to be seen — LeBron was already a shareholder in the club, and a significant factor in Nike winning the battle to sponsor the Merseysiders last year — but early indicators suggest the purchase of further sports teams is on the dock. FSG already own the Boston Red Sox and Roush Fenway Racing, while RedBird own French Ligue 2 side Toulouse, and James has stated in the past the ambition to own an NBA team.

Hopefully, this will end up establishing a well-oiled sports empire whose global reach and cross-platform marketing will be of benefit to all teams under the company umbrella, rather than an example of an ownership group spreading itself too thin across multiple fronts. In any case, we’ll get to see more of LeBron, which is always nice.