“Phoenix” did not reach football – Newspaper Kommersant No. 238 (7439) of 12/22/2022

American businessman Mat Ishbia agreed on the terms of the purchase of the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team will cost him $4 billion. This is a record figure for the association and close to that for world sports in general. Only the Denver Broncos, a National Football League (NFL) club, was sold more expensively – $ 4.6 billion. However, the Broncos record may well be beaten soon. This will happen if English Premier League (EPL) club Manchester United is sold, as its owners expect, for £6-7bn.

American businessman, head of United Wholesale Mortgages Mortgages Matt Ishbia agreed on the terms of the acquisition of the Phoenix Suns NBA club. The Phoenix Mercury, playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), will go to work with her. Mr. Ishbia will pay an NBA-record $4 billion for the Suns, who have never won a championship title in their history. Note that Mr. Ishbia is a big fan of basketball. Moreover, he himself played for the University of Michigan Spartans team, with which he became the strongest in the first basketball division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2000. The deal will take some time to complete, as the NBA will first review Mat Ishbia to see if he meets the requirements for club owners, and then require the approval of the NBA Board of Governors.

The current owner of the “Phoenix” Robert Sarver in September of this year was suspended by the NBA for a year and fined for $ 10 million. The sanctions were related to the inappropriate behavior of the entrepreneur: he often made racist and sexist statements against his employees, intimidated them and even used brute physical force. В частности, расследование установило, что Роберт Сарвер многократно называл темнокожих экс-тренеров клуба Эрла Уотсона и Линдси Хантера, а также игроков словом nigger. In addition, at general meetings, he shared the details of his sexual life: for example, he emphasized that he only uses large condoms. It was noted that Sarver liked to ask his colleagues about their sexual experience, and at the same time about the experience of their wives or girlfriends. Actually, this story prompted Mr. Sarver to put Phoenix up for sale. However, he leaves the basketball business with a good profit. In 2004, Robert Sarver gave $401 million for the club. At that time, this was an NBA record. Now, with his participation, another record will be set. The former was installed in 2019, when Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Prokhorov sold the Brooklyn Nets to Joe Tsai for $3.3 billion.

As for Phoenix’s place in the global ranking of deals for the sale of professional sports clubs, it will be the second. Out of competition while the NFL club “Denver Broncos”. In June, it was sold for $4.6 billion.

Many, however, mistakenly, record the London Chelsea, bought in the spring by Ted Beuly from Roman Abramovich, in the most expensive clubs in the world. The total costs of the American entrepreneur in the future should be £4.25 billion ($5.16 billion). But of that amount, only £2.5bn ($3bn) went directly to buy Chelsea shares. The remaining funds are the obligations of Mr. Beuly to invest in the development of the club. In fact, he will simply spend money on his own project.

But it is possible that in the foreseeable future, a European football club will still lead the ranking of clubs sold for the highest price. We are talking about the Manchester United Premier League team, for which its owners, the Glaser family, are now looking for a buyer. In November, it was reported that the Glazers valued their asset at £9bn ($10.9bn). Later, however, Raine Group, the bank hired to handle the deal (the same entity that handled the Chelsea sale), lowered the asking amount to a range of £6-7bn ($7.3-8.5bn).

Alexander Petrov