Well if you believe the Don (and we don't) MLS in total is a sink hole that burns money at a rate of 75-100 million per year. Well at least that is the story when the player union comes asking around.
i have to disagree with this. there are loads of people who will know the number. contract lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, accountants, and probably a respectable list of other ancillary staff for each vested party. you also have who knows how many (honestly no idea) people that those who actually know the number, may have mentioned it to at the water cooler. i include the water cooler crowd because they are getting first hand information from people they can judge to be reliable. deals in the 70-100m range may be kept quiet in the public eye, but the information usually flows pretty freely internally if anyone is interested. chances are those who the number was known too, it wasn't an overly exciting number as they will be exposed to big money deal on at least a semi regular basis, but if they are a soccer fan, or maybe their nephew is, then maybe they make note of that number and pass it on to someone.
In other words, no matter how nice the neighborhood is, you're still not getting the highest possible price for a house with foundation problems.
I wonder if MLS wouldn't be better off in the long run to relocate CUSA to another city, and come back in 3-5 years when a stadium is done for just this reason. CUSA might be worth 70M in LA or San Antoniapolis today...it probably doesn't matter where. But with a fresh start after a short time, maybe LA2 is worth 100M+.
I think MLS is more concerned about rising the profile of a 2nd team in the LA market than waiting til the franchise value goes up to sell for profit. So no, MLS will sell ASAP to the best available buyer/operator and who has the best plans to make it successful.
People give financial details as necessary as requested by other stakeholders. Sports teams typically demand certain subsidies, which means public request pf their financial records is legitimate. If they want free money, that should be one of the requirements. In MLS's case, as the league is single entity, if one team is getting a subsidy, all teams are getting a subsidy, and therefore all teams and the league should be fair game. I'm not saying they are required by law to do this. I'm just saying the public should be less of suckers in this relationship.
I'm sure we will find out soon enough. Tons and tons of millionaires in Southern California. "When it comes to the sheer total of millionaire households in each state, California has the most, with 777,624 millionaire households." http://www.usatoday.com/story/money.../19/cnbc-top-states-for-millionaires/4585285/
In a market like LA (specifically because a new venue will be "needed"), MLS doesn't want to do single-entity business with millionaire owners, they what "1000 times over" millionaires.
Only half? LA2 should look to sign some of these guys with their 3 DP slots (or perhaps just club ambassador roles).
There are even more in Northern California too but for some reason, the eeks (at Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Netflix, Apple, Ebay, HP and YouTube to name a few) all hate soccer!
Pelé Corporal Luis Fernandez Bobby Moore Terry Brady John Wark Arthur Hayes Osvaldo Ardiles Carlos Rey Kazimierz Deyna Paul Wolchek Søren Lindsted Erik Ball Paul Van Himst Michel Fileu Werner Roth Baumann (German Team Captain) Mike Summerbee Sid Buzzer Harmor Hallvar Thoresen Gunnar Hilsson Russell Osman Doug Clure Kevin O'Callaghan Tony Lewis Co Prins Pieter Van Beck Laurie Sivell Schmidt (German Goalkeeper) Robin Turner German Player Kevin Beattie Stand-in for Michael Caine Paul Cooper Stand-in for Sylvester Stallone
Are there that many billionaires in MLS ownership? I know Joe Roth doesn't hit that mark. For what it's worth Wiki says there are 86 billionaires in California.
don't forget Dietrich Mateschitz and Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. and apparently Marcelo Claure is one, or is very close.
Not sure of the asset worth of DC United's Indonesian operator, but he's got enough to also effectively own Inter Milan. I do know that David Beckham and Steve Nash each have billion-dollar smiles.
I believe Hansen is in the billionaire group too. MLSE is in the upper echelon with Bell and Rogers both involved.
The presumption has always been that he is, but I don't actually believe that claim has been backed up by anything but reputation.
I think he certainly fits in the inheritance category, as his pops is a very rich man/billionaire, afaik.
I don't really consider Allen an owner in the truest sense. He pitches in by making his front office organization for the Seahawks also be the organization for the Sounders, but I don't get the sense he has any activity at all in the day-to-day sense, nor cares all that much. Isn't Hauptman married into a billionaire family, like Kroenke?
Though Kroenke is at least a many-millionaire, if not a billionaire, based on his own assets. Sure, he's not Walton rich, but I think he would be rich enough to be in MLS without the connection to the Waltons.