Lately, I have been very frustrated with the fact that I cannot have a direct impact on the growth and prosperity of Major League Soccer. I live beyond a five-hour drive to the closest team and I don’t live in a large television market, so I am not even reflected in the TV ratings—I am only a fractional guess based on a larger TV market hundreds of miles away. I want the league to succeed, but I can’t help. I proposing the thought—if individual teams in MLS went public having stock, would you buy? The stock, I propose, would go more towards infastructure, rather than a player pool. This means stadiums, training facilities, and youth development. We will never have any say/control over salary cap issues, or DP/ DPs(?), the league always will, but the fact that DC United can’t get a stadium built or Toronto can’t have real grass (even Norway has grass on their fields—don’t give me the weather excuse again!) is just a crying shame. But if I could invest in the league, maybe I could make a difference? Note: Please, don’t suggest that I can buy AEG stock-- I am talking about the possiblity of FC Dallas or Houston Dynamo shares. Thoughts?
if MLS went public, i would definatly try to get in at an IPO price, depending on what it was, but this league will grow, making it a reasonable cheap stock at pretty much whatever price it came out at. it may take a long time, but i see this league becoming a stable mid level league in american sports. it will only continue to get bigger, and i dont see it folding anytime in the near future
You bet I will but I'm in the same situation as you. I am a 9 or 10 hours drive from the closest MLS team. MLS in Atlanta would not do well since the entertainment and sports market is pretty much football. College Football on Saterday is like heaven for some folks down here. Or maybe it's the beer talking..
While it would be a nice way to get people like yourslelf into the league and have a direct impact, it would cripple the league at this point.
I think MLSE (the owners of TFC) are publicly traded. The Ontario Teachers Pension Fund owns majority shares in MLSE if I recall correctly. Actually, Wikipedia shows the majority shareholders, but doesn't mention MLSE being publicly traded. So I would guess it isn't possible to buy shares in MLSE at the moment. Cheers!
The OP could buy home and away NYRB jerseys for every member of his family if he wants to financially show his support.
Sports clubs as public limited companies on the stock market? To my knowledge only one ever made that work; Manchester United. They were the only Plc to actually make a profit and constantly increase their share price...to the point someone bought them out and took them OFF the stock market. Borussia Dortmund went public, nearly bankrupt. Millwall and Spurs also nearly faced the same fat. Stay. Well. Clear.
Don't kid yourself, even if it went public, people like you would never own a percentage of the shares that would make a difference. No, granted, I don't know you, and you could be a multi-millionaire who invests heavily in the market already, but I would guess that probably isn't true. Soccer fans at the grass roots will never come up with the kind of capitol to invest heavily enough to make a difference. Sure, your shares might give you a few votes (feel free to excercise them) but the big boy investors will always have the last word.
i would invest in the league, not a team. the only way i would invest in a team is by buying and owning one, which for me right now is inconcievable, i just have too much on my schedule right now
x2. The league is set up as a single entity and we should have to invest in it as such. Investing in individual teams is a nightmare.
What about the German/Spanish model where members of the club pay a sum to the club?..The members also own the club I might add. Like the around $75 annual fee I pay to Schalke 04 for what is basically just a right to vote at the annual meeting, the right to order tickets and some club magazines...Multiply the fee by 65.000 (current memberships) and you get a nice sum. Other German clubs and the big "Socios" of say Barcelona or Real Madrid works in a similar way. To me it´s a stable and beneficient way to "have an impact and support my team"...I mean, what happens if Abramovich gets an heartattack tomorrow?
who cares, the italians dont care about money, thats why the church is still the richest institution in all of italy. all they care about is coffee and mopeds