The Official John J. Fisher ownership thread

Anyone have any news on the sale of the club?

 

I got this response to an inquiry from one of my friends on the crew:

...the esteemed Mr. Fisher was schmoozing on the patio behind the benches during warm-ups. If he was entertaining potential buyers, and they saw the first 15 minutes, they saw what an MLS franchise could be, what they would be buying, and how far they are away from being truly competitive. As usual, many of the 50,000+ in attendance came to see the Son and the stars playing in white!

 

Imagine if the Quakes had signed Son. They’d sell out season tickets (for real) and probably every game would be a sellout (for real). And they’d sell a million jerseys. Of course it’s a bit of a sugar high because those people will be gone once Son would leave but you might get some carryover. And a lot of publicity would boost awareness of the franchise, and that would stick to some extent.

 

There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of name players that could be said of but we know our owner would never stoop so low as to actually pay real money for a real name player.

 

I don't know about hundreds that would have the same effect as Son, given the demographics here in the bay, but there are probably many that would significantly move the needle. A Mexican star like Chucky Lozano or a Korean star like Son would do it. And with Son you also get the euro fanboys. Other euro stars (e.g. Müller) would also bring out the euro fanboys.

 

When the paint was still wet at Avaya, there was a waiting list for season tickets. It was not a sugar high. People were sniffing paint. The list evaporated in a year or two.

 

Yeah, I've said it many times. If you want to move the perception of your brand in the marketplace, and that brand is stale after many years, you need a "big bang". The opening of the stadium was our "big bang" opportunity to sign a star. We signed Innocent :facepalm. We also mis-timed the rebranding to be a year earlier than the stadium opening IIRC.

 

There are not many missteps that could have been made that weren't. As I've noted many times before, when the Wolff/Fisher crowd came over in 2008 it was clear they believed they knew everything there was to know about sports management and actively refused to listen to anybody else. The sheer arrogance of these people was and - as far as I know - still is stunning. Some of their people were better and some were worse, but the corporate mindset was uniformly that they were in charge and would brook no dissenting opinions.

 

Well, Fisher’s investment still went up at least 400%. So I guess he was right.

 

Not very liquid asset, though. Good thing he’s not anxious to sell.

 

Yeah but what about the sale of the club?

 

I saw a stat cited on a Slack channel that the last time the EQ had a "winning" season was 2013; and that it has now had 12 consecutive years of "non-winning" season; and that is the more than any other major North American professional Sports team. I can't tell you if that is correct or not, but still ...

 

And the cruel irony is that we did not make the playoffs in 2013.

 

I recall this discussion. Our crapitude is exceeded by none.

I will be overjoyed when RottenFish actually sells our team. I want that wanker gone. And new ownership has to bring in a whole new batch of leaders, GM, Assistant GM, Coaching staff, business managers, director of soccer ops. Soup to nuts. Replace everyone in a leadership role.

We have so bad for so long we absolutely need to clean house. Not necessarily the players, but all of leadership. I include Bruce in that. He’s made lots of mistakes.

F#$& Fisher!!
Go Quakesfans!!

 

When all is said and done and sale is finally complete, Fisher will have made a killing off the Quakes without having spent much on the team at all.

 

We'll see - what the sale price is - if he can actually sell. I think the stadium was $100M, and then 17 years of owning the franchise. No one knows what the operating losses are - we probably can't trust the public figures. If it's $10M, then he's down another $170M. Franchise purchase for $20M, that puts cost at around $300M. If he sells for $400M he still makes a good profit but not sure I'd call it a "killing". Numbers like $100M are not that big for these guys.

If he sells just a majority ownership, like say 51%, then the price may be more like $200-300M. So maybe he doesn't do much more than break even while retaining a stake in future increases in valuation.

 

Do owners ever really reveal how much they earn or have earned off their sports franchises?

I always hear their complaints on how much they lose or lost but never once read how much profits any of them have made.

In turn, very few end up selling unless they are forced to.

 

There are occasionally published numbers like these. There's so much creative accounting who knows if they have any basis in reality. This is from pay-walled Forbes report from a few years ago. Sorry about funky formatting - I copy / pasted from a reddit thread.

Rank Team Operating Income
1 Los Angeles FC $8 million
-- DC United $8 million
3 Atlanta United $6 million
4 LA Galaxy $4 million
-- Charlotte FC $4 million
6 Austin FC $2 million
7 Seattle Sounders $1 million
-- Portland Timbers $1 million
9 Real Salt Lake $0
10 FC Cincinnati -$1 million
-- Minnesota United -$1 million
12 Sporting Kansas City -$3 million
13 New England Revolution -$4 million
-- Orlando City -$4 million
15 Inter Miami -$5 million
-- Nashville SC -$5 million
-- San Jose Earthquakes -$5 million
-- Colorado Rapids -$5 million
19 New York Red Bulls -$6 million
20 Philadelphia Union -$8 million
-- Columbus Crew -$8 million
-- FC Dallas -$8 million
23 Houston Dynamo -$10 million
24 New York City FC -$12 million
-- CF Montreal -$12 million
26 Toronto FC -$15 million
-- Vancouver Whitecaps -$15 million
28 Chicago Fire -$18 million

 

I don't believe they would continue on a yearly basis if they keep losing money.

Vergara was forced out and even made money on the deal because I don't think he spent that much on an expansion fee.

In Fishers case, he hasn't won since 2013 so why wouldn’t he have wanted out before now?

Owners don't reveal all the revenue they make off the other income at their stadiums.

Did Fisher ever publish how much he made from friendlies, fireworks, well drinks, concessions/ parking and Xmas at PayPal Park?

I don't even believe he is wanting to sell the Quakes entirely now but is just leveraging to see how much he can get so he can fund the A's ball park.

 

"They" would be probably be OK with operating losses knowing that the valuation of their team is rapidly rising.

 

I think billionaires get huge tax write-offs from owning a team. As I’ve mentioned before, they can depreciate the players.

 

That's why I wrote:

"There's so much creative accounting who knows if they [the operating profit numbers] have any basis in reality".

Who knows the whole story? Maybe their accountant.

 

My instinct tells me that the Quakes are not close to a profitable business just based on game day revenue + sponsorhips, etc. vs. all the costs - the players, staff, travel, academy, etc. But I don't know how SUM and revenue sharing factor into it.

 

Is it creative accounting or just not revealing how much they actually earn?

I’ve never believed billionaire sports owners “lose money”.

They may lose some on one end but they make up for it big time on another , hidden area that no one ever talks or knows about.

I doubt any of us will ever see the books.