I see a few on the BBS question why MR Conway/Lee bought our club. Can I expand the question to why does anybody buy a football club.I would imagine 50/60% of clubs are foreign owned.Nearly every club are in or have some form of debt.Most of the clubs have little possibility of showing any profit any time soon.People like Mr Chanseri at S6 as probably lost around 100 million of his own money so even promotion would leave him out of pocket. Could it mean in some cases that the prestige of owning a football club is a valid reason that some put there bodies in the firing line?
I've often wondered whether it's a way of money laundering. Lots of unscrupulous businessmen have owned clubs and it's amazing how many companies from the Virgin or Cayman Islands seem to be involved. Another question is why are there so many undisclosed fees with football clubs?
To be honest mate if I had the money. I think I would have fallen under the Patrick Cryne criteria. Of buying to stop us going under. As a billionaire I would reckon I would spend as necessary to get to the premier. Would I fund the ludicrous wages of some players of today. Not a prayer. Mr lee would not buy for prestige is my guess or he would have waited till one of the glamour clubs came along. Given his wealth. 7th richest man to own a British league club I believe.
I think there are multiple reasons for doing it. In some cases you have people trying to preserve something and retaining its existence. You have people trying to profiteer (I think of Mandaric as someone who was proactive in flipping clubs for profit). You have others with ego and run them for vanity. Generating tax losses has also been considered a reason for doing so too, I'm aware of two groups that acquired a football club to generating tax losses to offset their groups CTax liability. I think the question is all the more pertinent for me considering firstly, just how wealthy the various consortium members are (joint 4th richest in the country I vaguely recall), the noted positive view of the club at the time they bought it and how perfect it was for what they were looking for, and subsequently, the continued selling off of assets with replacements seemingly getting younger and younger.
I think if it were for prestige motives ,in our case , Chien Lee would have invested on his own not included 4 other investors. At least we know who owns our club which isnt always the case . The clubs the Consortium looked at before Cryne sold them the business plan for a debt free Barnsley, Hull , Boro, and Brentford were all owned by benefactors who had spent a considerable amount more on their clubs than Cryne .
I can't remember exactly what Patrick Cryne used to say but it was along the lines of 'the quickest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire and buy a football club'.