West Ham United Facing March Deadline To Sell Club

Gudmundsson Struggling To Finalize A Deal To Sell Club Ahead Of Deadline

EPL club West Ham United Owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson has “just over two months to sell the club before his holding company, Hansa, faces the possibility of being declared insolvent,” according to court papers cited by Sachin Nakrani of the Manchester GUARDIAN. Gudmundsson, who bought the club for US$123.6M in ’06, is “struggling to finalise a deal having initially expected to raise” US$363.6M, a figure that is “proving unrealistic in the current financial climate.” Should “the worse come to the worst, that could lead to the club being placed in administration in order to keep it alive” (Manchester GUARDIAN, 1/2).

OWNING UP: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Matthew Futterman writes for “all the talk of slumping ticket sales and sponsorships, the most troubling scenario for the sports industry is the growing trend of team owners beset by financial problems in their principal businesses.” Many owners’ primary businesses “incurred deep losses in 2008.” Allen & Co. sports investment banker Steve Greenberg said, “The willingness or tolerance for future losses is very, very low. More owners are looking to operate at break-even or better. The problem is, it’s hard to turn a [$15-25M] loss into break-even in a short period of time.” Futterman writes only in the NFL do owners “appear somewhat insulated,” as the league has a “strict limit on player salaries and a revenue system where lucrative national television contracts allow many teams practically to break even before they sell their first ticket” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/2).