The Americanization of the EPL

With DIC abandoning their purchase of Liverpool FC and turning their attentions to Newcastle United, it looks like US businessmen George Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks are set to complete their takeover of the Merseyside club sometime next week. This goes far beyond the Glazers at Man United and Randy Lerner at Aston Villa.

While we all realize that the English football club is the new Maybach (only less reliable) of the entrepreneurial class, what does cash-flush Americans mean for the English game? Well, we saw the reaction to the Glazer takeover at Old Trafford, where fans protested against the move so much that they formed a non-league club, FC United, which should be competing in the top flight sometime after the apocalypse.

But at least Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has won some American silver, winning the Superbowl in 2002. Randy Lerner, whose riches come mainly from his sale of MBNA, a company set up by his father, owns the Cleveland Browns, who haven't won anything at all. Gillett's pedigree is one akin to a movie version of a stockbroker: (Buy!!! Sell!!! Buy-Sell!!!), without any success (He sold the Miami Dolphins before their 12-0 season of 1972) Tom Hicks? Well, he owns the Texas Rangers and helped make George Bush Jr. a fortune by buying the team from his ownership group.

What does this all mean? The fact that Liverpool will be partly controlled by the man who made GWB rich does not sit well with this side of SMiA, but Liverpool is desperate for a new stadium and Hicks is known to spend lavish amounts on his sports teams. I'd be naive not to admit that DIC saw the same opportunity, but one has to wonder, is this akin to hiring someone with absolutely no experience and placing them in a key role within a corporation?

Perhaps the Americans' seriousness can be evidenced in their completion of due diligence in a matter of days, as opposed to weeks as it seems with DIC. Also, I know of no instances of Gillett or Hicks enslaving children to race camels, although Hicks has an elementary school named after him (Where else should there be a Hick school? Texas) that could very well facilitate that hobby if it piques his interest. For Gillett, among his dabbling in sports teams, skiing and bankruptcy, his passion lies with meat interests, opening up the possibility of Petaluma Poultry Stadium or Gerhard's Napa Valley Sausage Park (Charlton may play at the Valley, but Liverpool can play at the Sausage Valley).

Whatever you think, it's going to be a while before Liverpool will see the benefits of a new stadium, as evidenced by Arsenal's tight purse-strings in light of their recently-built stadium. Then again, we've seen the Glazers saddle Manchester United with loads of debt and they've led the league since day one of this season and remain in the CL and FA Cup competitions. But will they be part of the Liverpool tradition? It'd be hard say that about the Glazer family.

What do you think? Is this bad for the English game or is it wrapped up in illogical sentimentality? Give us your thoughts.

US pair set for Liverpool takeover [World Soccer]

RAFA ON TAKEOVERS, TRANSFERS AND TOFFEES [Liverpool FC site]

-bl