A new NBA media rights deal worth almost £60 billion is “on the cusp” of being agreed, therefore taking Liverpool owners FSG a step closer to their newest sports venture.
Fenway Sports Group, who own Liverpool, are always looking for new ways to make money and for new projects to invest in.
One of their latest ideas has been to venture into basketball, more specifically the NBA which is likely to now expand from 30 to 32 teams.
FSG are known to want to invest in one of the expansion teams, tipped to be in Las Vegas and Seattle, but the new setups haven’t yet been confirmed to be going ahead.
According to the Liverpool Echo‘s Dave Powell, this was due to the league needing to agree a new media rights deal and collective bargaining agreement.
The journalist wrote: “This past week, the NBA looks to be on the cusp of agreeing a staggering £59.8 billion deal for the next set of rights over 11 years.
“Once that is agreed and delivered the attention will then turn to expansion, and FSG are already preparing themselves for that.”
It is the potential new franchise in Las Vegas that FSG are looking into, but the cost would “likely be closer to £4 billion” than the £1.5 billion initially muted.
To put that into context, Liverpool are valued by Forbes at £4.2 billion – that is over 14 times what FSG bought the club for in 2010.
It is believed that the Liverpool fan, basketball legend and FSG partner, LeBron James, would be a key part of this new Las Vegas basketball team, despite currently playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
John Henry and FSG have been continually attempting to diversify their sporting businesses over the last few years, with them also now looking into multi-football club ownership.
They also led a consortium with a £3 billion investment into golf’s PGA Tour and they, of course, still own the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins and NASCAR team RFK Racing.
Following his departure from Liverpool, Klopp told fans: “The owners do what owners do, surprise. The owners want to earn money. Sorry to tell you that.
“It’s not like they earn money on a daily basis. They invest something and that’s how the whole world goes. We should be really happy we have them and not guys who bought London clubs. I wouldn’t have survived a year at Liverpool.”
As ever there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to views around FSG. All we can do is give you the facts of what they are up to, for you to then form an opinion.