Ipswich co-owner criticizes MLS valuations and Apple deal

In an interview with the Business of Sport podcast, Ipswich Town co-owner Brett Johnson voiced his opinion on several topics. This included Major League Soccer’s media rights and valuations of MLS teams such as LAFC. He also touched on his experiences as an owner of USL team Phoenix Rising.

The American entrepreneur previously helped establish Phoenix Rising back in 2014. He then went on to invest in Ipswich after failing to secure a deal to buy Newcastle United.

Since Johnson arrived at the English club, the Tractor Boys have gone from League One to the Premier League. This coincided with the club hiring Kieran McKenna as their head coach.

In his appearances on the podcast, Johnson criticized the terms of Major League Soccer’s deal with Apple.

“You don’t have great media rights in Major League Soccer,” stated the businessman.

“You’ve got a headline number of $2.5 billion over 10 years behind a paywall on Apple that when you split it among 30 teams, and then you factor in production costs and everything else.”

“You can start to do the math and start to recognize that [media rights] is really not the panacea in terms of the economic model for a lot of clubs.”

American businessman is in favor of bringing pro/rel to MLS

Johnson also helped explain why foreign soccer leagues are more popular in the United States than the domestic MLS. “I think what’s going to come to the rescue relative to media rights for USL will be the adoption of promotion and relegation,” continued the investor. “Games of consequence in the United States is what’s missing in this market.”

“With the utmost respect to Major League Soccer, if you’re an American consumer of the Beautiful Game, you’re far more interested in watching the foreign leagues with their games of consequence where teams are going up or going down than two mid-table MLS teams that are both going to miss the playoffs because everyone makes the playoffs….


Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/ipswich-co-owner-criticizes-mls-valuations-and-apple-deal/

Author : Chris Moore

Publish date : 2024-09-07 16:26:51

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