There are reports that Keith Harris, Chairman of Seymour Harris Bank, who are brokering the sale of the Newcastle club for Mike Ashley, was in America last night.
Philip Anschutz – owns several American sports teams including LA Galaxy
And it has been thought for a while that one of the supposed four consortia in for Newcastle was American based.
We has wondered who the American consortium could be and had mentioned Paul Allen, who owns some American sports team,s and is based in Seattle. There was also the possibility of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison being involved, but he’ probably too busy sailing his yacht in preparation for an America’s Cup challenge against holders Alinghi
However, one potential American who was said to be heavily involved in trying to buy Newcastle last October is LA Galaxy owner Philip Anschutz.
Philip is head of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which is a sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation, and were responsible for tying up David Beckham with his LA Galaxy deal.
The company owns or operates several major entertainment and sporting venues, including Staples Center and the Home Depot Center, the XL Center and Rentschler Field. In England they own the Manchester Evening News Arena, and currently operate the The O2
The company also owns a number of sports teams, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, Houston Dynamo (50 %), Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Riptide, Manchester Monarchs, Eisbären Berlin, Hamburg Freezers, 49 % of Hammarby IF Fotboll, as well as interests in the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks.
With Keith Harris said to be in America right now, it is thought that something may be agreed in the next few days, but the two consortia who are bidding are said to be about £20M short of Mike Ashley’s asking price of £100M.
Whether there is a further payment to add the the initial £80M, we don’t know. And since none of the consortia seem willing to pay the full £100M that Mike is asking for, we suppose there is a possibility Mike will not sell – but we don’t even want to think about that. 🙁
But certainly it seemed that Anschutz was more than interested in Newcastle late last year, when they were initially put up for sale, although he did deny his interest in November.
But it may be he hasn’t been put off by Newcastle’s relegation, albeit that their price has been reduced dramatically, but the club is bargain right now at £100M.
Anschutz were the company who were producing the Michael Jackson concerts in London, before the singer’s untimely death last Thursday.
Phil, who is now 69, is said to be worth around $8M (around £5M), he was born in Kansas and now resides in Denver.
There is no solid evidence that Keith is meeting with Phil, but he is certainly qualified to own Newcastle as is outspoken Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Chairman of HDNet, an HDTV cable network. Mark is worth around $2B and is a big sports fan.
We suspect an American owner will finally buy Newcastle, just a hunch, so we are at least trying to cover those who are qualified, and we think Philip would be a good owner for Newcastle.
Whether he would want Alan Shearer as manager we have no idea.
Comments welcome.
44 comments so far
Stuart79
Jun 28, 2009 at 8:38 AM
Comment #1Shouldn’t he be filling in insurances documents at the minute?
SteveNUFC
Jun 28, 2009 at 8:59 AM
Comment #2the way tings are going i would rather Fat Mike got nothing from newcastle and we go into administration..
at least then he cant say no to new buyers..!
i hope you get hit by a bus mike and die you cock
SteveNUFC
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Comment #3he not worth much though is he..! 5m
RyanToon
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:17 AM
Comment #4worth 5m????
geordie deb
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Comment #5should be £5bn
ginkoh
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Comment #6I have no idea who will be our next owner, It’s all just speculation now. But I want to see the resolution of our situation as fast as possible.
moses
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Comment #7I’m curious to know why, all of a sudden, you ‘expect an American consortium to be buying Newcastle’? I haven’t seen, read or heard anything to support this theory. One more thing… If, indeed, this American did buy Newcastle, do you really think that promoting movies, such as the chronicles of narnia, has an advantage when it comes to running a football club? Mike Ashley sells childrens sportswear, but this hasn’t necessarily translated into nufc being a success has it? I thought it was an odd, completely non related remark, that’s all.
Ed Harrison
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Comment #8moses – are you the one rumored to take us to the promised land? Philip’s business dealings at least have some experience of running sports teams, and it’s a hunch I have that an American is interested- simply because it’s a real good deal for any buyer right now – we’ll see what happens – hopefully very soon.
the holy grail
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Comment #9hey guys my mate from london seems to be 100% certain that the takeover from america is Philip Anschutz (ed you should have heard of him) dont know if that is good or bad????????????
(this was posted yesterday)
any1 know what he is like as an owner ???
jim
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:44 AM
Comment #10deb-wot u deein on here this early on a sunday? u sh*t the bed like? lol
jim
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Comment #11ive been up since ten past five!-if ide had known u were floatin about ide have came on here to try n chat u up!-oops did ya hubby see that? lol
the holy grail
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:59 AM
Comment #12ed news of the world says keith harris is in america aswell so you are right there
bill
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Comment #13Talksport radio were interviewing one of the main men at First Artists the other day and he said that Mike Ashley was expecting two bids this week, probably by Wednesday and these bids would not include any offers from the North East. In fact he said one was American and the other was from the Middle East. I have a feeling that this is probably true because he also rubbished the Friday deadline which turned out to be correct.
Stuart79
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Comment #14Bill I never heard him say anything abiut the takeover. When was he on TalkSport?
I heard someone from there on the radio a couple of weeks ago but he was only talking about the players.
bill
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Comment #15I think that it was last Wednesday or Thursday.
andyglostoon
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Comment #16i think a comment from an earlier post concerning Philip Anschutz(someones mate said)borught this post on
Toonmania
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Comment #17i’m glad he is worth 5bn not 5 mill otherwise he would be worth less than me!!! but i can’t see it being Philip Anschutz seeing that he is currently in london, trying to sort out the mess his AEG company is going to be in after paying out for the refunded tickets which is thought to be in the regien of 6 times the annual turnover of AEG, so there might be trouble ahead for them
TERRYHIBBETONTHEWING
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Comment #18ED-A GLIMMER OF HOPE
REF -My post yesterday and BILL(POST 13) today,Tony Evans did say on Talksport that one of the bids was US based and as he is the Football Editor with the Times I would think that this speculation has to have some credibility.Towards the end of the conversation he did state that Shearer would probably be appointed as manager.
bill
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Comment #19I’m not saying if I’m in favour of Philip Anschutz taking over but his companies are certainly involved in a fair amount of sport, this from Wikipedia:
“Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has stakes in two U.S. soccer teams, including the MLS’s Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo; the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings; the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs; the ECHL’s Reading Royals; the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers; Staples Center; Home Depot Center; Major League Lacrosse LA Riptide; the Swedish soccer team Hammarby IF, Swedish hockey team Djurgårdens IF; the German ice hockey teams Hamburg Freezers and Eisbären Berlin; and the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. In the UK they own the Manchester Evening News Arena, the London Arena, and the Millennium Dome which has been redeveloped as a multi-purpose arena under the name “The O2″. ”
He is hardly new to the sporting arena.
TERRYHIBBETONTHEWING
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Comment #20STUART79
TALKSPORT yesterday morning,Tony Evans was speaking on the Alan Brazil show from about 1005 to 1045.NUFC was one of the main topics,viz the buyout and manager situation.
waddler
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Comment #21l hope Ashley doesn’t pull the plug on the deal if at last solid bids are in from top quality groups, but l would not put it past him and we would really be in the s***e.
AngerOfTheNorth
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Comment #22Without being negative, could being part of a big sports club network be a negative thing? Could we end up having our budget trimmed, or even having money taken from the club in order to feed another club? Or could we have players pulled away and sent over to the Galaxy?
Then again we appear to be bigger than Galaxy and Hammarby so we could end up getting first refusal on their best players..?
Rodzilla
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:52 AM
Comment #23From:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/philip-anschutz-the-westerner-407105.html
…”also used this vast wealth and influence to promote his conservative Christian views, to campaign against gay marriage and to fund an organisation that questions Darwin’s theory of evolution. His money also pays for another group based in Washington to attack and lobby against liberal elements of the US media and to rail about alleged indecency on television…”…”
He sounds a right laugh. I’m sure he’ll grow to love the good old Geordie sense of humour though.
Rodzilla
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Comment #24…apparently he also has a large stake in the Cleveland Steamers
Chris G
Jun 28, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Comment #25It’s probably the usual tabloid rubbish, but the Mirror is reporting that Ashley is expecting two bids this week – they say that FFS is leading one of the groups and that the other is believed to have Geordie roots, but involve overseas finance. IF they’re right it doesn’t sound like an American group is close to making a bid yet
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/06/28/mike-ashley-expects-to-receive-two-newcastle-takeover-bids-this-week-115875-21477347/
Rodzilla
Jun 28, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Comment #26Chris G, unless the “overseas finance” is from the USA.
Rodzilla
Jun 28, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Comment #27…I wonder if our very own Alan Shearer has involvement with any of the consortia?
Rangerman
Jun 28, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Comment #28the way tings are going i would rather Fat Mike got nothing from newcastle and we go into administration..
……
That’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on here, even worse that Partizan’s match fixing theory.
Chris G
Jun 28, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Comment #29Rod – quite so, but I didn’t think that Philip Anschutz had geordie roots, so I’m wondering why the Mirror would mention something like that if the bid were coming from the Anschutz Corporation or one of it’s subsidiaries
ps. that was an interesting article in the Independent, btw. Yeah, he doesn’t exactly sound like a barrel of laughs, does he 😉
Chris G
Jun 28, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Comment #30…I wonder if our very own Alan Shearer has involvement with any of the consortia?
Hey, wouldn’t that be an interesting scenario? Two rival consortia bidding for the Toon – one headed by Fat Freddie and the other by Big Al
At least there wouldn’t be any doubt about who the next manager will be 🙂
Rodzilla
Jun 28, 2009 at 1:35 PM
Comment #31…or FFS and AS were in cahoots as one consortia Chris? It’s a while ago now, but I’m sure I can remember someone (maybe a taxi driver) coming on here about 6 months ago to say the club would be sold in the Summer to an all NE consortium including FFS and AS.
Who knows eh?………..
batty
Jun 28, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Comment #32for me fat fred and shearer would be the dream partership
punk skunk...
Jun 28, 2009 at 1:58 PM
Comment #33batty,
ffs certainly wants back in!..
batty
Jun 28, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Comment #34punk skunk… // Jun 28, 2009 at 1:58 PM
batty,
ffs certainly wants back in!..
<<< a na m8 how would you feel if he came with shearer
punk skunk...
Jun 28, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Comment #35If they were also backed by someone with plenty of deng…It could be cool…Because, ffs does know the Toon inside out, hopefully, he’s learned from last time to keep his trap shut sometimes & listen to the coach, which i think he would with Shearer!..
…We just don’t need him tryin’ to pick who to buy!..
…But with a moneyman there too, might sort that out!..
telsave
Jun 28, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Comment #36It would appear that this guy is personally worth $7.5 billion according to Forbes he is the 31st richest guy in the States, his wealth coming from oil and around 100 companies his group own or have an interest in including the MEN at Manchester and the O2 where he was promoting the Michael Jackson concerts. Refunding the ticket money will not strip his company as he would be insured against the loss of revenue especially as MJ was not too happy about doing the concerts that had been arranged. Whether he is interested in our little club who knows we can but wait in the sidelines and hope for the best.
chuck
Jun 28, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Comment #37Hope the rumor`s right, as most of the US based teams owned by the conglomorate are well run organizations.
Yeah , the guy`s a bit controversial from a political and religious perspective, which has had little or no effect on the operation of any of his sport franchise and therefore is really not a factor.
Positives, he has had major experience in operating pro. sports organizations.
Will bring a professional approach to the club.
Could have the club back where it belongs in a season as I
chuck
Jun 28, 2009 at 4:59 PM
Comment #38continued:
assume he intends to make money with the club, which requires a PL presence.
Would be pleased if this deal goes through, though he has been mentioned wrongly as a prospective buyer earlier.
At this stage I would allmost accept FFS, so in comparison this guy looks good and he has certainly” got dosh”.
Tom Mo.
Jun 28, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Comment #39well NOTW really couldn’t fabricate that Harris was in America could they? I mean SOMEONE could figure out where he went, or if he went out of the country, am I right? …
So at least there’s big enough interest for him to leave the country.
Sawbuck
Jun 28, 2009 at 6:43 PM
Comment #40Unlikely the bidders are from USA. The club isn’t their bag. I think the bid from the ME is the only one in the running.