Whether it is telling jokes, playing the drums or hitting a ball, timing is everything. It’s the same with investing. Take the example of Ipswich Town .
Relegated from the Premier League in 2002, they would spend almost two decades in English football’s second tier before going down again, to League One , five years ago. Advertisement For most of this period, they were owned by a local businessman, Marcus Evans. But in April 2021, Evans sold the club to Gamechanger 20, a joint venture between a pension fund from Arizona and a group of American sports investors.
They paid £30million ($39m at the current exchange rate) and Evans wrote off £100m in debt. Three years and one promotion later , Ipswich’s U.S.
owners grew to include Bright Path Sports Partners, a private equity firm from Cleveland, Ohio. According to the press release, Bright Path was making an investment “of up to £105million” for around 40 per cent of the club. That investment appeared to value Ipswich at north of £250m — a record for the Championship and not far off what top-flight Newcastle United went for in 2021.
Two months on, however, Ipswich secured a second straight promotion and were a Championship side no longer . That price no longer looked quite so lumpy. Now, for the first time, the men who made that deal explain how it happened, why they think they got a bargain and where the Ipswich Town “rocket ship” goes next.
GO DEEPER How do you value a football club? The Athletic : Take me b.
