Tom Brady served 10-year financial warning over Birmingham City investment as experts raise questions on NFL icon’s move
Tom Brady made waves after being announced as a minority owner of Birmingham City FC, a soccer club currently playing in the second tier of English football.
While few saw the move coming, Brady moved swiftly on his investment, dropping by to watch the team in action against Leeds United a couple of weeks ago.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion was brought on board as a 'Chairman of the Advisory Board.' The club stated that he will apply his 'extensive leadership experience and expertise across several components of the Club.'
As pictures were taken and promotions were posted on all fronts of social media, the retired quarterback was given pause this week by a fresh report on his new investment.
Finance expert Rob Wilson, who's a professor of economics at Sheffield Business School, told Grosvenor Sport (via Goal):
"There’s a lot of competition in and around the city for them to get around before they can start to make some strong financial returns. So I don’t think a 10-year time horizon is excessive, I think it’s quite modest."
Wilson added that Tom Brady's Birmingham City FC will require a fair bit of promotion and a degree of tight cost control to have respectable finances in the league.
Everything we know about Tom Brady's investment in Birmingham City FC
While the exact amount of his ownership stake in the soccer club hasn't been made public, we can safely assume the number is well below 51% since Brady was officially announced as a minority owner in the franchise.
The move wasn't widely greeted with optimism, though.
English investigative journalist Martin Calladine told the Boston Globe:
"I think it’s problematic because what’s being done there is it’s obscuring the true nature of the ownership of these businesses.”
Calladine said he thinks Brady is a 'paid pitchman' for the ownership group led by Tom Wagner's Knighthead Capital Management LLC.
Tom Brady's other team ownerships in the spotlight
Early this year, the seven-time Super Bowl champion wrapped up a deal to become a minority owner in the WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces. Since then, Brady has also worked his way into the ownership group of the affiliated franchise, the Las Vegas Raiders.
His Raiders ownership has not yet been made official, however. A total of 24 owners will have to first vote through the move before he's named in the ownership group.
Outside the NFL, Tom Brady has a team in the E1 Series, an electric raceboat championship.