LeBron James to join FSG as full partner and become part owner of the Red Sox(among other FSG entities)

luckiestman

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I don’t have a lot of great input on this. I can say with certainty that the Twitter ‘only reads the first page’ stuff is a great joke regardless of its veracity or victim. It is conceptually a great idea for a joke.

LeBron buying a small piece of the Sox seems like it should be a mildly positive human interest story and not much more.
 

Sam Ray Not

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I’m fine with this, but if they were gonna sell a stake to a fabulously wealthy, all-time great baller from Akron, OH, could they not have picked the one who’s actually a lifelong Red Sox fan?

 

Stanley Steamer

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I think he's shown pretty consistently that business opportunity comes before "home towns" for him. Which is probably smart. He's not a fan, he's an absurdly wealthy businessman.
And, essentially, if you had the money and were looking for an opportunity in team ownership to come around, would you choose Boston or Cleveland? FSG have proven to be one of the most successful ownership groups, on and off the field, in world sports. The Indians, not so much.
I'm good with this news, provided the Yankee hat remains in a box on a shelf.
 

CaptainLaddie

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I’m fine with this, but if they were gonna sell a stake to a fabulously wealthy, all-time great baller from Akron, OH, could they not have picked the one who’s actually a lifelong Red Sox fan?

Except that's not how it works. LeBron wanted to buy into an MLB team -- and one that's enormously popular and historic. (Though, I'm guessing your post is tongue-in-cheek.)
 

CaptainLaddie

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Calling LeBron a dumbass has to be one of the worst posts here since "The AFC East is wide-open".
It's really god damn bad and ignorant. Putting on airs about reading some books doesn't make you a dumbass. LeBron has been remarkably on point in terms of marketing himself and his "brand" (as it is) after his choice to do "The Decision" (which, by the way, raised money for the Boys and Girls Clubs). But more than that, he's done a world of good in terms of his school and his new voting rights organization.

And, as I said upthread, he's basically squeaky clean. He's basketball's Dolly Parton.
 

lexrageorge

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There are things that LeBron has done that I'm not a fan of: The Decision nonsense, and his comments about Morey's criticism of China's human rights policies in Hong Kong. But if we scour the track record of any other celebrity with a fine tooth comb, I'm sure we'll also find things we don't like.

John Henry has had a business relationship with LeBron James for quite some time. This is one of those areas where I'm more than happy to trust Henry's judgment with regards to the value that LeBron's name and visibility brings to the FSG enterprise. And, yes, I'm sure it's a way for LeBron to eventually get controlling interest in an NBA (or WNBA) franchise some day. Far worse people have owned sports teams in the past; not reading a book seems pretty mild in comparison.

Cannot wait for the forum to explode when TB12 purchases a share.
 

voidfunkt

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If LeBron James was just a wealthy black man without a notable public image, would any of the people suddenly so concerned about this investment care?

This is a big positive for FSG. LeBron's a smart businessman.
 

lexrageorge

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How much of a share do you typically need to become a partner? Maybe the threshold for him is lower because of what else he brings to the table, but if FSG group is worth 6.6 billion as this article states, even a 1% share is 66 million. Which he probably has, but that's no small chunk of change.


https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/12/20/red-sox-owners-sit-atop-a-6-6-billion-sports-conglomerate/
While it doesn't directly answer your question, the article in this morning's Globe indicated that the LeBron would have the third largest interest after Henry and Werner:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/16/sports/fenway-sports-group-adds-lebron-james-partner-approves-deal-jump-start-plan-acquire-more-teams/

FSG principal owner John Henry (who also owns the Boston Globe) will retain control of the Boston-based sports conglomerate, with governance remaining unchanged among FSG chairman Tom Werner and FSG president Michael Gordon. Werner’s FSG stake remains second-largest, while Gordon’s shares will drop to fourth.
 

moondog80

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While it doesn't directly answer your question, the article in this morning's Globe indicated that the LeBron would have the third largest interest after Henry and Werner:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/16/sports/fenway-sports-group-adds-lebron-james-partner-approves-deal-jump-start-plan-acquire-more-teams/
Wow. I guess that could still be a very small share but either way, good for him. I too wish he'd be at least a little more critical of China, but he's got a lot of company among businesspeople who have had to make moral compromises to protect their interests.

Baseball and the Red Sox have gotten a little drab, hopefully he can inject a bit of fun back into it.
 

JimD

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Given the city's and the team's sorry history in regards to race relations, and the resulting negative public perception that comes from it, having one of the most famous and popular Black athletes deciding to take a minority ownership share is an enormously good thing IMO.
 

bankshot1

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I assume one day in the near future when we see LBJ watching a Sox game at Fenway wearing a Sox cap most of us will enjoy the moment. If he's still wearing a MFY hat or Lakers jersey all bets are off.
 

CaptainLaddie

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I assume one day in the near future when we see LBJ watching a Sox game at Fenway wearing a Sox cap most of us will enjoy the moment. If he's still wearing a MFY hat or Lakers jersey all bets are off.
He’s a smart guy. He knows he can’t wear a MFY hat. Lakers….that’s fair play. He IS a Laker. But he’s smart. So he won’t.
 

Beomoose

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I'm quite pleased with this overall. Yes, I'd prefer a Boston athlete were in this position over a long-time nemesis, yes the yellow jersey and MFY hat sting. But I don't expect LeBron to half-ass pro sports ownership, and I look forward to finding out what his joining FSG means in the long run.
 

YTF

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Indeed, I am confident that Lebron will not flop in this endeavor.
Not that you've implied this, but James isn't coming in here and making wholesale changes to the team or the organization. I'm guessing his stature will afford him louder voice and a unique perspective in many different areas compared to that of other limited partners and the ownership group took him on for that exact reason. I think both sides as well as the fan base should benefit this partnership.
 

Leskanic's Thread

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While it doesn't directly answer your question, the article in this morning's Globe indicated that the LeBron would have the third largest interest after Henry and Werner:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/16/sports/fenway-sports-group-adds-lebron-james-partner-approves-deal-jump-start-plan-acquire-more-teams/
I think that's misreading the article -- which I bring up only because I was looking for this answer earlier today. A longer quote from the article with emphasis added:

Fenway Sports Group’s ambitious growth plans took a major step forward Tuesday with the addition of two new partners, one a New York-based investment firm and the other one of the best known names in professional sports.

The parent company of the Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club approved a $750 million private investment that would make RedBird Capital Partners its third-largest partner, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The partnership will infuse cash that can help launch FSG’s efforts to acquire more teams.

The other new FSG partner needs no introduction: LeBron James.

James, one of the most recognizable, influential, and richest athletes on the global stage, now owns an undisclosed amount of FSG shares after previously holding an approximately 2 percent share of the Liverpool soccer franchise since 2011.
Seems like RedBird Capital Partners is the one with the third largest interest -- and Lebron is merely another partner, presumably with a much lower stake. If the latter is part of the former, that is not evident on the company's website or in the news article.
 

Devizier

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You can't blame him for being a Yankee fan; he grew up in Ohio, so there's no other baseball teams around that area, are there?
Not to dive too deeply into this, but it really is a different dynamic when you grow up without your dad in the house.

Adopting a rooting interest in a team that is on TV winning all the time makes a lot more sense in that context.
 

BroodsSexton

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Not to dive too deeply into this, but it really is a different dynamic when you grow up without your dad in the house.

Adopting a rooting interest in a team that is on TV winning all the time makes a lot more sense in that context.
The “broken home” theory of Yankee fandom. I love it. It explains a lot—even where parents were in the house.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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The Yankees fan thing isn't an issue at all; am I gonna have to dig up the pic of Brady in a Yankees hat?

LeBron's presence in FSG can only help the team IMO. He brings money and global appeal and recognition and all of those are good things.
 

bankshot1

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IMO this is about marketing, assocating one of the more visible sports icons on the planet with FSG. IMO2 his money is mostly irrelevant, there are a gazillion hedge fund guys who would have invested the $50-100 million (whatever) to get a piece of the Sox and Liverpool and associated bragging rights. I'm pretty sure this is not about future caoital calls. Given the recurrent theme we've unfortunately seen rear its ugly head over the years, the value to the sox might be the call LBJ makes to visible free agents on behalf of the Sox or the photos with him wearing his Sox cap posted globally.
 

nvalvo

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IMO this is about marketing, assocating one of the more visible sports icons on the planet with FSG. IMO2 his money is mostly irrelevant, there are a gazillion hedge fund guys who would have invested the $50-100 million (whatever) to get a piece of the Sox and Liverpool and associated bragging rights. I'm pretty sure this is not about future caoital calls. Given the recurrent theme we've unfortunately seen rear its ugly head over the years, the value to the sox might be the call LBJ makes to visible free agents on behalf of the Sox or the photos with him wearing his Sox cap posted globally.
This seems right. We want a GIF clip of Lebron in a Boston hat highfiving fans at Petco after Jeter Downs hits a bases clearing double to take a late lead in game three of the 2024 World Series to become a widely-used internet meme that means "something awesome just happened."

It's a very specific scenario, admittedly, but I think you'll agree that's what we want.
 

Devizier

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The “broken home” theory of Yankee fandom. I love it. It explains a lot—even where parents were in the house.
Its really not that.

Hard to believe for those of us from Boston, but most of the country doesn’t really have intense fan loyalty to the geographically closest team. And certainly not across several sports.
 
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Lose Remerswaal

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LeBron is just continuing his upward journey in the complex. I don't think he will be a savior.
So now I get it. You don't like LeBron. I've never been a fan of him as a player either, as he has beaten "my team" many times. But saying that this is related to prices going up is just a very odd take.

I respect his recent Social Justice stances. I also respect his intentions to look into team ownership as the next arc of his career. I expect he has insights the current ownership group doesn't have, and I expect he will make the Red Sox a better team and a better representative of the city, the state, and the country.