With all the vast amounts of money the PIF control, it was often speculated that they could have pivoted to a ‘big six’ club were one available instead of buying Newcastle United, but Amanda Staveley has put idea that to rest.
Why spend billions?
Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football summit in London today, Staveley touched on why PIF chose to buy Newcastle over one of the ‘bigger’ clubs with one simple statement reported by The Evening Standard: “We didn’t go for a Tottenham, Chelsea or Liverpool, [because] why spend billions?”
Without even going into the specifics of what it was about Newcastle that attracted Staveley to the project in the first place, that statement shows how business-savvy those involved are.
At £300m Newcastle were a relative bargain when you look at the £4.25bn spent by Todd Boehly at Chelsea and the price put on Manchester United.
As Staveley said, why spend billions? Newcastle were always branded a sleeping giant, and PIF’s takeover poked that giant awake, and already we can see the turnaround in the club’s fortunes both on and off the pitch.
A better sense of achievement
That £300m could eventually look like a drop in the ocean compared to what the club could be worth in a few years if the project goes according to plan. With a couple of years playing in the Champions League, hopefully with a few items of silverware adorning the trophy cabinet, the club’s value will start to sky-rocket.
The PIF’s return on investment could potentially be huge. If you’re already starting at the top, buying a club for £4bn, then where else is there to go? No doubt it will be profitable, I can’t imagine Todd Boehly bought Chelsea for billions to run it at a loss, but there must be more satisfaction to be gained from turning a club from a £300m outlay to something worth billions.
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