From Milan to London, European football continues to attract investors from all over the world eager to enjoy the glamour of the ‘beautiful game’. But a Chinese-American businessman chose a modest town in Yorkshire, England, to get into the game. – and even a Hollywood connection.
Last year, a consortium led by Chien Lee, founder, chairman and CEO of NewCity Capital, completed the acquisition of Barnsley, a team in English football’s second tier. It was Lee’s second foray into the sport, having reshaped the fortunes of French football. Club OGC Nice. La season finished third in the country’s top department, Ligue 1, and qualified for Europe’s elite club festival for the first time in just 60 years.
But why Barnsley?
“I love the culture of Barnsley,” Lee told FORBES in an interview in Hong Kong. “The club is the city’s greatest asset; It’s a small town, so the football club is its identity.
“My aim is to work with the fans, to work with the council, to work together to promote Barnsley and the city at the same time. We will try to ‘internationalize’ Barnsley, as we did with Nice. Before investing in Nice, few people in Asia had heard of it, now, in Asia, in China, other people know about the club.
He also highlighted its prospects for success in India. “There are over a billion people here and they have this historic relationship with England. So I see it as a big market, if we can attract more sponsorships from India (and China) to Barnsley, then we will improve.
The “Moneyball” model
However, the Barnsley project is made rather more interesting because one of Lee’s fellow investors is Billy Beane, the inspiration behind the 2011 movie Moneyball. The movie tells the story of how Beane — played by Brad Pitt — brought success to the Oakland Athletics, a Major League baseball team in the U.S., by analyzing data to scout and recruit undervalued players around the league.
Lee said Beane’s involvement was due to the fact that he was a huge football fan; he was under pressure that the former baseball player would not play a concrete role at Barnsley. “Billy is passionate about soccer, but he’s focused on baseball. “We were assigned a full-time assignment with the A’s. “Beane most recently served as executive vice president of baseball operations in Oakland.
But Barnsley will be using Beane’s ideas. “We’re going to use his philosophy. We’ll expand what Barnsley did in the past couple of years,” he said, referring to the previous owner’s use of big data to run certain aspects of the club — such as player recruitment. “Their strategy was focused on England. So now we’re going to expand this base to Germany, France, Holland, Portugal… South Africa. This will involve analyzing the players, and how to pick players, using big data.” And all with the aim of making Barnsley punch above its weight economically by identifying players with potential that other clubs miss or under-appreciate.
Beane himself is no stranger to football; he set about adapting his Moneyball system to analyze the attributes of footballers and games after the Oakland owners took over the franchise for MLS team, San Jose. He has also played an advisory role at Dutch football club, AZ Alkmaar.
Stability
So what defines success at Barnsley?
“First of all, we’re going to stabilize ourselves in The Championship,” said Lee. Last season, Barnsley finished 14th in the league, after winning promotion from League One (English football’s third tier) the previous year. However, they currently sit in 19th position in The Championship after 29 games — perilously close to the relegation zone. Dropping down a division would have serious financial implications for the club.
This is anything that baffles Lee. ” I’m a long-term investor,” he continued. “So there’s no urgency. Let’s stabilize ourselves and then move forward step by step.
This strategy stands in stark contrast to many other foreign investors lately in English football, where huge sums of money are poured into big-name players and good luck is expected overnight. Clubs in England’s most sensible division, the Premier League, spent around $610. million to sign new players in January alone, according to Deloitte in a report via BBC Sport. Recent reports imply that increased spending has also particularly accelerated the speed of hiring and firing managers in English football.
No matter what business Lee’s company invests in, from retail to real estate, his message is simple: “You want to know what to buy, how to buy, and do it smart. “
“You don’t just want to buy a club, a hotel or a media company. . . You want to know after you buy it what your purpose is. Is there a synergy with your current business? To me, the explanation of why I buy it is not the explanation of why others may buy. I see the business opportunity, I invest in other sectors – hospitality, sports. . . I like challenges. If there are no challenges, I don’t invest.