8/30/2023 0 Comments Red sox tickets game 5It wasn’t long after Henry got the Red Sox humming along as a predictively profitable business that he began to think bigger. The big unknown, however, is whether Henry can continue to pursue his grand, global ambitions for Fenway Sports Group without jeopardizing the loyalty of fans who only want to make sure their team drubs the Yankees every year. It is understandable that there’s some nostalgia for a time when Red Sox ownership-like Boston itself-felt like a more intimate, local affair. Once a hardscrabble, working-class, provincial city, Boston has become a modern, global metropolis populated by finance, pharma, and tech types. In many ways, this new incarnation of the Red Sox-a team led by a cadre of sophisticated dealmakers toying with global expansion-mirrors the trajectory of Boston itself. “The popularity of the team peaked in ’03, ’04, ’05,” he adds. Though Henry has proved himself to be an excellent owner in Shaughnessy’s eyes (winning will do that), even Shaughnessy acknowledges that the relationship between the Red Sox and its devotees has become strained in recent years. “People don’t like management now,” says Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy. Much of the disapproval was linked to the trade of Betts, a move that three-quarters of people rated poorly. A survey conducted by Channel Media & Market Research last fall found that just 5 percent of fans believed Henry was handling his team better than any other owner in New England, putting the Red Sox behind even the Revolution (that’s Bob Kraft’s soccer club, in case you forgot). After taking control of the team and the New England Sports Network, Henry and his partners went on to found a sports management company as well as gobble up a sizable chunk of the real estate surrounding Fenway Park and a NASCAR team, all before dropping about $480 million for Liverpool’s historic club.Īt first, Red Sox Nation treated Henry’s new toys as an afterthought when ownership was willing to spend whatever it took to win another banner, but last year’s trade of Mookie Betts-because the Sox wanted to steer clear of the nine-figure deal that the former MVP eventually signed in Los Angeles-has created a new rift between the people who own the team and the people who watch it on TV and in the stands. In a market like Boston, that’s not going to fly.”Īs nervous as it makes some Red Sox fans, Henry’s focus on asset acquisition is nothing new. “When you have investors to please,” he says, “they only care about profits. Those machinations are cause for concern among many observers, including Barstool Sports’ Jared Carrabis. The resounding prediction in the financial world is that Henry’s sights are set not on improving the Red Sox, but rather on purchasing another team-most likely a big-name European soccer club to go along with his last large purchase, Liverpool FC. It would be tempting to wish that Henry and FSG chairman Tom Werner would channel those new millions into the Olde Towne Team, but don’t get your hopes up. In mid-March, the fruits of all those labors became public: Not only has FSG landed $750 million from RedBird Capital Partners, they are bringing on NBA superstar LeBron James as an investment partner. Throughout the pandemic, Henry has reportedly been exploring a variety of novel ways to raise cash for the team’s parent company, Fenway Sports Group, first by trying to use a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, known as a SPAC, to take the company public, and, after that deal fell through in January, eliciting investments from private-equity firms. Now, the Red Sox are serving as collateral for Henry’s next big move. This year, the team was valued at $3.3 billion-a five-fold increase. The sticker price when Henry acquired the Sox in 2002 was a respectable $660 million. Over the past two decades, the Red Sox have become a veritable moneymaking machine. And it’s not necessarily one that includes another title for his baseball team anytime soon. Whatever sense of return to the pre-COVID era a new season might hint at, though, it seems principal owner John Henry’s attention is fixed squarely on the future. April’s opening-day festivities will include real, live fans-albeit only a few thousand-at Fenway Park for the first time in 18 months. Despite the past year’s turmoil and travails, a new corps of prospects is taking grounders at spring training down in Florida this month. For Red Sox die-hards, the turn of the calendar to March represents an invitation to officially begin obsessing about the upcoming season.
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