🇺🇸 How American Investors Revitalised Ipswich Town

American investors have been swirling over English football for decades.

This week the ying-and-yang of American ownership was in plain sight for us all to see in the culmination of the Championship season.

The ying being Birmingham City (currently owned by Tom Brady) getting relegated to League 1. So far this season SIX different people have managed at least one Birmingham City match with Wayne Rooney famously being one of them.

An awful year for the Blues.

The yang however is Ipswich Town securing promotion to the Premier League.

Not many will know that Ipswich got taken over by an American consortium in 2021. As we will discuss today the turnaround in fortunes for them since that acquisition has been nothing short of remarkable.

Welcome to all the new subscribers to my newsletter and to my social platforms. I’m thrilled to have you as part of my journey. Today, we dive under the hood at Portman Road and we start with a recent history of Ipswich Town.

In 2021 Ipswich Town were a middling Championship club going nowhere. Their League positions at the time were very average:

• 17/18 - Championship: 12th

• 18/19 - Championship: 24th (relegated to League 1)

• 19/20 - League 1: 10th

• 20/21 - League 1: 9th

• 21/22 - League 1: 11th

• 22/23 - League 1: 2nd (promoted to Championship)

In February 2021, long-time owner Marcus Evans decided to sell Ipswich to a company called Gamechanger20 for £40m.

G20 had an interesting ownership structure:

• 90% owned by ORG

• 5% owned by Marcus Evans himself

• 5% owned by Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay and Mark Detmer

ORG is an American investment firm overseeing thousands of pensions. Johnson, Bakay and Detmer are three chaps who own the MLS “franchise” Phoenix Rising and have healthy experience with growing sports teams.

As the takeover completed, they quickly began getting to work. Changes included:

1. A multi-million-pound modernisation of the pitch including relaying of turf and the installation of undersoil heating

2. Significant redevelopment of the training ground at Playford Road

3. Redevelopment of the changing rooms and the dining hall for players and for staff

The work was so extensive it required the opening at the corner of the Cobbold and Sir Alf Ramsey stands to allow the machinery and specialist grounds staff onto the pitch and Ipswich had to play their entire pre-season away from home to allow the grass to grow!

It didn’t end there.

Investment came in recruitment too. The bold appointment of Kieran McKenna as manager was the notable move. It was his first ever managerial role having spent a long time as an assistant at Manchester United and marked a shift in intention from the clubs owners.

These moves were courageous and began to pay off quickly.

The biggest payoff came for G20 in the form of a fresh round of investment from another American Private Equity Fund called Bright Path Sports Partners (BPSP).

What’s crazy is ORG sold 40% of their 90% ownership for £105m! A RIDICULOUS return on investment in a very short amount of time. It also valued Ipswich (a then Championship club) very healthily.

Since then Ipswich have continued on their journey and are now a Premier League club having secured automatic promotion this past weekend.

They will now see their revenues skyrocket as a result of being in the top tier of English Football exactly how Brentford did on their rise to the top flight.

They will also see commercial revenues increase, alongside an uplift in Matchday revenue too.

A remarkable story in just three short years for McKenna, Gamechanger20 and the Ipswich Town faithful.

And one of the better success stories of foreign ownership in the English footballing pyramid.

Watch my breakdown of other examples of American ownership below too:

See you next week as always.