I was trying to find some information on the historical profits/losses of MLS clubs, and I stumbled upon this article:
http://www.thisisamericansoccer.com/...-barometer-39/
Is SUM MLS? MLS, SUM? I start thinking about money again. Who makes what, where does it come from, who is making out, who is getting the short stack?
In that same piece, SUM President Doug Quinn said that “the objective of securing that property (World Cup English-language broadcast rights) was to secure the stability of soccer in the United States and to assure that English-language television was available for the soccer fan. Hopefully, the benefits of the U.S. national team and frankly, the growth of soccer in the country would then impact the development of Major League Soccer. That’s why we do anything and everything.”
So everything SUM does is to impact the development of MLS. Hmmm. MLS profitability isn’t public either.Hmmmmmmm...Now where have I seen this type of structure before...If SUM includes “MLS investor-operators”–that term given to what are essentially franchise owners under the MLS single entity structure–than besides being able to apply for jobs at both places on one website, this means that a franchise expansion fee goes at least in part to the purchasing of some share of SUM. According to MLS, each group of MLS investor-operators has a seat/seats on the Board of Governors and a share in SUM and SUM’s profits.
http://www.correntewire.com/great_am...bble_machine_0Beginning a pattern that would repeat itself over and over again, Goldman got into the investment-trust game late, then jumped in with both feet and went hog-wild. The first effort was the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation; the bank issued a million shares at $100 apiece, bought all those shares with its own money and then sold 90 percent of them to the hungry public at $104. The trading corporation then relentlessly bought shares in itself, bidding the price up further and further. Eventually it dumped part of its holdings and sponsored a new trust, the Shenandoah Corporation, issuing millions more in shares in that fund - which in turn sponsored yet another trust called the Blue Ridge Corporation. In this way, each investment trust served as a front for an endless investment pyramid: Goldman hiding behind Goldman hiding behind Goldman. Of the 7,250,000 initial shares of Blue Ridge, 6,250,000 were actually owned by Shenandoah - which, of course, was in large part owned by Goldman Trading.
The end result (ask yourself if this sounds familiar) was a daisy chain of borrowed money, one exquisitely vulnerable to a decline in performance anywhere along the line ....