Todd Boehly Thread

[Fulham Broadway 17,092]

Hes a ticket tout...

''A website co-owned by Todd Boehly is involved in the “unauthorised” resale of tickets to Chelsea matches and other Premier League games to foreign tourists, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

Vivid Seats, a US-based online marketplace of which Boehly is both an investor and director, does not allow fans based in Britain to buy or sell tickets – a practice which would be illegal.''

Sometimes they get punched outside SB.....

[KEVINAA 110]

 

TODD BOEHLY BOUGHT TRENT ROCKETS FROM CRICKET THE HUNDRED

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Todd Boehly brushes off Chelsea fan criticism as ‘par for the course’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6164691/2025/02/27/todd-boehly-Chelsea-supporters/

Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has brushed off fans’ criticism as “par for the course” and refused to guarantee the club’s ownership structure will be the same this time next year.

Speaking to a packed room at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit in London on Thursday evening, Boehly also said strikers are hard to sign and that you cannot find them in a “grocery store”.

Before Chelsea’s game against Southampton on Tuesday night, around 200 supporters protested against Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s ownership of the club.

The protest included negative chants towards Boehly and Clearlake Capital and positive songs for Roman Abramovich, the club’s former owner.

GO DEEPER

Fan discontent at Stamford Bridge makes Chelsea's biggest challenge clearer than ever

“I just think it is par for the course,” Boehly said when asked about the fans’ unrest. “The sooner you learn you are not going to keep all the people happy all the time, the freedom shows up.

“We are just trying to execute a plan and recognise things aren’t linear, and we are trending in the right direction. The trend is moving in the right direction and that’s the thing that really matters.

“In June, it will be three years in charge. That’s not a lot of time. It’s a whirlwind of activity and a steep learning curve, but I think that’s also a good thing.”

Boehly was also asked about the state of his relationship with Clearlake Capital, the club’s majority shareholder and co-founder Behdad Eghbali. The Athletic reported at the beginning of September that the relationship was in tatters.

“I can’t predict the future,” Boehly said when asked if the ownership structure will look the same this time next year. “We have agreed on a strategy and a way forward and stuff is getting done.” Boehly was asked if he would buy Chelsea in the same way again knowing what he knows now. “I don’t look in the rear-view mirror,” he said.

 

Boehly was speaking at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit in London on Thursday (Credit: Dan Sheldon)

Boehly and Clearlake have spent more than £1billion on transfer fees since acquiring the club in June 2022 and have signed players on long-term deals, some up to eight years. One advantage of such contracts was that Chelsea could amortise the transfer fee over the length of that deal. However, fellow Premier League clubs voted through a limit on the number of years the cost of a transfer fee can be spread, in relation to a contract, to five years.

“Yeh, a seven-year contract is really a five-year contract,” Boehly said when asked about their squad-building policies.

“The reality is, 95 per cent of the time, you’re going to have to make a decision, or you shoot yourself in the foot. So you either are able to come to terms and agree to an extension or you agree there’s greener pastures out there and that’s the business you’re in and that’s life. I think that that’s the the reality of the model.”

Boehly, who is also co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, then went on to speak about the importance of a “superstar captain” with great sporting sides across sports. “When you read about the teams that are the dynasties over the years, they had superstar captains that really led them and what you’re trying to find is, you know, how do I find that superstar captain?”

During the wide-ranging discussion that included his thoughts on how the Premier League should sell its media rights and whether an independent regulator is good for football. He was also asked about building a squad of players.

Boehly was questioned on what he believes has been the most misunderstood part of his and Clearlake Capital’s ownership of the club.

“I think the most misunderstood thing is that we’re thinking about it as measured in years and and you’ve got to think both short and long term,” Boehly said.

“But we’re focused on the combination of both of them and seeking the best possible way to execute on that. It’s a balancing act in order to figure out how to do it.

“Strikers are hard to find, right? You don’t go into the grocery store and say, ‘I am going to get a striker’. It is an amazing skill set and you have to have the right mentality.”

“When you read about the teams that are the dynasties over the years, right, they had superstar captains that really led them and what you’re trying to find is, you know, how do I find that superstar captain.”

Chelsea are next in action next Thursday against Copenhagen in the Europa Conference League last-16 first leg. They are currently fifth in the Premier League.

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Chelsea fans call for Premier League to take action over Boehly’s connection to ticket resale site

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6232453/2025/03/26/Chelsea-fans-boehly-vivid-seats/

The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) has written to Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, regarding Todd Boehly’s involvement with Vivid Seats.

Boehly, a minority shareholder and chairman at Chelsea, is a director at Vivid Seats, a website that allows the resale of Premier League match tickets — including to Chelsea games — for thousands of pounds above face value.

The American ticketing company is listed on the Premier League’s website as an “unauthorised ticket website”, with the league urging fans to “exercise extreme caution” when using it and other ticket exchange companies.

In the open letter sent to Masters, the CST penned that “Mr Boehly’s connection with Vivid Seats is totally inappropriate and significantly undermines the efforts of Chelsea FC, The Premier League, and The Metropolitan Police to combat ticket touting”.

A CST spokesperson described Boehly’s connection to Vivid Seats as a “breach of trust” and a “clear conflict of interest”.

“Vivid Seats continues to list Premier League tickets for above face value at significantly inflated rates,” a CST spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Not only does this undermine the efforts of Chelsea FC, The Premier League, and The Metropolitan Police to combat ticket touting, but Vivid Seats contravenes the Chelsea FC ticketing policy, and is explicitly named by the Premier League as a known unauthorised ticket website.

“We believe that now is the time for the Premier League to act swiftly and ensure that a major shareowner of a Premier League club ceases facilitating the sale of tickets for significantly above face value.”

 

(Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Tickets advertised on Vivid Seats for Chelsea’s upcoming game against Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on April 3 range from £144 to over £2,000, while tickets for the match at home to Liverpool on May 2 are priced between £442 and over £3,200.

UK-based supporters are unable to use Vivid Seats or other ticket exchange sites similar to it to buy tickets to top-flight games due it being against British law to resell tickets in this manner.

The CST’s letter to Masters was supported by the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), who said, “It is clear the Premier League needs to take action.”

“Clubs, supporters’ groups, the police and the Premier League itself has worked hard in recent years to combat ticket touting – there is no excuse for a club owner to be involved in such activity,” a spokesperson for the FSA said.

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Boehly has co-owned Chelsea with Clearlake Capital since May 2022, and his Eldridge Industries private investment firm invested in Vivid Seats in 2021.

The American billionaire has been a director at Vivid Seats since the investment, meaning he passed the Premier League’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test with them knowing about his involvement.

In February 2024, Chelsea posted on its official website that they are “committed to tackling ticket touting”.

“We identify individuals who fraudulently harvest tickets/memberships to sell at vastly inflated prices, investigate both online and offline illegal ticket sales, and use a range of tactics and enforcement measures that help to combat ticket touting,” the statement read.

“Supporters found to be selling their ticket for more than face value will be subject to a club investigation and sanctions.”

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Todd Boehly now says he could sell Chelsea for a profit amid twist in £2.5bn Clearlake takeover row

https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/news/todd-boehly-now-says-he-could-sell-Chelsea-for-a-profit-amid-twist-in-2-5bn-clearlake-takeover-row/

Ask anyone in sports business about Chelsea’ Todd Boehly and they’ll tell you he is a visionary who can see around corners and is a hawk when it comes to smart investments.

It’s a characterisation that is oceans apart from how the private equity titan is portrayed in the British press, where he is seen as the bumbling, bombastic American bulldog with more money than sense.

The truth is somewhere between the two extremes. Todd Boehly’s record at Chelsea has been far from flattering but you don’t get where he has without a potent mix of ruthlessness, genius and humility.

Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images

As far as billionaires go, Boehly is pretty self-made. He is from a relatively affluent background, yes, but now presides over a highly diversified empire of sports, insurance and tech assets worth £6.5bn.

That includes his 13 per cent stake in Chelsea, who he bought in a consortium with Clearlake Capital in the summer of 2022 in a deal worth – the headlines said – £4.25bn.

In reality, the transaction with Roman Abramovich – or the representatives handling the sale after his assets were frozen by the UK government – was worth far less than that.

Chelsea ownership diagram Credit: Adam Williams/GRV Media/The Chelsea Chronicle

Incidentally, the proceeds from that sale, which were earmarked for humanitarian causes, are still frozen in a UK escrow account to this day.

At £4.25bn, the takeover would have been the most expensive in sports history at the time, but the value quoted in the press was a fugazi.

£1.75bn of that figure was ringfenced for investment in the Blues and did not change hands in the deal, which saw Boehly’s fellow private equity titans Behdad Eghbali and Mark Walter buy into the club too.

How Chelsea’s owners rank among football’s richest

Club owner	Rank in top 500 richest people	Net worth	Club(s)
Bernard Arnault	4	$189B	Paris FC
Mark Mateschitz	80	$23.4B	Red Bull clubs
Stan Kroenke	85	$22.8B	Arsenal, Colorado Rapids
Philip Anschutz	86	$22.8B	Los Angeles Galaxy
David Tepper	87	$22.4B	Charlotte FC
Francois Pinault	90	$22.1B	Stade Rennais
Dietmar Hopp	112	$18.4B	1899 Hoffenheim
Jim Ratcliffe	200	$12.4B	Man United, Nice, Lausanne
Hansjoerg Wyss	218	$11.9B	Chelsea, Strasbourg
Josh Harris	224	$11.7B	Crystal Palace
Simon Reuben	227	$11.5B	Newcastle United
David Reuben	228	$11.5B	Newcastle United
Dmitry Rybolovlev	246	$11.1B	AS Monaco
Mark Walter	252	$10.9B	Chelsea, Strasbourg
Dan Friedkin	253	$10.9B	AS Roma, AS Cannes, Everton
Shahid Khan	307	$9.33B	Fulham
Nassef Sawiris	324	$8.95B	Aston Villa, Vitoria
Daniel Kretinsky	402	$7.69B	West Ham, Sparta Prague
Joe Lewis	405	$7.66B	Tottenham
Todd Boehly	426	$7.28B	Chelsea FC, Strasbourg

Richest private owners in football, Sourced from Bloomberg Billionaires Index

A fair whack of that cash has been injected into Chelsea via equity to cover operating expense and the gargantuan, £1bn recruitment drive that the new owners have sanctioned over the last three years.

Chelsea have also taken out £500m worth of debt with Ares, one of the world’s biggest investment firms who, by extension, effectively have a place in the club’s corporate structure despite owning no shares.

The club also has almost £500m worth of transfer debt and – in the story of the week – will at some point need possible three or four times that to build a new stadium or expand Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea matchday income and planned stadium capacity infographic Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images

In short, Chelsea have spent heavily and have more or less committed to spending even more heavily in the future, with all of the anxiety in terms of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) that entails.

Granted, Enzo Maresca, Laurence Steward and Paul Winstanley have droves of young talent tied down to long-term deals, locking in their value.

If latest signing Geovany Quenda comes good, for example, the Blues have protected themselves with the 17-year-old’s seven-year deal and can finesse their player trading model on that basis.

But this model – lobbied for by Boehly in his role as chairman – places a huge amount of faith in a recruitment strategy which, to date, has had very mixed results.

The above is a roundabout way of saying that Chelsea are probably in a worse place since the takeover, though Boehly’s latest comments suggests he believes different.

• READ MORE: Chelsea youngster ranked as second best teenager in world football, only Lamine Yamal is better

Todd Boehly says Chelsea now worth more than before Clearlake takeover

Since May 2022, Boehly’s public appearances as the face of Chelsea have become more and more frequent, despite some reports suggesting he is essentially a lame duck as chairman.

In his latest outing, Boehly spoke to Bloomberg about the rift between his ownership faction and Clearlake, which he says is exaggerated, as well as the future of Stamford Bridge.

The main headline, of course, centred on the future direction of the ownership.

“The status quo” is a fine place to be, he said, but also suggested that the stadium plans could see Clearlake and he go their separate ways in time.

Interestingly on that topic, Boehly believes, if he was to sell his stake to Eghbali or anyone else tomorrow, he could actually get a markup on the £2.5bn deal the consortium completed three years ago.

“I think the trend is our friend in this industry,” the 51-year-old, whose club has lost almost £400m since the takeover, told Bloomberg.

Rank	Club	Value	1-yr change	Owners
17	Manchester United	$6.2B	+4%	Glazer family
18	Real Madrid	$6.06B	+16%	Club members
35	FC Barcelona	$5.28B	+7%	Club members
40	Liverpool	$5.11B	+8%	Fenway Sports Group
46	Bayern Munich	$4.8B	+8%	Club members
51	Manchester City	$4.75B	+7%	Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
61	Paris Saint-Germain	$4.05B	+19%	Qatar Sports Investment
65	Arsenal	$3.91B	+9%	Stan Kroenke
74	Tottenham Hotspur	$3.49B	+9%	Joe Lewis family trust, Daniel Levy
75	Chelsea	$3.47B	±0%	Todd Boehley, Clearlake Capital

Source: Sportico top 100 most valuable clubs

“The opportunity to try and grow the fanbase around the world is big. Unlike American sports, we have the ability to grow internationally and grow our own revenue base on top of that.

“So I think the opportunity is enormous. The Premier League is sitting in a great place. One of the great things – and one of the frustrating things – is that the Premier League is becoming so competitive.

The depth in the quality of the teams are unlike any other league in the world. It [value] is not derivative of whether or not they won last year. This is a club that just celebrated its 120th anniversary.

“I would say, yes [it’s more valuable than we paid for it].”

• READ MORE: Chelsea now want to sign two Real Madrid stars for £105m, Todd Boehly pulled out of a deal for one them in the past

Chelsea in mix for £130m Club World Cup prize, John Terry hails ‘mega’ finance opportunity

To justify a valuation of £2.5bn and well beyond, there will need to be some pretty fundamental changes both at Chelsea and the wider football ecosystem.

The arms race that has taken place in the transfer ecosystem and retention and market means costs have spiralled much faster than revenues have risen – and more so at Chelsea than most.

One new revenue source that can help offset this and bolster the Blues’ PSR situation is the new-fangled Club World Cup, which Maresca will take his side to in the United States in the summer.

Chelsea’s Club World Cup draw

Group	Team 1	Team 2	Team 2	Team 4
Group A	Palmeiras	FC Porto	Al-Ahly	Inter Miami
Group B	Paris Saint-Germain	Atlético Madrid	Botafogo	Seattle Sounders
Group C	Bayern Munich	Auckland City	Boca Juniors	Benfica
Group D	Flamengo	Espérance Sportive de Tunisie	Chelsea	Club León
Group E	River Plate	Urawa Red Diamonds	Monterrey	Inter Milan
Group F	Fluminense	Borussia Dortmund	Ulsan	Mamelodi Sundowns
Group G	Manchester City	Wydad	Al-Ain	Juventus
Group H	Real Madrid	Al-Hilal	Pachuca	RB Salzburg

Club World Cup group stage draw

This week, FIFA have confirmed that a staggering £780m will be shared among the 32 participants in prize money, with that pot weighted towards European clubs like Chelsea.

If Chelsea go all the way in the knockout tournament, they will take home the lion’s share of £130m. It’s a monumental prize fund which, fundamentally, has essentially been artificially created by Saudi Arabia.

Former Chelsea captain John Terry has been on the ambassadorial circuit for FIFA recently and, echoing the sentiments of Didier Drogba a few months ago, has talked up the financial opportunity for clubs.

“This is an opportunity that financially is mega for every club involved, let alone if you go on and win it,” Terry told talkSPORT last week. “To participate, it’s big financials.

“I think we have to be careful in terms of player welfare and stuff like that because being ex-players, we have to support that.

“Can there be a break mid-season? I think there should be. You played two, three games a week around the Christmas period and it’s really busy.

“Then in February, March, April, you play Saturday, Saturday, Saturday. You could easily just throw a couple of games in there as well.

“But I think in terms of players, like for me, six years retired, I’d love to still be playing. I’d love to go back and say, ‘I wish I had 60, 65 games a season.'”

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Chelsea FC owner in talks over bid for the Daily Telegraph

Todd Boehly is understood to be talking to David Montgomery, the executive chair of National World

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/28/Chelsea-fc-owner-may-make-bid-for-owner-of-scotsman-and-yorkshire-post

 

The Chelsea FC owner and chair Todd Boehly is in talks over a bid for the Daily Telegraph, in a plan that has seen him team up with the Fleet Street veteran David Montgomery.

Boehly is understood to be talking to Montgomery, the executive chair of National World and former boss of the parent of the Mirror, about mounting a bid, in an attempt to bring an end to two years of uncertainty over the newspaper’s fate.

The Guardian understands that the prospect of a takeover by Montgomery is causing concern inside the Telegraph. He has a reputation as a cost-cutter, though allies say he has decades of experience in the industry and has managed to keep National World profitable in a tough media climate.

“Everyone here knows that if Montgomery got his hands on the Telegraph, it’s game over for us,” said a Telegraph source. “He wouldn’t know how to take the Telegraph forward but then again he wouldn’t want to. How sad.”

The bid for the Telegraph would involve Boehly’s Eldridge Media Holdings (EMH) first making a successful pitch to buy National World, which owns the Yorkshire Post and the Scotsman. The group owns more than 100 regional titles.

It is the latest episode in the long-running saga of the Telegraph’s ownership. RedBird IMI, which derives most of its funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City football club, paid £600m to take control of Telegraph Media Group in November 2023 from the Barclay family.

However, RedBird IMI was forced to put the titles back up for sale last spring after the British government published legislation to block foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK.

Dovid Efune, the British owner of the New York Sun, had several weeks of exclusivity late last year to push through a £550m deal to buy the titles.

However, Efune has so far failed to raise the financial backing to get the deal over the line and RedBird IMI is pursuing talks with other potential bidders. It has also been reported that Maurice Saatchi, the advertising mogul, had unsuccessfully offered to buy the Telegraph newspapers for £350m.

Other parties previously thought to be interested in the titles include the Daily Mail and General Trust, and Paul Marshall, the hedge fund founder and backer of GB News who went on to buy the Spectator magazine from RedBird IMI for £100m.

Montgomery’s National World, which was an underbidder in the protracted auction of the Telegraph titles, is in the process of a shareholder-approved £65m takeover by its largest investor, Media Concierge.

National World said it had received confirmation that EMH was considering making a proposal to buy the company. “The company acknowledges, for the purposes of the takeover code, that it is in receipt of an approach from EMH regarding a possible offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company,” said National World in a statement to the stock market on Friday.

“The National World board will consider the terms of any proposal put forward by EMH that may deliver superior value to National World shareholders than the scheme [of arrangement relating to the current sale process].”

National World’s shares rose 7% on Friday, valuing the company at £62m. Boehly and Montgomery have been in talks about a potential deal that would combine National World and the Telegraph titles, and also involve other third-party backers.

While analysts have been sceptical about the £500m price tag that RedBird IMI have placed on the Telegraph titles, sources close to the talks said such a deal could yet be possible, depending on the structure.

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The LA Dodgers now have 8 wins versus no losses

best start ever in baseball history for a defending champion

[Fernando 6,534]

  On 03/04/2025 at 09:28, Vesper said:

The LA Dodgers now have 8 wins versus no losses

best start ever in baseball history for a defending champion

Expand  

Took a while though before they was this good from the moment Todd bought them. 

[Vesper 29,434]

  On 03/04/2025 at 10:32, Fernando said:

Took a while though before they was this good from the moment Todd bought them. 

Expand  

I follow MLB a bit, the only US sports league I follow, as it is unique and for me, pretty interesting

Boehly came in as part owner in midseason 2012

West Division titles (they have won their division every season since, except for the crazy 2021 season, see below)

2013  92-70

2014  94-68

2015  92-70

2016  91-71

2017  104-58

2018  92-71

2019  106-56

2020 (Covid season, they went 43-17 and were tracking (algorithmically, based off their schedule versus results against other teams that season) to the most wins ever (120) for one season in baseball history, although the 1906 Chicago Cubs won 116 in a 152 game season, 10 fewer games played than now)

2021 2nd place  106- 56 (this was a freak season, as they had the most ever wins (106) of any MLB team that failed to win its division or league, surpassing the 104 wins of the 1909 Chicago Cubs and 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers. The San Francisco Giants won 107 games that season, the only time they won over 100 games in the past 22 seasons, although the Giants did win the World Series in 3 out of 5 seasons from 2010 to 2014, they won it in 2010, 2012, and 2014.)

2022 111-51

2023  100-62

2024 98-64  (if you make 2020 a full season and they had 'only' won 100 games (absolute lock they were tracking to 120), the 8 seasons 2017-2024 were the most wins ever by any team in history over an 8 season span, 817, and 837 (an insane average of almost 105 wins per year (104.625) over 8 years if they had won the projected 120 in 2020)

NL Pennants   

2017 (lost the World Series to the Houston Astros 4-3) this was tainted as the Astros were later proven to be cheating by stealing signals, but MLB refused to take the title away from the Astros, see below)

2018 (lost the World Series 4 games to 1 to the superb Boston Red Sox side who won 108 games in the regular season that year, the most wins ever for Boston in a single season)

2020

2024

World Series titles

2020 (4-2 over the Tampa Bay Rays)

2024 (4-1 over the NY Yankees)