Usually the tune around Liverpool's Anfield home ground is "You'll Never Walk Alone." Pretty soon that might change to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (Or it's British equivalent.)Reports from England's Guardian newspaper recently ran down the debts of all 20 Premier League clubs. Liverpool's American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett's holding company loss somewhere in the neighborhood of £42 million ($67 million U.S.) last season, despite the club turning a profit.
Most of the loss is due to the massive loan (over $500 million U.S.) the duo took on when they bought the club in 2007, on what now seems like a massive whim.
The duo were warmly received when they first showed up at Anfield, but that sentiment quickly turned sour. Things only got worse when Hicks and manager Rafa Benitez clashed. It went further south when the duo's plan for a new stadium for the club had to be put on hold due to the frosty worldwide economic climate.
What happens from here is anyone's guess. There is some speculation that Hicks and Gillett may have to leverage their U.S.-based sports teams -- the Texas Rangers/Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens -- to help float the debt.
Though you never want to see your club saddled with massive debts, especially a huge club like Liverpool, the massive debts, coupled with the inability to build a new stadium might finally give the Kop want its wanted -- Yanks out. Even with the markets still in a state of flux worldwide, Liverpool remains a marquee team that still has value. Yet hoping for a rich sugar daddy to swoop in and wide the debts clean might be a little unrealistic.
Oddly enough, from an American perspective, the huge debts that Hicks/Gillett and the Glazer Family have picked up purchasing Liverpool and Manchester United hasn't seemed to deter other Yanks from buying into the Premier League, as last week Sunderland added an American owner.
