Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group continue to have an NBA team purchase as their next major move and aren't actively looking to purchase another football club.
The ECHO understands that FSG, who already own the Reds, the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins and NASCAR's RFK Racing team, remain steadfast in their desire to add an NBA team to the sporting portfolio, with an expansion franchise in Las Vegas what they are holding out for.
FSG have been open about their plans to grow as a business, adding more teams and intellectual property in the coming years, with the potential for more football teams in Europe, the US and South America mooted.
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However, the Reds owners, who have been linked with interest in the Brazilian and Portuguese markets in recent weeks and months, have the potential expansion franchise in Vegas as their number one target, a project that they are understood to want FSG partner and basketball icon LeBron James to helm.
James can't play a role in team ownership at present as he remains an active player in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, but with the 37-year-old having laid out his desire to be a team owner in the past, and having declared that he wanted the NBA expansion team to be in Las Vegas when speaking at an NBA press conference earlier this month, it is a plan that looks set to come to fruition.
While an NBA team addition will take precedence for FSG when it comes to adding to their business, sources in the US close to the Liverpool ownership group have said that FSG will remain 'opportunistic' when it comes to further team acquisitions but that no other opportunities are being actively sought out at present and that recent suggested moves to the contrary are not rooted in fact.
The NBA currently stands at 30 teams but commissioner Adam Silver admitted earlier this year that the potential to expand to 32 teams existing and was being looked at, although the time frame is likely to be at least a couple of seasons.
Of the potential markets, Seattle and Las Vegas are the two front runners. Seattle has not been home to a basketball team since the Sonics left for Oklahoma in 2008, but it's positioning as a market without a team and with businesses such as Amazon headquartered in the city it is seen as an attractive proposition.
So, too, is Las Vegas. The Nevada city has been the centre of a sporting boom in recent years with the arrival of an NFL team (Las Vegas Raiders) and and NHL team (Las Vegas Golden Knights) as well as the hosting of a Formula One race from 2023. There are also plans for a $3bn entertainment complex to be built, complete with an 'NBA ready' 20,000 seater arena.
FSG had looked at the Minnesota Timberwolves in recent years, as well as assessing the opportunity that was presented recently with the Phoenix Suns being put up for sale, but it is Las Vegas where they seek to acquire a team, the fee for doing so likely to be around the £2.3bn mark, a sum that will be split among the other 30 teams as something of a sweetener due to them having to share the media and commercial rights pie with another two teams.
James, who accreted his two per cent he held in Liverpool into one per cent of FSG in March 2021, a stakeholding now worth around $100m based on FSG's empire valuation of $10bn, said earlier this month when appearing at a pre-season game in Vegas: "I would love to bring a team here at some point. That would be amazing. I know Adam is in Abu Dhabi right now, I believe. But he probably sees every single interview and transcript that comes through from NBA players.
"So, I want the team here, Adam. Thank you."
FSG are understood to be admirers of Red Bull's model of European football ownership, where a pathway exists and uniformity is held across clubs when it comes to structure and playing style.
Adding more teams in a similar vein to what Red Bull has done is an option for the future, with the Reds having spent more that £100m in recent years on players who have either been signed directly from Red Bull clubs or who have been through the Red Bull system at RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg or FC Liefering at some point. Naby Keita, Sadio Mane, Ibrahima Konate and Takumi Minamino all fall into that bracket, while the club have been admirers of other players at Red Bull in recent years, such as Timo Werner and, more recently, Konrad Laimer.
The addition of more football teams to potentially aid Liverpool in the kind of way that Leipzig have benefited from the model in place at Red Bull remains a possibility, but the immediate focus remains on adding an NBA team. Should they be successful in their efforts then FSG would own teams across three of the four major American sports leagues.
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