La familia Ricketts, propietaria de la franquicia de los Cachorros de Chicago de Major League Baseball desde 2009, se encuentra entre varias partes interesadas en ofertar por el Chelsea Football Club. según Mark Kleinman de Sky News.
La venta de Chelsea, un gigante de la Premier League y actual ganador de la Champions League, se produce a raíz de la invasión de Ucrania por parte de Rusia y los pedidos posteriores para que el propietario del club, Roman Abramovich (entre otros empresarios rusos adinerados), enfrente sanciones. Abramovich primero se distanció del club antes de anunciar posteriormente su decisión de ponerlo en el mercado.
«El interés aparente de la familia Ricketts, propietaria de los Cachorros de Chicago, es posiblemente el más llamativo de los nombres que se vinculan con los esfuerzos para poner fin a los 19 años de propiedad del club del Sr. Abramovich», escribió Kleinman.
Los Ricketts, que anteriormente ofertaron por el AC Milan en 2018, son uno de varios grupos mencionados por Kleinman. Otros incluyen al luchador de MMA Conor McGregor y Todd Boehly, quien supuestamente posee una participación del 20 por ciento de la Los Angeles Dodgers, así como una participación del 27 por ciento de Los Angeles Lakers de la Asociación Nacional de Baloncesto. (Boehy compró esa participación con Mark Walter, el propietario principal de los Dodgers).
El informe de Kleinman indica que Abramovich busca 3.000 millones de libras esterlinas como parte de la venta, o el equivalente a casi 3.300 millones de dólares estadounidenses.
«La venta del club no se acelerará, sino que seguirá el debido proceso», decía el comunicado de Abramovich. «No pediré que se pague ningún préstamo. Esto nunca se ha tratado de negocios ni de dinero para mí, sino de pura pasión por el juego y el club».
La declaración de Abramovich prometió que las «ganancias netas» de la venta se donarán a una fundación benéfica formada para beneficiar a las «víctimas de la guerra en Ucrania» con miras a «proporcionar fondos críticos para las necesidades urgentes e inmediatas de las víctimas, así como apoyando el trabajo de recuperación a largo plazo».
Los Ricketts originalmente compraron a los Cachorros y una parte de Comcast SportsNet Chicago por $845 millones. Forbes estimó que la franquicia tenía un valor de $ 3.36 mil millones en abril pasado, y los Ricketts renovaron el Wrigley Field y crearon Marquee, su propia red deportiva regional.
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