Chelsea Women part-owner Alexis Ohanian and Newcastle United co-owner Jamie Reuben
Chelsea Women part-owner Alexis Ohanian and Newcastle United co-owner Jamie Reuben
"It certainly looks like a decent price."
Those were the words of Jamie Reuben less than a couple of years after Newcastle United's owners completed their £305m buy-out. Although it is worth remembering the dire situation relegation-threatened Newcastle were in at the time, and the subsequent sums that needed to be pumped into the club, it still looks a relative bargain.
After all, Chelsea have since been sold for £4.25bn. A minority stake in Manchester United cost Sir Jim Ratcliffe £1.25bn. Even Everton commanded a figure well in excess of £305m following the club's takeover last year.
It has now emerged that Alexis Ohanian has bought a 10% stake in Chelsea Women for around £20m. The American, who was the co-founder of Reddit, called it a 'hell yes-type investment'.
"I’ve bet big on women’s sports before - as founding control owner of Angel City Football Club - and I’m doing it again," he said. "I'm proud to announce that I'm joining Chelsea FC Women as an investor and board member. I'm honored for the chance to help this iconic club become every American's favorite WSL team and much, much more.
"These players are rewriting the game. Undefeated season. Eyes on the treble. But this isn’t just about winning titles. It’s about finally matching their talent with the resources, visibility, and respect they deserve. I’ve been right about this before and I couldn't be more excited."
Chelsea Women's success and potential is undoubted as Ohanian, clearly, needed no reminding of. The Blues have won six successive WSL titles and this season became the first side to finish a 22-game campaign unbeaten. Sonia Bompastor’s team, who lifted the Women's League Cup earlier this season, are going for a domestic treble and face Manchester United in the Women's FA Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has boldly predicted that the women's side will be worth hundreds of millions in the future, but the club's most recent accounts revealed the side brought in revenues of little more than £11.5m last season.
That is why one or two eyebrows were raised after Chelsea sold their women's team to a sister company for £200m to help comply with PSR rules. The deal remains subject to top-flight approval - just as the sale of two club-owned hotels previously did before the value of the deal was reduced - and Chelsea have confirmed that the agreement contains a clause requiring an 'adjustment to the consideration receivable in the event that the Premier League's determination of the fair market value differs from the £200m recognised'.
It certainly makes the £305m the consortium paid for Newcastle look like a relative snip as football finance expert Kieran Maguire explained.
"Newcastle, when they were sold, generated £150m in total revenue - broadcast, commercial, ticket sales," he previously told the Price of Football. "Chelsea Women generated £11m. If you work it out - how much was the club sold for? How much money does it bring in? For every £1 Newcastle generated, it was sold for £2.
"It brought in £150m, it was sold for £300m-plus so we call that a multiplier. If you apply a multiplier of two to Chelsea, that would give a figure of £22m. Now you could validly say there is a lot of scope for growth in the women's team and Chelsea's men's team went for a multiplier of five. Manchester United's men's team went for a multiplier of around seven last year so let's apply that to Chelsea. That would give a value of somewhere between £50m-£75m - a long way short of £200m.
"Also, when you look at Newcastle, the new owners would be saying, 'If we get this right, we get into the Champions League.' How much is Europe worth? Around another £100m a year. Could we say the same for Chelsea's women's team? I don't think you can and this is not a criticism of the women's game. It's a different sport, it's got different parameters, it's certainly got different financial KPIs."