Just because the Glazers care more about the Bucs than United doesn’t mean you need to wish this sadness upon me and my Chels.
As an Arsenal fan, I would welcome this if it means Chelsea won't be able to spend much under cheap fertitta compared to the current owner.
Are we sure he wasn’t just looking to extend his bubba gump shrimp boating fleet to the Chesapeake bay instead?
As a Rockets and Chelsea fan, this news would probably ruin me. But Chelsea has a board of directors who care about the club. They won’t let Tillman buy it.
If his net worth really increased 2 billion in the last 12 months, he can pay the ******* luxury tax for now on.
Daddy I’m bored of being friends with Jalen Green, I wanna be friends with Romelu! God Bless the Chelsea fans
I'm pretty sure his angle here is buy distressed asset on the cheap -> hope to be a part of the universally reviled European Superleague that flamed out last year along with the Saudis, Emiratis, and the rest of the plutocrats -> cash out. Or maybe his kids also like soccer? Idk
So when the pandemic began and shortly thereafter, i went into some depth on speculating about Tilman's financial situation. I did this based on people I know personally in the same industry and same region with similar assets, who are actually acquaintances of the Fertita family There was always discussions about how everyone was doing and what they were doing to get through the pandemic. People in this industry are naturally levered. I based the assumptions on what I was hearing among this group, things were looking grim. I discussed a scenario which did not materialize. The PPP loans and the unprecedented flexibility of the banks in this scenario helped a lot. The banks were in the same situation as the debtors, it made little sense to put the hammer down on them and force them to default. I can speak to the hospitality side of the businesses as this is where we have some mutual acquaintances, I do not know the details about the other business units. Things have more than turned around, they are able to charge room rates they have not ever been able to before. They anticipate the summer to be very good again. If we were to speculate on liquidity and equity of the assets related to the Rockets, my assumption would be it has improved. Since he did take out significant debt, there is likely no risk of default here anymore. The reason being the LTV has improved because the value of the franchise has increased some ~$500-$600M since he purchased it. If you did have a situation where he could not make payroll (i recall him restructuring Westbrook's contract away from a lump sum due at beginning of the season) I think he could easily pull equity out via a refinance at new valuations. I think the situation here has drastically improved. Again he is involved in businesses which can make you a ton of money, but can also fold in a recession, I think he has gotten past that. There are rumors of NBA expansion to Seattle and Vegas, this would be an immediate $200-$300M cash windfall to every existing owner, if this isnt priced in to the new valuation you are looking at $700-$900M in equity gain on just this one asset. The link you provided makes a ton of sense, and it is very obvious why it was done. I don't believe it has anything to do with his financial situation, it was more of timing issue with the markets. In fact it shows he is not desperate for outside capital via a public offering if the price is not optimal. When he started that process the market was wild and tons of SPACs were likely over valued. We see the complete opposite of that now, where many SPACs have lost 80-90% of their value because there is no appetite for them now. We also see some SPACs which people may see as oversold in this environment as well. He likely saw the writing on the wall and a potential for a failed SPAC given that article was from December, and look at where we are now. His best friend is Rich Handler (Jefferies), he is very close to wall street and he likely got some advice from his buddy. I saw in December he invited him to his Yacht and flew him in on a helicopter lol, he goes to Knicks games because Tilman hooks him up. This is a very good friend to have. TLDR; My assumption is Tilly likely not broke no more.
He's actually trading them to Putin/Abramovich straight up for Chelsea. There's possibly a misunderstanding about the nature of the Rockets on offer on the Russian side.
Well, that was a depressing but enlightening read. Wishful thinking but if he and his cohorts buy Chelsea, maybe he will be inclined to sell the Rockets.