FSG have faced the wrath of fans in Boston after the Red Sox missed out on the play-offs for a third straight season
The start to life at Liverpool Arne Slot has made will no doubt have pleased decision-makers at Fenway Sports Group. But across the pond, the Reds owners have some problems to contend with.
As owners of the Reds, FSG have proven divisive among some elements of the Liverpool fan base. To some they have been solid custodians of the football club who have invested in its infrastructure to return it to the elite group in European football, far removed from the nightmarish circumstances faced under the former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
For other fans, they haven’t spent enough in the transfer market at key times when it was felt they should have been stronger to take advantage of a position of strength.
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What really matters, and what is intrinsically linked to fan sentiment, is how the team performs on the pitch. If the team wins then, in reality, the cost of acquiring players becomes irrelevant as the game is about glory.
Liverpool, after seven games under Slot in the Premier League, sit out on their own at the summit, a point clear of current champions Manchester City. There will be plenty of twists and turns for the remaining 31 games, but for now, the waters are relatively calm for FSG on Merseyside.
That isn’t the case in Boston, Massachusetts, where the baseball team that they have owned since 2002, where four World Series’ have been delivered in the last 22 years, have missed out on the Major League Baseball post-season for the third year in a row, and for the fifth time in six MLB seasons. For fans of the Boston Red Sox, one of the MLB’s most storied franchises, the credit in the bank that FSG had through delivering World Series success after an 86-year drought, has dwindled, and questions have been asked of the ownership group and its principal owner, John W. Henry.
Henry and the FSG leadership team have been the subject of the ire of Red Sox fans after the team’s elimination from the play-off picture, with some claiming Henry did not care enough about the team.
But speaking to MassLive’s Fenway Rundown with Chris Cotillo, FSG CEO and Red Sox president, Sam Kennedy, said that was simply not the case.
“I would say that I spoke with John in the past couple of hours about the 2024-25 Red Sox. We speak just about every day. He speaks to[Craig Breslow] just about every day.
“There is this perception of John, largely driven by people who aren’t dealing with him, who don’t talk to him regularly, that maybe, somehow, he’s not actively involved. I can assure you, he’s on the most important committees in Major League Baseball. He’s leading our franchise as our principal owner. He does give us a lot of rope in management, in me as CEO, Bres (Craig Breslow) as CBO, but he is incredibly involved and is as passionate about the team as he’s ever has been.
“What we talked about literally today was this incredible set of building blocks that we have in place, and how, while how disappointing 2024 was, how exciting the baseball project is, how invested he is, I am, Mike Gordon is, Theo Epstein is into Craig Breslow and what he’s building in terms of how he’s building out his staff, his team, where he’s prioritising our spend and our investment.
“I would say that John, as I am, as our whole ownership group is, is optimistic about the future, also frustrated about the last few years. John’s been in baseball since the late 1980s maybe 1990 or so, and I can’t tell you excruciating seasons are where you’re .500 or even below .500 when you’re not headed for the post-season. It’s painful and John feels that as much as anyone.”
FSG have repeatedly been linked with a move to sell either the Red Sox or Liverpool in recent years, something that largely arrives after periods of competitive struggle.
But there remain no plans to sell either of the teams, something borne out from the fact that they put much emphasis on creating a new football-specific division of the company to grow the FSG portfolio, with the acquisition of another team still on the agenda after the talks with French side Bordeaux were ended during the summer.
FSG continues to be in a phase of growth and a basketball franchise in the NBA is almost certain to feature prominently, although it is more likely to be an expansion franchise in Las Vegas than going in for the purchase of the Boston Celtics, who are currently for sale but at a very high valuation of more than $5bn.
