Harris-Blitzer hold controlling stake of Broughton bid for Chelsea — report

The group led by Sir Martin Broughton has been the most secretive of the three finalists left in the bidding for Chelsea Football Club, both in terms of plans and intentions for the club and in terms of reported sources of funding, and the like.

Sky News has a big story today about Sir Lewis Hamilton and Serena Williams, two of the biggest sports stars ever, having joined that group as investors (and perhaps more), but they are both small fry (a few million) in the grand scheme of things (a few billion). In fact, as the report details, the majority of the funding and thus the controlling stake is coming from Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), as it’s been rumored all along (though neither Broughton nor HBSE have confirmed this claim).

HBSE are the majority owners of the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and the New Jersey Devils (NHL), plus a few other smaller professional sports franchises in the USA. They also have a minority stake in Crystal Palace, from which they would need to divest quickly were they chosen as our next owners. The fact that HBSE are the money men in this deal puts the Broughton bid’s “uniquely British-led” claim on shaky ground but whatever. That doesn’t really matter in the end.

The other significant note in Sky’s report is that the Tsai family billionaires are also involved in the Broughton bid. They also own several sports franchises, in Taiwan, in addition to running Fubon Financial, the 300 billion dollar family business.

The report makes no mention of Catalina Kim, so presumably she’s joined one of the other two remaining bids instead.