Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan bought the team eight years ago when he made $64 million from selling his mobile phone company. His team is close to the bottom of the Championship (England’s second tier), does not own its stadium, Selhurst Park, and is mortgaged to a hedge fund, Agilo, that caters for “distressed companies.” He tells David Conn that he’s had enough of soccer and wants to sell.
“I want to do other things,” he said, stressing that he is not personally in financial trouble. “I will miss the fans, and I will miss [Palace’s outspoken manager] Neil Warnock, but I won’t miss much else. I’m fed up with avaricious footballers.”
Conn points out that English soccer has “become a billionaires’ playground” and is no longer a place for domestic millionaires like Jordan and his maligned predecessor at Palace, Ron Noades. “Premier League clubs have become honeypots for the international rich list and the Championship is increasingly peopled by owners considerably richer than Jordan. Crowds remain high, yet clubs struggle to compete and balance the books.”
Jordan says wage demands in the Championship are out of proportion to revenues. Factors inflating players’ salaries include the new breed of rich owners at clubs like Wolves and QPR, as well as teams coming down from the Premier League with parachute payments. “This summer every player I tried to sign had a starting demand of £10,000 [$17,800] a week,” said Jordan, adding that he had spent over $44 million funding the club’s losses.