Town Not Up For Sale
Wednesday, 9th Jul 2025 16:02

Town have allayed fears that the club’s ownership is looking to sell a controlling stake in the Blues.

Last night, Brett Johnson, one of the Three Lions element of Gamechanger 20 Ltd, which took over Town in 2021, sent out a mailshot, received by some fans, which appeared to indicate that the controlling stake in the club was up for sale.

However, the Blues have dismissed the suggestion of changes in the ownership with Johnson instead looking to attract further lower level investors with the same people remaining in control of the investment funds which own Gamechanger and in turn the club itself.

Those funds are ORG, which manages the interest of PSPRS, the Arizona police and fire services’ pension fund, the Three Lions and Bright Path Sports Partners, who bought around 40 per cent of the pension fund’s stake just over a year ago.

The pension fund is open to reducing its stake further via additional investment but with the ownership situation remaining unchanged.

Johnson’s email targets between £184 million and £214 million to become part of the existing controlling group with the club valued at £375 million.

Fans seeing the email were also concerned that it referred to “up to £100 million+ in player sale proceeds” expected this summer, however, this figure refers to the potential value within the squad rather than any plans to cash-in on the squad.

The Email

Dear X

Hope this finds you well! Building on the success of our growing sports ecosystem, I am delighted to share our latest and greatest investment opportunity. Three Lions Capital has negotiated the rights to acquire a controlling interest in one of the premier football clubs in England.

English football clubs continually prove to be a strong and scalable asset class, largely due to the impressive global audience and the ability for the clubs to monetize their IP. This investment is not a bet on media rights, rather it is a unique opportunity to invest in a club which focuses on creating monetary value through several levers, which gives us confidence that the business model will drive significant returns. Below is a high-level summary of the opportunity.

Highly Favorable Investment Terms:

Total capital raise of between £184M and £214M to acquire a majority stake at an enterprise value of £375M
There is significant downside protection, as if the club is not promoted by the 2026/27 season, the valuation resets to £325M (£50 million reduction at the Enterprise Value)
The investment will be spread across 5 equal payments, with only 20% of the total amount up front and the rest over a 4-year period, significantly increasing IRR and overall returns

Proven Success:

The club achieved back-to-back promotions to Premier League and currently competes in Championship League.
Strong Financial Position:
Up to £100M+ in player sale proceeds and £56M in parachute payments expected this summer, all of which provided maximum balance sheet flexibility.
The club achieved significantly positive EBITDA during 2024-2025 season

Operational Excellence:

Led by an elite CEO and coaching staff who’ve built the #1 club in Europe in player value creation (according to Transfermarkt the club had the highest player value increase in any European club during 2024-2025 season)
The club will also soon be awarded Category One status (the highest level of youth academy classification under the Elite Player Performance Plan in English football) imminently.
Best-in-class Player Development:
A new state of the art training center is being developed, there is a heavy focus on the growth of the women’s team, and significant investment is being made to shift to a data-centered recruitment approach. The women’s team just achieved promotion.

Attractive Exit Potential:

Targeting a £1B valuation in by the 2030/31 season based on a 3.3x revenue multiple, which is in line with similar English clubs
This would yield a 2.96x gross MOIC & 38.66% gross IRR, which is significantly boosted by the 5 payments over 4 years structure
This investment will be facilitated through Three Lions Capital - Our fund charges 2% management fee and 20% carried interest on returns exceeding an 8% hurdle rate.

Please let us know if you have interest in this opportunity and we will connect you to the club, who will provide the NDA, and subsequently share the relevant material for your review which includes a larger deck detailing the opportunity.

Best Regards,
Brett Johnson
Three Lions Capital

Photo: Blair Ferguson

Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.

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Marshalls_Mullet added 16:07 - Jul 9 I appreciate its normal for our type of ownership to look for new investment. But the way he went about it is so amateurish.
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tomitfc added 16:08 - Jul 9 Phil, you are truly the goat of news on Town. Learnt nothing from the EADT article that fans hadn’t already worked out but this is informative and reassuring especially RE player sales
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BlueandTruesince82 added 16:16 - Jul 9 Whats the minium investment? can we have a TWTD whip round to secure a portion of fan ownership?
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Runner added 16:16 - Jul 9 The bit I took from this: ITFV is going to be worth £1B by 2030/31.
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Nutkins_Return added 16:22 - Jul 9 £100 million + in player sale proceeds though does seem quite specifically talking about player sales rather than their worth. At best this is very clumsy wording but surprised they just wrote it wrong...
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blues1 added 16:24 - Jul 9 Marshallsmullet. How is it amateurish? Done totally the right way, by sending out emails to the people who most needed to be informed. Always one who has to criticise the club.
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algarvefan added 16:27 - Jul 9 I don't understand high finance, so will stick to my mantra about the rich and powerful, who 'know the cost of everything and the value of nothing'. Big money is ruining sport, I shall therefore carry on my love of the blues as I have for over 60 years and just be a simple fan!! Can't wait for the season to start!
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AlexMathie added 16:31 - Jul 9 I think the confidence we will get Category One academy status imminently is exciting news
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Blooos added 16:33 - Jul 9 Not been a great close season.. No signings yet, Cajuste saga dragging on, now this pretty shoddy email that leaves fans with a sour taste / worry about the future.
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DavoIPB added 16:34 - Jul 9 Yep definitely seems to suggest going to sell our most valuable players this summer. Also they seem to be offloading the majority of their share so making a huge profit and leaving the risk with a new investor.
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Fatboy added 16:42 - Jul 9 "Up to £100M+" refers to literally any amount of money.
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Linkboy13 added 16:48 - Jul 9 No smoke without fire as they say. Been saying on here for weeks we haven't heard anything from Gamechanger and the lack of transfer activity suggests cash is at a premium.
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wischip added 16:54 - Jul 9 Have Burnley put in a bid yet?
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churchmans81 added 16:54 - Jul 9

The seasons under Gamechanger (last one being the exception) have been great. But amid all the Three Lions enthusiasm, I couldn’t help but smile wryly at Brett Johnson’s quote, which neatly highlights their true purpose — a huge payday (and why not, of course):
“this investment is not a bet on media rights, rather it is a unique opportunity to invest in a club which focuses on creating monetary value through several levers.”

Well, that may be the case — but it’s a long way from Sir Bobby’s quote from a bygone age:
“What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”

Ah, for the days of jumpers for goalposts — rather than data-centred recruitment and 2.96x gross MOIC. But then that’s progress, right!?

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 16:58 - Jul 9 Couldn't agree more with algarvefan; it's good to to see the women getting a mention, though.
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FarnboroBlue added 16:59 - Jul 9 I remember when we signed players like Graham Harbey from Derby for £65k, happy days
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poet added 17:05 - Jul 9

What this amounts to is that it is imperative that ITFC is a successful club for all concerned.
We’ve certainly been dragging our heals in the transfer market, are these latest murmurings the reason? To meet the anticipated and some might say, expected success levels, the bottom line at the moment is…. We need player investment. Some of our rivals are leaving us behind, that’s not going to help anyone, and failure will reduce the value of the club, making it less attractive to investors. So come on, let’s bring in some much needed talent.

Nutkins_Return added 17:10 - Jul 9 Haha that is true to be fair Fatboy....
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poet added 17:27 - Jul 9 Churchmans81 great post, it brought back so many valued memories.
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bayleycr added 17:38 - Jul 9

Something doesn’t seem quite right here.

Forgetting the various company names, etc - if you invest 214m in a business that’s valued at 375m then you own 57% of that business. That typically means you take control of that business. If the plan is for the Arizona pension fund to sell their investment, then why not just say so?

If you write ‘up to £100m+ in sale proceeds from player sales’ then that can only mean you expect to sell players to the value in the region of £100m+. If you don’t expect that then you are deliberately misleading potential investors, which its hard to believe they’d do.

Just say it as it is and be done with the faffing around.

blueboy1981 added 17:52 - Jul 9 I’ve said it previously - Don’t be surprised at anything at all - Relegation was NOT the PLAN, and hurt the Owners Big Time. All is not as it should have been …. !!!
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Widj123 added 17:52 - Jul 9 Sell sell sell and take McKenna and Ashton with you
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Gforce added 18:13 - Jul 9 Oh well looks like it's bye bye Hutchinson and Davis. And there was me thinking we had ambitions of the top two.
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blues1 added 19:37 - Jul 9

Read the headline. "Club is not for sale". If you read the whole article, Phil clearly explains the content of the email. So why not read the whole story before commenting. Basically they are open to new investment, just as happened,with the £105m investment last year. All of which helps the club to progress. Also will help the club with the ffp. And will also add to the value of the club.