Chelsea co-owner Boehly gets to work on Lords cricket bid | Money news

The co-owner of Chelsea Football Club has joined forces with one of his fellow board members to bid for the most valuable team in English cricket's Hundred competition.

Sky News has learned that Todd Boehly is backing a bid led by Jonathan Goldstein, a British property entrepreneur, in a bid for a major stake in London Spirit, the Lords-based franchise.

The offer represents the latest move by Mr Boehly, a billionaire financier, to penetrate Britain's sporting elite, following his takeover of Chelsea in 2022 with Behdad Eghabli, the founder of Clearlake Capital.

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Recent reports suggest the pair have had a falling out and are looking at ways to buy each other out of the club.

Mr Boehly's interest in the London Spirit franchise puts him and Mr Goldstein on a shortlist from a handful of bidders for – at least – a 49% stake in it.

Sources said this weekend that the other contenders to buy the stake as part of an England and Wales Cricket Board process were Sanjiv Goenka, an Indian billionaire who owns the Lucknow Super Giants of the Indian Premier League (IPL); the owners of the IPL's Chennai Super Kings; India's ultra-rich Ambani family; and possibly members of the Glazer family, which retains the majority stake in Manchester United Football Club.

The London Spirit franchise is expected to fetch the highest price of the eight teams up for auction, with one of Chelsea's lenders, Ares Management, eyeing the purchase of a stake in the Oval Invincibles, Sky News announced on Friday.

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CVC Capital Partners, one of global sport's most prolific sponsors with interests in the men's professional tennis tour and rugby union's Six Nations Championship, is also bidding for the Oval Invincibles.

Insiders said CVC had also submitted offers for two other Hundred franchises.

In total, around 35 bids would be shortlisted for the eight teams, with the respective host countries able to decide whether to transfer part of their 51% stake to give new investors control of the franchise.

These 35 proposals would in turn come from 15 separate investor groups.

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The teams are believed to have been valued at a total of more than £600 million in the first round of the auction, with the proceeds split between the recreational game, the 18 top-flight counties and the MCC, which owns Lords.

The eight host venues play home to teams including the Northern Superchargers, Manchester Originals and Southern Brave.

A larger-than-expected windfall from the process could provide a financial lifeline to some cash-strapped provinces, with some of the proceeds likely to be used to pay down debt.

However, concerns have been raised that the windfalls from the Hundred Auction will not yield meaningful improvements in the long-term financial sustainability of the provinces.

The outcome of the auction, which will become clear in the coming months, is also likely to intensify other searching questions about the future of cricket as the game's Test format struggles for international commercial relevance against shorter-lived competition.

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The Hundred Auction is being handled by Raine Group, which also oversaw the sale of Chelsea to Messrs. Boehly and Eghbali two years ago after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the government.

Mr Goldstein, CVC and the ECB declined to comment on the process.