Any Ipswich Town fans sceptical of the club's new US consortium taking the Tractor Boys forward were put at ease this week by a prominent director of the club's new Gamechanger 20 ownership. The club hosted its second fans' forum of the season, with Gamechanger 20 director Ed Schwartz flying in from the States to answer questions from 120 supporters at Portman Road.
Schwartz's day job is CEO of ORG – a US investment firm which handles funds on behalf of one of America's biggest state pension funds, the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS). PSPRS owns 90% of Ipswich Town through Gamechanger 20 and, on his first visit to Suffolk, Schwartz went to great lengths to reassure supporters that the consortium is “committed to making this a long-term, sustainable investment” that all connected to the club “can be proud of”.
Schwartz acknowledged that the model of using pension funds to acquire majority stakes in sports teams is still uncommon in Europe, but pointed out that there are a few examples in Canada. He described using a pension fund to invest in a sports team as being “a suitable investment” as it is “a long-term asset”, with many sports franchises rising in value if they are run correctly.
Ipswich Town: A sensible pragmatic investment for Gamechanger 20
While some rich owners may look to invest in football clubs as a sort of ego game or trophy, Schwartz insists ORG and Gamechanger 20 takes a very different “pragmatic, return-on investment approach”. When fans quizzed Schwartz and new CEO Mark Ashton as to whether funds would be available in the January transfer window, Ashton said the team would likely be “reshuffled a little bit” and Schwartz said the ownership is prepared to make investments in the next window providing they “make sense”.
Ipswich Town was not the first club to come onto ORG's radar as a potential investment opportunity in English football. Schwartz said the PSPRS fund nearly invested in a Premier League club as “part of a bigger [investment] group”. This is something that fellow Gamechanger 20 director, Brett Johnson, previously alluded to, having considered Newcastle United when the Magpies were put up for sale by former owner Mike Ashley.
Despite those links, Schwartz said the opportunity to invest in Newcastle wasn't as bright as the opportunity to take majority ownership of Ipswich Town, a club Schwartz described as undervalued, with the new owners uncovering “more opportunity literally every day”.
It's also worth considering the initial expense required when investing in a Premier League club compared with a League One outfit. Gamechanger 20 are said to have paid around £30m to Marcus Evans for Ipswich, while Newcastle's new owners recently bought out Mike Ashley for a fee of more than ten times that amount. The £320m needed to acquire the Magpies was a drop in the ocean compared with the capital required to invest in the playing squad and rebuild its infrastructure. In 2020, Premier League clubs suffered substantial combined losses totalling £700m, which many are still recovering from. Schwartz and ORG viewed Ipswich as a low-risk, high-reward opportunity.
Although Ipswich aren't yet in the League One top six, the signs are ominous for the rest of the division. A 4-1 win at Wycombe underlined the capabilities of Paul Cook's side, who have averaged two points per game in their last ten league games – promotion-winning form. Cook insisted it was always going to take time for his new-look team to gel and so it proved, with their first league win not arriving until mid-September.
Cook believes his squad's biggest consistency “is its inconsistency” at present. There have been one or two false dawns for the Ipswich faithful. The biggest of the lot was at Accrington after thrashing Doncaster 6-0. Nevertheless, recent comprehensive away wins at Portsmouth and Wycombe have created a benchmark for the rest of the season. Although the club's American owners insist long-term sustainable success is the end goal, Brett Johnson recently admitted he has a “healthy impatience” to see the Tractor Boys back in the Championship and beyond. Given the depth of the new Ipswich squad, anything but a top six finish would surely leave Paul Cook's Portman Road future in jeopardy.
