United sold for record $33 million

TGL:CBKoE · Division 2 Novice

United sold for record $33 million
WASHINGTON (AP) - Four-time Major League Soccer champion D.C. United has been sold for record $33 million (€25.4 million), giving it the third owner in the club's 11-year history.

Former NBA basketball player Christian Laettner speaks with the media at a news conference announcing Major League Soccer team D.C. United's new ownership. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
D.C. United Holdings, led by San Francisco businessmen Victor MacFarlane and Will Chang, makes United the first MLS team with racial minorities as owners. MacFarlane is black while Chang, who is also one of the owners of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, is the first Chinese-American MLS owner.

"Soccer is the No. 1 sport for people of color all around the world, but not here in the U.S. - yet," MacFarlane said. "We want to be part of the change that is now on the horizon. We would love to help make soccer the sport that African-Americans and other children of color first look to for recreation and entertainment."

The $33 million (€25.4 million) eclipses the $30 million (€23.1 million) Red Bull GmbH paid for the MetroStars last year.

That price was part of a $100 million (€76.9 million) deal that also included $70 million (€53.8 million) for a half interest in the club's new stadium and naming rights to the building.

D.C. United Holdings also has plans to build a new stadium, on the underdeveloped south bank of the Anacostia River across the river from the site of the new baseball ballpark being built by the Washington Nationals.

The soccer stadium will cost $150 million to $200 million (€115.3 million-€153.8 million), and the goal is to complete it by the 2009 season on land now owned by the National Park Service.

The new ownership group said it plans to add Discovery Communications founder John Hendricks among its ranks. Hendricks created the Discovery Channel natural history television outlet and was a major financial backer of the failed Women's United Soccer Association.

In MLS, the teams are all owned by the league but operated individually.

United's rights had been owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which for several years was largely responsible for keeping MLS afloat. AEG owned the rights to as many as six teams at one point, but it is now down to three in a league that is expanding to 13 teams this year.