Buccaneers And Man United Owner gets a PPP loan, with the Glazer family among many sports organizations on the SBA list

A company owned by the Glazer family that also owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay buccaneers and Manchester United listed on the Premier League – valued at $ 5.4 billion combined with United’s current corporate value – received a loan. through the salary protection program, according to the Small Business Administrative Report issued Monday. Glazer Management, a commercial real estate company managed by Kevin Glazer, one of the six children of the late patriarch Malcolm, received between $ 350,000 and $ 1 million to save 39 jobs.

Although the SBA indicates that the loan has been deposited for a company operating as a sports team, spokespersons for Glazer Management and the Buccaneers have stated separately that the funds have been used for real estate and that neither team had access to money. However, it is listed among the 531 PPP loans, with a total value of between $ 173 million and $ 429 million, which had been made available to sports teams and related spectator firms as of June 30th.

After the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA’s second most valuable team, worth $ 4.4 billion, were publicly embarrassed to return $ 4.6 million in PPP money in April, the world of sports seemed to be doing the point on the need to receive assistance from the coronavirus loan program. The main criticisms of the PPP loan program were the lack of control by the SBA in approving the loans, the number of loan applications from wealthy individuals and public companies with access to other stock markets and the assignment of money to organizations that don’t necessarily fit the idea of ​​most people in a small business.

The appearance of the Glazers company in the most recent list of loan recipients shows that pushback has not eliminated these problems. Forbes estimates that family value is just off the list of the 20 richest sports team owners in the world. And neither Glazer Management nor the Buccaneers could explain why the company used the classification of the sports sector in its loan application if the money was intended for the real estate sector.

Perhaps anticipating the backlash, the front offices of the four major US leagues have decided to give up both rounds of PPP loans, each telling Forbes in April they didn’t have and didn’t intend to apply.

It has been a different story for MLS, where the average team value is $ 313 million and most teams operate at a significant loss. In May, the Athletic he reported that at least 12 clubs had approved the PPP applications but that not all of them were sure they would accept the funds.

As of yesterday, it seems that at least five have done so. The league’s most recent expansion team, Inter Miami, has received between $ 1 million and $ 2 million, as well as DC United and the Philadelphia Union. Seattle Sounders and Orlando City Soccer Holdings, which is also the progenitor of NWSL’s Orlando Pride, each received between $ 2 million and $ 5 million.

The National Women’s Soccer League did not hesitate to receive money. In an interview with the soccer/nwsl-ppp-loan.html">New York Times Last week, Commissioner Lisa Baird said that the money was being used to cover players’ salaries and that she had helped her league become the first sports league for the American team to return to play when the Challenge Cup began on June 27. the remuneration of the whole season, in addition to the benefits, regardless of whether they participated in the tournament or not. She and the other front office staff members suffered pay cuts.

Although the minor league baseball season has been in jeopardy since the coronavirus shutdown and was canceled entirely last week, several teams, including New York Yankees affiliates (the most valuable MLB team, at $ 5 billion) and the Boston Red Sox (worth $ 3.3 billion) received loans.

While eSports have helped to fill the gap left after the closure of live sports, several companies in that space have applied for loans. The FaZe Clan, which closed a $ 40 million loan in April and is worth $ 240 million, received up to $ 2 million. Envy Gaming, which competes as the Dallas Empire in call of DutyThe league and Dallas Fuel in the Overwatch League have been approved for a loan in the same range.

Loans went beyond the teams. The iconic bat maker Louisville Slugger, who lost the money available in the first round, received over $ 2 million in the second round of PPP loans and reported 171 staff members fired as baseball tries to get back on the field.

Numerous agents and talent agencies have also registered on the SBA list. Scott Boras, who collected $ 118.8 million in contract fees last year to rank second among the world’s most powerful sports agents, took between $ 1 and $ 2 million for his agency and over $ 700,000 for his marketing company and training institute.

A total of 4.9 million PPP loans had been approved as of June 30, according to the SBA report. All in all, those loans are worth $ 521 billion and remain around $ 130 billion in the pot.

Disclosure: Forbes Media has been approved to receive between $ 5 million and $ 10 million in PPP funds, according to SBA data.