The stars keep rolling in.
Russell Westbrook has joined the 49ers ownership group that is taking over English soccer club Leeds United. Earlier this week, American golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas joined the group.
It was announced last month that 49ers Enterprises, the group which owns the 49ers, would take over 100 percent of Leeds United.
In professional soccer, the relegation system (with some exceptions) send the bottom three teams down a division at the end of the season, and promotes the top three from the tier below.
Leeds were previously in the English Premier League, the most profitable, and widely-known soccer league in the world, before being relegated to the Championship.
Through Sky Sports, Spieth said the following:
Relegation wasn’t ideal, but we got involved with the 49ers group about purchasing a larger share and getting in with them doing things so successfully as they do everywhere they’ve touched.
We thought it would be a cool opportunity. It’s a big city, historic club, great venue in Elland Road, and once we looked into it we realised it could be really exciting.
[The 49ers] renegotiated after relegation and it was possibly a better deal — as long as they can get promoted [to the Premier League] soon.
“I was lucky enough to have conversations with some of the partners in this deal who already have ownership, the 49ers,” Westbrook said at a sports and entertainment summit held by Sportico.
“So I was lucky enough to talk through that with friends, talking with my business partner as well about different things and having conversations, figuring out if this was the right deal and how we could make it different.”
The move adds a bit more juice to a reported more than $210 million takeover. 49ers enterprises went from 44 percent ownership of the team — which featured American national team standouts Brendan Aaronson, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams last season — before making the move to full ownership on June 10.
