Sky Sports reports that D.C. United Managing General Partner Jason Levien, along with Memphis Grizzlies minority owner Steve Kaplan (among a group of eight) have agreed to purchase Swansea City in England's Premier League. The deal, agreed to by Levien's ownership consortium and the Swansea Board, is for 60 percent of the shares of Swansea, valued at 110 million pounds, or more than $150 million US (Levien does not appear to be the primary contributor of the money). The report from Sky says that on top of this amount, the new ownership group will spend between $40-70 million on the stadium, training facilities and playing staff.
The deal, while agreed to between the club and the ownership group, has to be ratified by the Premier League, who exposes new owners and directors to an "ownership test." This looks at the intentions of the new owners and the benefits the purchased club may see as a result, as well as any sort of legal matters the members of the new ownership group may face (topics the test apparently covers can be viewed here beginning on page 116). The test can take up to 10 days to complete from the time of the agreed upon offer, so it could be announced by the end of next week.
What this means for United remains to be seen. There remains no indication that Levien or Managing Partner Erick Thohir plan to sell any portion of the team despite Levien's interest in buying Swansea and Thohir's discussions on relinquishing a majority ownership in Inter Milan to a Chinese ownership group. But, as is the case with Thohir's discussions, it remains worth tracking for Black-and-Red fans.