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Lerner running another team into depths of despair


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http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2016/03/former_browns_owner_randy_lern.html

 

BEREA, Ohio – Randy Lerner never entered into the world of professional sports ownership vowing to "wreck this league."
He's too humble and reticent to resort to Johnny Manziel bravado. Lerner, however, is crushing the spirit of his second fan base in less than a decade and costing himself a fortune in the process.
The former Browns owner, who sold the franchise in 2012, is weeks away from leading his beloved Aston Villa out of English soccer's top tier. Barring a miraculous finish, one of the Premier League's founding members will get relegated. Villa is dead last with eight games remaining and an insuperable nine points from safety. Lerner's side has won just three of 30 matches this season and lost its last five straight by a combined score of 17-2.
Even in his darkest days of Browns' ownership -- a defiant Mike Holmgren telling media members not to hit him up for playoff tickets -- supporters of his teams have never experienced a campaign like this one. Shirts, banners and chants at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, are calling for his ouster.
Now comes a Forbes report claiming that running Aston Villa into relegation has cost Lerner more than $100,000 a day over the past decade. He bought the club in 2006 for a reported $95 million and assumed $24 million of debt.
Put another way: Lerner's estimated worth since purchasing the soccer team has dropped from $1.6 billion, according to Forbes, to $1.08 billion. To quote Jackie Chiles, the ambulance-chasing attorney from Seinfeld: "This is the most public yet of my many humiliations."
Lerner's plight could serve as a cautionary tale for future American billionaires interested in buying European soccer teams.
Lerner isn't a bad person. On the contrary, he's a charitable man and a well-intentioned owner. But when it comes to operating a sports franchise there's the Midas touch and the Lerner touch. He could buy Lionel Messi tomorrow and watch the Barcelona talisman dissolve into Gerard Warren in a year.
The son of Browns' patriarch Alfred Lerner could not wait to unload the franchise four years ago to Jimmy Haslam for roughly $1 billion. No more angry Browns fans or dysfunction he thought. But given the details of the Forbes report you can bet Lerner longs for the socialistic construct of the NFL with its salary cap, even distribution of TV revenues and the awarding of higher draft picks to struggling teams.
These owner-friendly features don't exist in the cut-throat world of international club soccer. If Lerner struggled for footing on a level playing field in Cleveland you can imagine what's happened to him on the other side of the pond. He hasn't been able to keep pace with the escalating salaries driven by English sides such as Manchester City and Chelsea. Despite early success under old manager Martin O'Neil, Villa has flirted with relegation in each of the past five years.
Lerner's reign has produced a trail of fired coaches and a growing reluctance to speak publicly. Sound familiar? Current manager Remi Garde has begged Lerner or his chief executive to speak with irate fans who are pouring out frustrations on the players.
Haslam hasn't improved the Browns' fortunes and the Pilot Flying J scandal has fueled the never-ending controversy surrounding the franchise. To his credit, Haslam addresses the media multiple times a year, and in January said organization's failures start with him.
Meanwhile, Lerner has been a ghost around Villa Park. He put the club up for sale in 2014 with a reported asking price of $290 million. A year ago, there were rumors a group was willing to pay $222 million if Villa avoided being dropped to the ironically named "Championship" league. The club not only escaped relegation but reached the FA Cup Final.
Why Lerner didn't cut his losses and take the best available offer isn't clear. He sold two of his best players, Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph, for $60 million in transfer fees, which proved to be a Pyrrhic windfall.
Villa has been brutal all season – worse than the 1999 and 2015 Browns combined. The shame of taking Villa into relegation likely cements Lerner's legacy of sports ownership. Only Everton, a Liverpool-based side, has spent more years (113) in England's top flight than Villa (105.)
And unless Lerner sells the team or pumps millions into salary, Villa could follow the fate of Leeds United – a once-proud franchise unable to return to the top tier.
Villa fans used to sing the praises of Randy Lerner, but the tune and tone have changed dramatically.
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