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A business owned by the Glazer family that also owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Premier League’s publicly traded Manchester United —teams worth a combined $5.4 billion at United’s current enterprise value— received a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the Small Business Administration report issued on Monday. Glazer Management, a commercial real estate company run 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 the loan was filed for a business operating as a sports team, spokespeople for Glazer Management and the Buccaneers separately said that the funds were used for the real estate business and that neither team had access to the money. Still, it is listed among the 531 PPP loans, collectively worth between $173 million and $429 million, that had been made available to sports teams and related spectator enterprises as of June 30.
After the Los Angeles Lakers, the second-most-valuable team in the NBA, worth $4.4 billion, were publicly shamed into returning $4.6 million of PPP money in April, the sports world seemed to take stock in whether it should take assistance from the coronavirus lending program. The biggest criticisms of the PPP loan program have been the SBA’s lack of oversight in approving loans, the number of loan applications by wealthy individuals and public companies with access to other equity markets, and the awarding of money to organizations that don’t necessarily fit most people’s idea of a small business.
The appearance of the Glazers’ company on the latest list of loan recipients shows that the pushback did not eliminate those problems. Forbes estimates that the family’s worth is just outside the list of the world’s 20 richest sports team owners. And neither Glazer Management nor the Buccaneers could explain why the company used the sports industry classification on its loan application if the money was intended for the real estate business.
Perhaps anticipating blowback, the four major U.S. leagues’ front offices decided to sit out both rounds of PPP loans, each telling Forbes in April that they had not and were not going to apply.
It was 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 reported that at least 12 clubs had had PPP applications approved but that not all of them were sure they would accept the funds.
As of yesterday, it appeared that at least five did. The league’s newest expansion team, Inter Miami, received between $1 million and $2 million, as did D.C. United and the Philadelphia Union. The Seattle Sounders and Orlando City Soccer Holdings, which is also the parent of the NWSL’s Orlando Pride, each received between $2 million and $5 million.
The National Women’s Soccer League made no qualms about receiving money. In an interview with the New York Times last week, commissioner Lisa Baird said that the money was being used to cover player salaries and that it had helped her league become the first U.S. team sport league to return to play when the Challenge Cup kicked off on June 27. All players were guaranteed their full season’s pay plus benefits whether they participated in the tournament or not. She and other front office staff members took pay cuts.
Although minor league baseball’s season was in peril from the start of the coronavirus shutdown and was canceled entirely last week, several teams, including affiliates of the New York Yankees (the most valuable MLB team, at $5 billion) and the Boston Red Sox (worth $3.3 billion), received loans.
While esports helped fill a void left after live sports shut down, several companies in that space filed for loans. FaZe Clan, which closed a $40 million funding round in April and is worth $240 million, received up to $2 million. Envy Gaming, which competes as the Dallas Empire in Call of Duty’s league and as the Dallas Fuel in the Overwatch League, were approved for a loan in the same range.
The loans went beyond teams. Iconic bat maker Louisville Slugger, which missed out on money available in the first round, received upwards of $2 million in the second round of PPP loans and brought back 171 furloughed staff members as baseball tries to return to the field.
Several agents and talent agencies also registered on the SBA’s list. Scott Boras, who banked $118.8 million in contract commissions last year to rank No. 2 among the most powerful sports agents in the world, took between $1 million and $2 million for his agency and upwards of another $700,000 for his marketing firm 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 there is about $130 billion remaining in the pot.
Disclosure: Forbes Media was approved to receive between $5 million and $10 million in PPP funds, according to SBA data.
