British sport is heading the US way as the financial giants take over, says ALEX BRUMMER

All my Boxing Day experiences are about the outdoors. As a young adult in my native Brighton area my brother Daniel and l, together with some friends, had a routine.

In the morning, it would be a visit to the dog track in Hove for a flutter at the annual holiday meeting.

Then back to my parents’ home for chicken soup and cold turkey before legging it the old Goldstone Ground to watch Brighton & Hove Albion, then usually in the old Second Division.

Later, in married life, when the holidays were spent with my wife’s family in Cardiff, the routine was different. We would make the short journey to nearby Caerphilly to watch the hunt set out, all bright red coats, ruddy faces and beautifully trim horses, and a pack of hounds. Then we would set off for a hike across the hills.

Sports on the day after Christmas is now dominated by the Premier League fixtures in much the same way as the National Football League (NFL) occupies the Thanksgiving Holiday in the US.

The Americanisation of Premier League soccer continues apace with eleven clubs in US ownership and Everton now fully controlled by Houston-based The Friedkin Group. We have already seen at Chelsea, under the leadership of Todd Boehly, how US ownership brings a new perspective to management.

The free and easy transfer system in Europe means that at most clubs, short-termism prevails. 

Managers come and go, and players’ contracts have been short, requiring constant renewal.

Fenway Sports Group are learning this to their cost at Liverpool this season. Success on the field of play is counterbalanced by ageing assets such as defender Virgil van Dijk.

Longevity is treasured in America – and is costly. The owner of the New York Mets baseball franchise, the hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, just lavished $756m (£600m) on luring Juan Soto – the current Lionel Messi of the big leagues – across town from the Yankees on a 15-year contract.

The last such big deal in baseball was when Todd Boehly, the very same person, lured Japanese superstar all-rounder Shohei Ohtani to the Los Angeles Dodgers for $700m (£560m) over ten years. It seems to be paying off. The Dodgers comfortably won the World Series in 2024.

Boehly and colleagues were widely criticised when they arrived at Chelsea FC. A decision to put expensive buys such as £100m Ecuadorean midfielder Moisés Caicedo and bright young star Cole Palmer on seven-year contracts and upwards was seen as bizarre.

It brought two benefits, however. The cost of the asset, the player, could be amortised over several years, avoiding Premier League fair play rules. It also brought a winning stability to the playing staff.

The race for cash: Private equity giant CVC runs Formula 1 and is changing racing

All sports have something to learn from the American approach.

The masters of the financialisation of sport are at the London offices of private equity barons CVC. 

Techniques pioneered at Formula 1 are being adapted to a range of sports across the globe.

These include sports such as women’s tennis, volleyball, Six Nations Rugby and much else. Opportunities for monetising sports using social media platforms, TV streaming and commercial and franchising rights have multiplied.

Greyhound racing may have been sidelined by animal rights activists, but there is no shortage of other athletic enterprises ready for a financial makeover.