The first purpose of the Serie A season will only take place this weekend, and already the first Italian football league has experienced its first shock: one of the oldest groups in the league will start playing under the direction of a corporation in the middle of the American Midwest.
Parma Calcio 1913, named after the year of its creation and known as Parma, today announced that the Krause Group, founded in Iowa, would buy 90% of the team as part of a deal that values the club at more than $100 million, an unexpected change. for a team mired in bankruptcy and caught at the D-Series low point just five years ago.
“I have a hobby for the country and a hobby for football,” says Kyle Krause, a member of the third-generation family circle that runs the company that bears his name. “I amassed those hobbies and looked for the opportunity to buy a team. . Parma has a wonderful legacy.
Krause Group’s main one is its 400 Kum convenience stores
Parma has an even richer history. She is one of seven sisters, the nickname of the seven Italian football groups that, for a decade since the mid-1990s, were among the most productive clubs in the world and played in front of crowded stadiums in each and every game. Corruption and mismanagement derailed several Italian groups while other European leagues gained importance, and none were beaten more than Parma.
The club declared the club bancrupt in 2004 after a monetary accounting scandal hit its majority shareholder, Italian food giant Parmalat. The club reformed later in the year, but filed for bankruptcy in 2015 when it was relegated to the Italian fourth division, Serie D, in Serie A. .
A Parmesan marketers’ organization, nicknamed Nuovo Inizio, or “New Beginning”, took the team and introduced an unprecedented three-year career in Italian football for back-to-back promotions and returning to Serie A in 2018. the club after the agreement with Krause. ” We need them as partners. It was the other people in Parma who stored the team and will help us be smarter as we learn,” says Kyle Krause.
Fans have supported the club on its roller coaster ride, with more tickets sold only in its 2015–16 Serie D season than last year in Serie A. Nuovo Inizio introduced a collective funding plan in 2015, called Parma Partecipazioni Calcistiche (PPC), which attracted more than 800 enthusiasts who each contributed at least 500 euros to the asset group. CPP will keep its 1% ownership percentage in the future.
The interests of Krause’s family circle are deeply rooted in Italy. In addition to a space in the Italian piedmont region, they have two wineries, Vietti and Enrico Serafino. They are also building a five-star hotel and resort, Casa di Langa, and have recently acquired a hotel at the moment in the area.
Parma will be the fourth Serie A team to be held through an American, joining AC Milan, AS Roma and Fiorentina. Rome bought last month through Texas auto racer tycoon Dan Friedkin, which is worth $4. 1 billion. The deal of approximately $700 million represented significant relief from the $850 million Friedkin would have had to pay earlier in 2020 before he hit the coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic is genuine and we don’t have stadium enthusiasts, yet we’re looking to build for long-term success,” says Krause, who needs to keep the team in his circle of relatives for generations. Not Serie A. I hope to have regular-season game enthusiasts until at least October, however, Parma has been given permission to host 1,000 enthusiasts for a pre-season friendly against Empoli on Sunday. 19 pandemics.
Parma recorded sales of $57 million in the 2018–19 season, the last full season played with fans. Approximately 75% of the total came from broadcast rates, with game day and sponsorships being the other major revenue.
Krause sees an opportunity in the club’s home, Il Tardini, which can only accommodate 22,352 spectators and is one of the oldest stadiums in Italy, having opened in 1924. Italy has fallen to other countries with stadium investments, and Krause needs to reshape the fan experience. He says he already has an agreement with the municipality to make a “spectacular reform. “
Krause can take advantage of his two decades of delight as the owner of Des Moines Menace, a USL League Two football team. His son Tanner, who is president of Kum
But Krause acknowledges that there is a difference between a football team in a league of declining points and the most sensitive in the pyramid of Italian football. “Parma has a logo known all over the world thanks to its good fortune in the 1990s,” he said. says. ” Opportunities are there. “
I am an editor at Forbes and mainly in sports activities and our annual franchise ratings. I also spend a lot of time exploring what
I am an editor at Forbes and mainly in sports activities and our annual franchise ratings. I also spend a lot of time researching what athletes earn in and out of the game box. I profiled an organization of athletes with a name: LeBron, Shaq, Danica and others. I also started our biennial B-School ranking; Annual articles about Best Places for Business (metro, state and country); and the most productive U. S. banks. I joined Forbes in 1998 after working for 3 years at Financial World magazine. Email: kbadenhausen@forbes. com.