Jeff Cooper was High Bidder for Nike Sale of USL
Jeff Cooper
Inside Minnesota Soccer and Kartik Krishnaiyer of Major League Soccer Talk have been continuing to gather information concerning the story of the sale of USL to NuRock. We hoped to bring you that story Monday morning and planned on including the name of the 3rd party who had made the highest bid to Nike. That party was awarded the bid several weeks ago and was in the final stages of the due diligence period when told that USL had suddenly been sold to NuRock Soccer Holdings.
Unfortunately the website, MLS Rumors, contacted Kartik Krishnaiyer on Friday night and notified him they were breaking the story stating exactly who that third party was.
IMS and Major League Soccer Talk still plan on bringing you that detailed story on Monday morning. For now we will tell you that the Third Party was Jeff Cooper of St. Louis.
Cooper, a very respected name in the Midwest soccer scene had joined forces with a number of other investors. It’s been said that Cooper was still in contact with Nike lawyers as late as Wednesday afternoon and there was no hint of trouble in the negotiations. Several sources who did not want to go on record stated that Cooper was stunned to hear that the USL had been sold to NuRock.
The USL owners group had been working closely with Cooper the last several weeks after he was announced as the high bidder by Nike. It was also reported that Cooper was within a day or two of completing the transaction and Nike gave him no warning of this 11th hour switch.
We have also learned that there were no attempts from the USL front office to contact any of the USL-1 owners, notifying them of the sale of the league. Most of those USL owners found out about the sale to NuRock on Thursday through the same press release that was sent out to the general public and published on the USL website.
Watch for the detailed story on Monday that will take you through the events of the last several years that brought us to the current sale of USL to NuRock Holdings.
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Given the recent track record of holding companies in other industries, this cannot bode well if NuRock ultimately wins out.
MLSRumors is the soccer equivalent of the National Enquirer. Nobody believes a single word posted on their website. They can’t “scoop” anyone because ridiculous fabrications aren’t news.