Pompey chairman Michael Eisner has been speaking about his Blues ownership

Michael Eisner has admitted running Pompey is ‘very exciting’ but also ‘very expensive’ in an interview he has given Stateside.

The Blues’ billionaire chairman also reiterated his hope that the Independent Footballer Regulator (IFR) will level the playing field in English football and help make the economics of running a football club at Championship level, in particular, less difficult.

Indeed, he stressed the economics ‘will get better’ once the watchdog is fully functional later this year. It’s due to publish a draft version of it’s State of the Game report within the next 10 months and is currently reviewing the parachute payments clubs receive from the Premier League following relegation over a three-season period.

The IFR will also have 'backstop powers' to mediate a financial settlement if the Premier League and EFL continue to fail to reach an agreement on the distribution of the game’s wealth.

Eisner: ‘Everybody loses money’

Eisner, whose Tornante group purchased the Blues for £5.67m in August 2017, was speaking to American journalist Graham Bensinger as part of his ‘In Depth’ series.

The 83-year-old also spoke about his time at Disney and the work that has gone into creating his Malibu home. But it’s his thoughts on his ongoing Pompey build that will have attracted attention on this side of the pond.

It’s been nearly two years since Eisner last spoke to either The News or BBC Solent, with a November 2025 pre-recorded video for the Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust the last time the Fratton faithful have heard from their owner. So when he does speak, people take notice.

And it’s his admission that running Pompey - who are currently 21st in the Championship table - hasn’t come cheap will have made fans sit up and take notice, especially as the Blues continue to operate one of the lowest playing budgets in the division.

When asked by Bensinger how things stand today compared to where he expected it to be nearly eight years into his Fratton Park tenure, Eisner said: ‘Well, I didn't expect to win the World Series for the (Anaheim) Angels. I didn't expect to get in the Stanley Cup for the (Mighty) Ducks. Nobody expected that.

‘We've been at it for seven or eight years. The pyramid in English football, the pyramid starts with a Premier League with 20 teams, and then there's 72 teams in the EFL below the pyramid. And we're now in the league just below the Premier League, the Championship.

‘It's very exciting and very expensive. Everybody loses money. Parliament has made a law with an administrator who's going to adjudicate how the money gets determined.

‘Right now, the Premier League, with the media, takes 96 percent of the revenue for 20 teams and four percent goes to the other 72 teams, which means the other 72 teams are all losing money and going broke, except for the ones that are owned by super billionaires and Eastern monarchs and things like that.

‘So the economics are very difficult, but they’ll get better. ‘

‘There was no value’

Eisner has put approximately £37m into the Blues since 2017, including £10m of shared capital as part of the purchase agreement. That overall figure includes £19m spent on bringing Fratton Park up to modern standards.

Despite that level of investment, though, part of the attraction was knowing he was getting Pompey for ‘no value’, while Eisner was also keen on ‘building something from scratch’.

‘We looked all over the world. We first looked at the MLS, which seemed overpriced to me at the time,’ said Eisner.

‘We looked at teams in Europe, but it seemed the only real centre for football/soccer was in the UK.

‘We looked at teams in the UK, (negotiated with a couple of Premier League teams), but at the end of the day I just wanted to build something from scratch.

‘We really were the Wrexham strategy, three years before Wrexham. And I thought, geez, I didn't want to be in England and be Hollywood. We would just concentrate on sports.

‘Ryan Reynolds got ahead of us smartly and went to northern Wales. We went to southern England, and we're building a team up from scratch.’

He added: ‘It (Pompey) was attractive because there was no value, so we were able to get in there...

‘I didn’t realise how much we’d have to spend to bring it back, but it was what I like, instead of buying up here (moving his arm), we’re buying down here and then getting up there.

‘By multiples (was spent bringing it back than purchasing the club). We did a lot of due diligence, we were underestimating, we had to build a whole new stand, sprinkler systems, exits, safe standing, the food was awful, and we’re still working on things.’

For your next Pompey read: Eisner's long-term strategy raising big questions now for Portsmouth's ambitions