Mark Attanasio successfully acquired a stake in Norwich and this is actually quite big news for most Norwich fans. We knew that the whole investment group flew over for talks from America and also saw Norwich lose 5-0 to Tottenham leaving most Norwich fans thinking that we would not see them back again.
Then just a few months later the rumours became stronger through sources close to the club and then when the club finally released a statement saying that they called a board meeting with all the relevant stakeholders and directors. On 13th September it was officially announced that the investment group headed by Attanasio acquired 16% stakes after former Norwich City Director Michael Foulger said that we wished to step down as a director but explicitly stated that he wanted to make sure that when he sold his shares it was to the right people.
This saw Michael Foulger become a honorary president after 26 years of dedication to the club and some people my age may not have been alive to fully appreciate what he did for this club but after listening to listening to the other fans it was investment that had potentially saved us from going bust and then also he injected cash for us to purchase Grant Holt who went on to become one of the best ever players at Norwich City.
Some people will never have heard of Mark Attanasio and I said the same thing but after a few weeks of reading various articles from news outlets in America. Mark Attanasio is a Businessman from New York and he is also the principle owner of the MLB team the Milwaukee Brewers who he along with his investment group bought for $223 Million in September 2003. He became owner at a very difficult time in their club’s history when he joined the club and not made a single final since 1982.
He is also known to not try and jump to make drastic changes quickly and this was quite clear as when he joined, he did not sack any of the staff and instead stood behind them and tried to help them develop them and their development pathway to the senior squad. In 2008 the Milwaukee Brewers made their first post season appearance in over 26 years despite the number of setbacks this signalled to the fans a new era.
After that 4 year later, they finally got the national trophy that had eluded them for so long in a big win against the Arizona Diamondbacks and then they went on to lose narrowly to the eventual world series champions St Louis Cardinals.