Chapter 696: Team Plans

The black Rolls-Royce had barely come to a stop outside a hotel along the River Thames when dozens of reporters and paparazzi swarmed it like flies scenting blood. If the security detail hadn't instantly formed a human wall in front of the vehicle, the crowd would have swallowed it whole.

The door opened from the inside. The moment Duke stepped out of the car, a torrential storm of camera shutters and overlapping questions slammed into him.

"Mr. Rosenberg..."

"Director Rosenberg..."

Duke couldn't possibly answer anything over the chaotic din. The reporters and paparazzi seemed to realize this; a tacit order quickly settled over the crowd until only the few journalists crammed at the very front were shouting questions.

"Has Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows been delayed?"

A reporter from The Sun shouted the loudest. "Rumor has it production stalled because the studio refuses to budge on cast salaries! Is there a bitter standoff between the two sides? Are the rumors true? When will this be resolved?"

Duke stopped and pressed his hands down. Once the crowd outside the hotel quieted slightly, he said, "The Harry Potter production is a unified team. Every reasonable demand from the cast will be met. The studio is working hard to finalize the actors' new contracts, and it won't be long before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is officially greenlit."

Leaving it at that, he ignored the ensuing questions and let his security detail escort him into the hotel.

Someone was already waiting for him. The moment Duke stepped into the lobby, a man with the distinct bearing of an English butler came forward to greet him.

"Right this way, Mr. Rosenberg."

He led Duke to a private elevator. They rode up to the third floor and stepped out into a massive banquet hall. Duke was running a little late, and the party had already started.

"Hey, Duke."

"Hi, Rupert."

Stepping further into the hall, Duke shook hands with Rupert Murdoch. "Apologies," he said. "Reporters chased me on the way out, and another pack swarmed me when I got here. It held me up."

Rupert Murdoch waved it off. "Not a problem."

Hundreds of guests filled the banquet hall, but Duke and Murdoch belonged to the absolute highest echelon. Following Murdoch's lead, Duke approached a small, exclusive circle in the room. Only a handful of people sat around the arranged sofas, yet every single one of them was a prominent figure.

Among them were Len Blavatnik—one of Britain's wealthiest billionaires and the largest individual shareholder of Warner Records—and Tony Blair, who had recently stepped down as the British Prime Minister.

"Hi, Duke."

Len Blavatnik had met Duke a few times at Warner in the past. "You're late. Did Rupert's reporters hold you up?"

Hearing the tease, Duke offered a slight shrug and said, "Reporters from The Sun are always leading the charge."

The group shared a laugh.

Rupert Murdoch then formally introduced the famed politician. "Duke, this is Tony Blair. Just call him Tony. Tony, this is Duke Rosenberg. You can call him Duke."

"A pleasure to meet you, Tony." Duke took the initiative to extend a hand.

The former leader of the Labour Party gave it a firm shake. "The pleasure is mine."

As Duke took a seat in a single armchair after shaking hands with Tony Blair, he cast a subtle, fleeting glance at Murdoch's wife. Rumors of her affair with Blair had once made headlines worldwide. He wondered if they were still sneaking around together.

The thought vanished as quickly as it came. Whether or not Rupert Murdoch was being made a cuckold was none of his business.

The conversation continuously circled back to the British political landscape. As an outsider, Duke spent most of his time listening and rarely offered his own input. Still, he could read between the lines: Rupert Murdoch had run into some trouble following the new Prime Minister's rise to power.

Duke could easily guess what those troubles entailed, but he had no desire to get involved. The phone-hacking scandal would certainly deal a blow to Rupert Murdoch, but it wouldn't be a fatal strike.

It was true that he and Murdoch were partners, but a less-than-omnipotent News Group was exactly what Duke preferred to see.

Just as he had no real desire to see News Group acquire Time Warner, an overly powerful News Group simply didn't align with his own interests.

Duke knew full well that the phone-hacking scandal had dragged down News Group's expansion, dealing a heavy blow to Rupert Murdoch's grand ambitions.

Murdoch was getting old, and the infighting within his family had grown incredibly vicious. It would be impossible for News Group to expand and grow at its previous breakneck pace in the future.

Had that not been the case, Duke never would have chosen to partner with him.

Of course, neither he nor Murdoch was foolish enough to actually trust the other. Both men knew perfectly well that neither of them was a saint.

Warner Fox World was slated to officially break ground in Shanghai next year. This massive project, which Duke had single-handedly pushed forward, served as the largest bond tying their mutual interests together.

The two sides collaborated, yet there was never any shortage of competition between them. Such was the nature of the business world.

As the conversation flowed, Duke and Rupert Murdoch struck up another investment deal. Alongside Len Blavatnik, they agreed to invest in Tony Blair's upcoming political and economic consulting firm, the Blair Association.

He might have stepped down as Prime Minister, but the vast network of political and business connections Blair had cultivated over the years could prove incredibly useful at the right moment.

However, their conversation ended there as an outsider to their tight-knit circle walked over.

"Russian nouveau riche." Spotting the approaching man, Len Blavatnik gave a dismissive shrug and walked away entirely, evidently holding some grievances against Roman Abramovich.

Despite his desperate attempts to break into Western high society, Roman Abramovich still faced his fair share of ostracization.

After exchanging a few brief pleasantries with the man, Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch excused themselves to mingle elsewhere, leaving Duke entirely alone with him.

Unlike the others, Duke never underestimated anyone. If a pig somehow managed to amass Abramovich's net worth, that alone would prove it was one incredibly formidable pig.

"I actually thought our teams might end up facing off in the Premier League."

It only took a few sentences for the Russian billionaire to steer the topic toward soccer. "But then you withdrew your bid for Man United..."

"Their asking price was completely absurd," Duke replied, tossing out a casual excuse. "It went well past what I was willing to pay."

Abramovich sat across from him and pressed, "And now? Are you still interested? The Arabs have their eyes on Premier League clubs as well and want in on the game. It won't be long before this league becomes the most watched professional sports league in the entire world."

An Abu Dhabi consortium was currently in the process of acquiring the Manchester City Club. Duke had read about it in the papers shortly after arriving in London.

However, his interest in English soccer simply wasn't that deep. He shook his head and said, "I don't have any plans for that in the near future."

Compared to soccer, his interest lay much more heavily in American football. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles area didn't have an NFL team, or else he would have put in a bid a long time ago.

In truth, it wasn't that he hadn't considered it. The Oakland Raiders, located up in the San Francisco Bay Area, were his primary target.

Founded in 1960, the team was one of the original eight franchises of the American Football League (AFL). They had relocated to Los Angeles in 1982 and rebranded as the Los Angeles Raiders, only to move back to Oakland in 1995.

The team's current owner was Al Davis. He was getting on in years and didn't boast particularly deep pockets, yet he had served interchangeably as the Raiders' coach, general manager, and owner over the decades. Under his leadership and management, the Raiders had secured one AFL Championship and three Super Bowl titles. Out of forty-eight seasons, they had posted a winning percentage of over .500 in twenty-eight of them, which included a remarkable sixteen-year streak of winning seasons from 1965 to 1980.

With the economic crisis currently sweeping across the United States, Al Davis hadn't been spared. While NFL franchises still boasted excellent profitability, his investments in other sectors had plunged him into a severe financial crisis.

One of Duke's representatives had reached out to him last month, but Davis hadn't been particularly keen on selling. He was especially opposed to the inevitable reality that Duke would relocate the team back to Los Angeles upon purchasing them. As things stood, the two sides were only in the preliminary contact phase; they hadn't even commenced formal negotiations yet.

However, there were always ways to force someone's hand into selling. For instance, Duke's investment agent, David, had already reached out to the banks and financial foundations that held Al Davis's loans. It wouldn't be long before those creditors came knocking to collect on his debts...

Naturally, Duke wasn't completely fixated on the purchase. If the cost proved too exorbitant or the sheer difficulty too high, he could easily walk away.

David had previously advised him to buy the Los Angeles Clippers instead, but unfortunately, Duke knew absolutely nothing about basketball and didn't hold a single shred of interest in the NBA.

In truth, Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers were a solid alternative. Their influence within Los Angeles was on par with both of the city's NBA teams; the only issue was that acquiring them would be even harder than prying away the Oakland Raiders.

Furthermore, the Los Angeles Dodgers boasted a valuation well over 1.5 billion dollars—making them worth more than the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers combined.

Staring down a sum of that magnitude, even Duke needed to weigh the decision very carefully.

A capital investment that immense wasn't something he could simply toss around on a whim; it would ripple outward, affecting every single facet of his business empire.

"It's a shame you arrived so late," Abramovich said, visibly eager to get on Duke's good side. "Otherwise, we could have attended the European Championship together."

"I heard Spain took the title?"

While he had no intention of forging a deep friendship with the man, Duke wasn't one to thoughtlessly swat away an olive branch. He maintained basic politeness and indulged Abramovich's topic. "I don't watch a lot of soccer, but I do appreciate Spain's possession-based style of play..."

Abramovich laughed. "My own team is evolving in that very direction. You're always welcome to come catch a match at Stamford Bridge."