The headline is more or less the assessment of the chairman of one of England's largest investment banks, who today tells The Times in the U.K. that the owner of Your Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers is about to get credit-crunched right outta Liverpool. (Which, of course, would be fine with fans of Liverpool FC, who've kicked against the Hicks since damned near Day One.) Hicks and partner George Gillett are up to their arses in debt: £350 million worth, to be precise, which I believe comes to $523.7 trillion once converted to U.S., though I may be off.
Regardless, the note's due January 25, and observers wonder whether the twosome will get a six-month extension considering that the lenders, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, are more or less owned by the government following the Brits' recent bank bailout. Notes the paper: "MPs have lobbied [Prime Minister] Gordon Brown to prevent the bank from giving the Americans extra time to repay the loan when many believe that they are not in a position, financially, to do that, let alone fund a new 60,000-seat stadium." Maybe Hicks and Jerry Jones could go halvsies? --Robert Wilonsky
