I would like to get… richer. More rich?

From Bloomberg:

Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) co-founder Josh Harris is close to an agreement to buy Crystal Palace, two people with direct knowledge of the talks said, a deal that would make him the fifth owner of both a major U.S. sports franchise and a team in soccer’s English Premier League.

The people requested anonymity because the contract isn’t complete.

This isn’t the first time Harris’ name has come up surrounding the purchase of an English Premier League team. In June, it was reported that he had interest in Aston Villa. That never happened. Here’s what I wrote then about the prospect of him owning a soccer team:

Harris and his companies have a history of buying up distressed properties and turning them around. He’s already probably more than doubled his investment in the Sixers (thanks to national TV revenue) and eventually the same will be able to be said for his investment in Devils. Aston Villa is a small-time English Premier League team, but, they still play in the Premier League (so long as they don’t get relegated) and with the wind at soccer’s back, the sport’s growing popularity in the US, and the potential for a MASSIVE broadcast rights deal when the league’s current three-year, $250 million deal with NBC is up in two years, there’s little doubt that owning a team is a money-making proposition. What’s more interesting, however, is that Harris has aggressively entered the sports market. He bought the Sixers in 2011, the Devils in 2013, and may buy Aston Villa in 2014. We’ve already seen what he can do with a multi-sport advertising partnership in just the US, now imagine the possibilities if his sports interests go international. And better yet, here’s a line I’d consider dropping if I were Harris, which I’m not, because I don’t floss with the finely woven hair of a beaver: Hey LeBron, so you want to be the first billionaire athlete? How about you come work for a billionaire who is reinventing franchise ownership as we know it? Maybe we can make you the central figure in the largest sports sponsorship deal of all-time. How’s that sound.

Replace Aston Villa with Crystal Palace (that’s what Harris did) and everything else stays the same. Just, um, never mind the LeBron thing. It was a long summer.