Mike Urwin for The New York Times - The frozen foods billionaire Bob Rich has become a supporter of the Bedlington Terriers, in red. 
BEDLINGTON, England — The phone first rang a year ago in January. The caller identified himself as Bob Rich, a billionaire American businessman and said he wanted to sponsor the Bedlington Terriers soccer club. This had to be a joke.A guy named Rich wanted to help finance a team that played at a stadium called Welfare Park? Right.
Americans invest in English soccer teams, but they open their wallets for big clubs in the Premier League: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa. Who would possibly be interested in the Bedlington Terriers?
Bedlington is a small team from the northeast of England, near the Scottish border. Its players are semiprofessional. Matches draw 60 to 100 fans. The team’s video department consists of a guy who stands behind the goal and captures highlights on his iPhone.
Bedlington is situated in what was once a center of England’s coal-mining industry. The mines were closed long ago Trains no longer stop at the local station. It is now a bedroom community of about 15,000, with many people commuting to work in nearby Newcastle.“I thought someone was winding me up,” said David Holmes, the team’s chairman.
But Mr. Rich was serious. He is a frozen-food millionaire from Buffalo, the chairman of Rich Products Corporation, with an estimated wealth of $2 billions who already owns three minor league baseball teams.
“There were a lot of similarities to Buffalo,” Mr. Rich, 70, said in a telephone interview. “They lost their mining and we lost our steel milling.”
That affinity led to one of the more improbable alliances in the world of international sports.
From the beginning, Mr. Rich made it clear that he did not want to buy the Bedlington team. Instead, Mr. Rich bought a jersey sponsorship for about $16,000 a season and a new scoreboard costing $50,000, but he never promised to “splash the cash.”
The new scoreboard will flash advertising and show video highlights. Mr. Rich plans to sell Bedlington jerseys at his minor league ballparks in the United States. He also hopes to persuade members of Bedlington terrier dog clubs in the United States to buy jerseys, shirts, jackets, scarves and hats featuring the woolly dog on the official team crest. Proceeds from merchandise sales will go to the soccer team.
The aims are to attract more sponsors, boost finances and sign better players. Now the club is run on an annual budget of about $128,000. Some stars in the Premier League make twice that in a week.
"We want to help them help themselves,” Mr. Rich said.
Mr. Rich saw the Terriers play twice - in March 2010 and again in late January 2011 for his 70th birthday.
Mr. Rich was researching his genealogical history last year when he found an ancestor called the Lord of Bedlington.
“I didn’t even know where it was,” he said. “So I checked a map.”
Then he jokingly told his wife, Mindy, “I should be a lord.”
She replied, “I’ll buy a title for you.” Lord of Bedlington happened to be available. These titles can be bought for as little as about $325, and his was on the low end, Mr. Rich said.
Stuart Elliott, 33, the Bedlington captain who has played on bigger clubs said, “So far Mr. Rich has done what he said he would do. And he spent his 70th birthday watching us. He could have been on an island somewhere. We appreciate that.”
This season Bedlington ranks seventh in league play, not great but encouraging enough for locals to believe that better times may be ahead.
adapted from The New York Times
