U.S. tycoons buy Liverpool soccer club

LIVERPOOL, England, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Two U.S. sports team owners are buying the Liverpool soccer club of the English Premiership for $340 million.

Texas Rangers baseball team owner George Gillett and Tom Hicks, owner of the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League, will become co-chairmen of the soccer team and each will have one son on Liverpool's board.

Liverpool is currently third in the Premiership standings behind Manchester United and Chelsea, and is about to break ground on a new 60,000-seat stadium.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was expected to be retained and the new ownership was considering selling naming rights to the stadium to provide additional funding for team operations.