Fowler drawn to Lincoln by 'David and Goliath' appeal

Aspiring owner Ron Fowler says the "David and Goliath" appeal of Lincoln City is a big reason why he wants to take over the League One promotion chasers.

The 81-year-old former executive chairman and co-owner of Major League Baseball team San Diego Padres is set to take a controlling stake and become chairman of the English third-tier side.

Lincoln sit second in League One, well placed in pursuit of one of the two automatic promotion spots to reach the Championship – a level the Imps have not played at for 65 years.

Four of the teams in the top seven alongside Lincoln have played in the Premier League in the past 15 years - a timeframe during which the Imps played non-league football.

"This David and Goliath mentality that exists here with the community and the team is fun," Fowler told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

"You can't compete with the big dogs by doing things the way they do it. You have to come up with a different way of doing it.

"The expression I've used for years is 'keep on changing the game until you find one you can win'.

"And we are not coming in to do that - they are two-thirds the way through the process and we will just allow them to complete it."

It was less than 10 years ago that Lincoln were playing National League football - having spent six seasons in England's fifth tier - before two promotions in three years returned them to League One in 2019.

Fowler first bought a minority stake in the club in April 2024, and now they are pushing for promotion to a division that will demand levels of investment and player recruitment unlike anything previous successes have needed.

What Fowler brings is elite sporting knowhow, having been heavily involved in the Padres for a decade after he headed a group that took control of the MLB side in 2012.

He worked as executive chairman there until 2020, then took up the role of vice-chairman before his involvement in the club came to an end in 2022.

His extensive experience in an organisation that was last year valued at $1.95bn (around £1.43bn) has helped him quickly get to grips with the lower tiers of English football where there are no such substantial sums of money.

Deloitte, in its annual analysis of football finances,, external last year found that League One clubs reported an average pre-tax loss of £5.2m.

Lincoln's most recently available accounts relating to the 2024-25 season showed they lost just under £2.9m in a year they generated a club record £8.5m.

When asked what he could take from his time at the Padres and the MLB to use at Lincoln and in the English Football League, Fowler said: "The biggest thing is there are all kinds of crazy owners.

"There were a lot of crazy owners in baseball, some that did things that were counterintuitive, and it would appear, based on what I've seen, heard and read, there is a lot of that in the EFL, especially in League One.

"I think we have sanity here and we will continue to have sanity."