LONDON (AP) -George Gillett Jr. has experienced the hostility of fans from Montreal to Liverpool but it never gets any easier.
The 70-year-old sports tycoon acknowledges the magnitude of his duty to supporters of the ice hockey, motorsport and football teams that rely on his investment.
"You feel a responsibility and an embarrassment on occasions when you haven't provided all that you might have," Gillett told The Associated Press. "There's a level of embarrassment and you want to correct that quickly."
Not just at Premier League football club Liverpool, but also in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens and in NASCAR with Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
Gillett has endured a torrid year of personal abuse at Liverpool, which he co-owns with Tom Hicks.
Much of the supporters' anger centers on the 18-time English champion's debt and the stalling of construction on a new stadium due to the credit crunch. However, crosstown rival Everton's hopes for a new stadium are in turmoil and the London Olympic 2012 project also shows that economic concerns aren't just Liverpool's domain.
"All the sports teams I know of are re-examining all of their futures, but I think it's a universal not just a sports issue," Gillett said. "People making this straight-line connection between the world financial crisis - and sports may be in trouble.
"It's more a story of needing to be cautious and it's not a time to be profligate and so forth as opposed to saying, 'World financial crisis sports must be in trouble."'
In fact, Gillett entered the race this month to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Montreal and Indian sports are on his radar after several trips to the subcontinent.
In the hockey rinks of North America and the football pitches of Europe, Gillett's assets are thriving.
Liverpool is on the crest of a wave. Not only have tensions thawed between Gillett and Hicks - the owner of the MLB's Texas Rangers and the NHL's Dallas Stars - but the Reds are top the Premier League, raising hopes of a first English league title since 1990.
Trophies would help heal the owners' relationship with fans.
Just 56 kilometers (35 miles) east of Anfield is Old Trafford, where Manchester United won Champions and Premier League titles not long after the Glazer family's acrimonious takeover caused fans to storm the ground and fight running battles with police.
