Is It A Good Business Decision To Own A Pro Sports Team?
Short answer: Yes, it's very good business.
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Don't let the public relations smokescreens fool you: Owning any franchise in one of the four major professional sports leagues is a good business decision. Look at the Steinbrenner family. They invested a couple of million in the early 70s in the Yankees and the team is worth a reported $1.5 billion dollars today. Try figuring out THAT return on investment over forty years. Or the Cowboys and Jerry Jones. Jones bought the team for under $100 million in the late 80s, and the team is now worth that same $1.5 billion. The examples are everywhere. Just look at the ever increasing sales prices of franchises and forget the owners telling folks that they are losing money hand over fist. It's bullshit.
Don't listen when the owners tell the media and their employees (the athletes) that they lose gobs of money. If that was true, why do the sale prices, which are just about the only public information passed on to us, keep going up and up and up? It's a simple equation. No one becomes a billionaire by being an idiot. And almost no one loses money on owning a team in one of the four professional sports leagues in North America.
I've met and read some pretty knowledgeable sports fans claim that only idiots own sports franchises since it's hard to make money at it. What a laugh. It's hard NOT to make money at it.
Again: look at the selling price the next time a franchise changes hands. For example, the Phoenix Coyotes are reportedly going to be sold and/or moving back to Winnipeg. Check out the price and see for yourself when the transaction comes down.
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Further: Matching sharks like Bob Kraft and Jerry Jones up against DeMaurice Smith of the NFLPA and his cohorts like Mike Vrabel is a huge mismatch. The owners will win this fight against the players. They always do. It would be smart for the NFLPA to just take their lumps and sign whatever agreement they can get before the athletes lose a year's salary, since most of the guys in the NFL live check to check.
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Don't let the public relations smokescreens fool you: Owning any franchise in one of the four major professional sports leagues is a good business decision. Look at the Steinbrenner family. They invested a couple of million in the early 70s in the Yankees and the team is worth a reported $1.5 billion dollars today. Try figuring out THAT return on investment over forty years. Or the Cowboys and Jerry Jones. Jones bought the team for under $100 million in the late 80s, and the team is now worth that same $1.5 billion. The examples are everywhere. Just look at the ever increasing sales prices of franchises and forget the owners telling folks that they are losing money hand over fist. It's bullshit.
Don't listen when the owners tell the media and their employees (the athletes) that they lose gobs of money. If that was true, why do the sale prices, which are just about the only public information passed on to us, keep going up and up and up? It's a simple equation. No one becomes a billionaire by being an idiot. And almost no one loses money on owning a team in one of the four professional sports leagues in North America.
I've met and read some pretty knowledgeable sports fans claim that only idiots own sports franchises since it's hard to make money at it. What a laugh. It's hard NOT to make money at it.
Again: look at the selling price the next time a franchise changes hands. For example, the Phoenix Coyotes are reportedly going to be sold and/or moving back to Winnipeg. Check out the price and see for yourself when the transaction comes down.
==========
Further: Matching sharks like Bob Kraft and Jerry Jones up against DeMaurice Smith of the NFLPA and his cohorts like Mike Vrabel is a huge mismatch. The owners will win this fight against the players. They always do. It would be smart for the NFLPA to just take their lumps and sign whatever agreement they can get before the athletes lose a year's salary, since most of the guys in the NFL live check to check.
posted by joe sweeney at 9:39 PM
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