($150 million) to German insurance company Allianz as part of a deal to help the club pay down debts on its stadium and to sponsor a youth academy. Adidas and Audi already owned 8.33 percent stakes in Bayern Munich.
34 For more information about the taxation of Real Madrid as a member-owned club, see chapter eleven, “Comparison of Financial Performance.”
35 David Conn, “Manchester City and New York Yankees join forces to create new MLS team.” Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/21/manchester-city-new-york-yankees-major-league-soccer.
36 There is intransigent opposition of the major sports leagues to community ownership. The NFL passed a rule in 1960 that outlawed not-for-profit franchises, effectively eliminating not only any copycat Packers but even such notions as giving the public a share of ownership in exchange for taxpayer stadium subsidies. And baseball has been equally antagonistic toward public ownership. When Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s and owner of the San Diego Padres, died and his widow, Joan, tried to give the team to the city of San Diego as a public trust, MLB stepped in and stopped the deal. There have been a few US sports teams that have sold stock for brief periods—the Cleveland Indians and Boston Celtics—but these have always been minority shares with no actual voting control. Generally, team owners dislike the idea of their finances becoming publicly available (although the players’ unions get some information; and if one knows how to access evidence in “discovery” in league and team litigation, some information is available). Besides, ruling out public ownership is a great way to stop fans and politicians from claiming that they should be allowed a stake in their local team. With community ownership it also would be impossible for a team to move cities, which could benefit not only the team owner but also the revenue-sharing league.
37 Unlike Real Madrid members, Packers shareholders are not given special priority for season tickets. They do have a vote in electing members of the forty-five person board of directors, who in turn select a seven-person executive committee that is the brain trust that makes the actual franchise decisions with the president, who does not need to be from the pool of shareholders.
38 The European Club Association (ECA), the only association officially recognized by UEFA, promotes the health of European soccer teams through democratic representation.
39 The wages-to-turnover ratio in the North American leagues is around 50 percent, but it varies by team. Collective bargaining agreements with player unions for the various leagues typically address this topic.
40 Alan Gula, “Playing the Ratings Game.” Wall Street Daily. http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2015/11/23/credit-ratings-investing/.
41 The calculation of ratio Net Debt/EBITDA is done with EBITDA as per the official accounting principles of soccer.
42 Nick Cafardo, “John Henry says Red Sox will rely less on analytics.” Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2016/02/24/john-henry-says-red-sox-will-rely-less-analytics/95uy1OmoQw0ojxr7SRcOWO/story.html.
43 In full disclosure, I have worked with McKinsey & Company as a senior advisor and as a client.
44 Eric Goldschein, “Whoa: Here’s a Great 25-Minute Interview with Gregg Popovich on Becky Hammon, Gay NBA Players, Spurs Culture and More.” SportsGrid. http://www.sportsgrid.com/nba/whoa-heres-a-great-25-minute-interview-with-gregg-popovich-on-becky-hammon-gay-nba-players-spurs-culture/.
45 Sean Deveney, “NBA Finals: Sacrifices of San Antonio’s Big 3 help sustain Spurs dynasty.” Sporting News. http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4588746-nba-finals-spurs-heat-contract-salary-tim-duncan-tony-parker-manu-ginobili-lebron-james-dwyane-wade-chris-bosh.
Sam Amick, “Why David West left so much money on the table to join the Spurs.” USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/spurs/2015/10/13/david-west-spurs/73865012/.
Other players such as Tom Brady of the New England Patriots have made similar sacrifices.
46 Lee Igel, “What’s On Deck After Boston Red Sox Send Sabermetrics, Analytics, and Moneyball To The Showers?” Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/leeigel/2016/02/26/whats-on-deck-after-boston-red-sox-send-sabermetrics-analytics-and-moneyball-to-the-showers/?utm_source=#1e509d202ec5.
47 Michael Schrage, “Team Chemistry Is the New Holy Grail of Performance Analytics.” Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/03/team-chemistry-is-the-new-holy-grail-of-performance-analytics/.
Eric Freeman, “Can team chemistry be quantified? Researchers are giving it an honest attempt.” http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/team-chemistry-quantified-researchers-giving-honest-attempt-031147093--nba.html.
48 The idea of team chemistry existed at McKinsey & Company. When I was advising the firm, I was asked to take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test as shorthand for understanding my own individual preferences and team dynamic preferences. Whenever I met with my newly assigned McKinsey team internally for the first time to discuss a new client project, each team member introduced him/herself and disclosed his/her own MBTI results to the team to start discussing working styles and preferences. Then the team members assessed who might enjoy and excel at the various parts of the client project and how frequently and in what ways to interact to work better together. Since team members were unfamiliar with each other and then would have to work intensely together for months, the communication was ingeniously invaluable.
49 In today’s NBA, man-to-man defense can sometimes get overstated. The NBA has become a league in which the ability to switch defenders has become very important, as has being able to help teammates. Since the NBA has become so pick-and-roll dominated, help defense has become even more important. Any teams without teamwork on defense have suffered. At times, defense in the NBA is more interrelated than offense. It depends on the team; for example, the Cleveland Cavaliers are heavily reliant on isolations and LeBron James’ play, while in contrast, the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs rely more on team play, such as passing, movement, etc.
50 A very interesting 2006 movie titled Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, by video artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Pareno, uses seventeen cameras to follow Zidane in a soccer game. They follow the player only, not anything else in the game. You will see how extraordinarily little he touches the ball; how lonely he is; how focused and intense he is in following the ball; and how much he darts
