Have a billionaire owner, add in another billionaire investor, get big-name sponsors then offer shares of stock to the public and you get the world’s highest valued franchise of any sports team in the whole wide globally warming world.
The family of Malcolm Glazer owns the English Premier League’s Manchester United Football Club. Recently, they had legendary investor George Soros join MUFC and sold shares to the public at $17 per share making the football club valued at $3.3 billion.
The 19-time EPL champions once had David Beckham in his prime and Cristiano Ronaldo on the team that contributed much to their popularity and success. It has an estimated 660 million fans worldwide and revenues nearing $600 million last year.
For sponsors, Man U receives $31m annually from insurer A-On up to 2014 for the right to put their firm’s name on their playing uniforms. For the first time in English football, DHL Express signed a 4-year, $62m deal with the club for a practice jersey sponsorship contract. Likewise, sportswear firm Nike manages sales of their team merchandise thru 2015 for $39m a year. Go to any Nike store and you’ll see for yourself MUFC stuff displayed for sale with the swoosh logo.
Coming a distant second on the Forbes’ list of top sports teams is the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys valued at $2.1 billion. Although they haven’t gone to the Super Bowl in more than 15 years, this is largely due thru their state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium with the massive jumbotron above the stadium. This arena generates about $100m annually in premium seats. Major sponsors AT&T, Ford Motors, Bank of America, PepsiCo, Dr. Pepper and Miller Brewing adds in another $80m a year. Dallas is the only NFL team that sells and distributes their own merchandise, I suppose also via Nike, if I’m right.
Football is really big in the US that all 32 NFL teams are on the Forbes’ top 50. F-1 racing is represented by Ferrari and McLaren, the NBA has the New York Knicks and the LA Lakers somewhere between 30 and 33. Major League Baseball’s LA Dodgers and New York Yankees broke the top 20.
The rest on the list are soccer (or football, if you wish) teams with Real Madrid at third followed closely by Barcelona. Real is Ronaldo’s team now and has been valued at $1.88 billion. This comes largely from their success in the Spanish Primera Liga and sponsorships from Adidas, Emirates and betting company BWin.
Good marketing strategy, filthy rich owners, superstar players, high-profile sponsors and popularity are the formula for a franchise to be successful and valuable. If you qualify, go ahead, burn money and have your sports team.
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A good number of Don Bosco Cebu HS 1978 batchmates were gathered for this year’s 50th Grand Alumni Homecoming. It was the first time to see each other for a good number us 35 years after graduating from high school. Some flew in from different parts of the globe while some had their vacations timed for the event. We have changed physically, but still, even if all of us are 50-something, boys will always be boys.
Stories of past escapades, out-of-school experiences and girl conquests sometimes get entangled with mentions of ailments associated with aging and their corresponding medications. For three days, no one cared about diabetes, hypertension and arthritis with all the food and booze on free flow. It was more than fun. Thanks for the company and memories, guys. Bosconian Forever!
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The game of hide-and-seek between Team LP and Team One Cebu featuring two ladies that you-know-who at you-know-where for you-know-what had some kind of solution the other day. Whether planned or on a whim, the other party left her fortifications to go somewhere south, which gave the other party the chance to secure and capture the vacated area. Well and good. Both can now go on with their respective agendas.
As to the “over my dead body†thing heard around the world, a member of congress, who is a bitter critic of the lady who issued the statement, made a classic notation to the recently unfolded event – “I’m surprised that she’s still aliveâ€, or something to that effect. Oh, ha.?
The controversially appointed lady can now finally move to the officially designated office and do her mandated functions. Likewise, the equally controversial removed-from-office lady, finally got her TRO, according some hotshot radio anchor – “Tu-a Ra’s Oslobâ€. Na hala, mao man kaha.