Who hasn’t dreamed of owning their very own professional sports team? Well it can be done and it would be easy to restrict this list to just one simple requirement, namely, the first item on this list. But there’s more to it than that. Here are six (not so simple) steps for purchasing a professional sports team.
6. Get Rich Quick
Piece of cake, right? Okay, maybe not. But being rich is the first step along the way. They don’t give these franchises away. And some of them are worth billions! So you had better start with very deep pockets.
5. Know the Sport
An in-depth knowledge of the sport is a big help. You need to know if the sport is thriving in the city where your team is located. In the case of football and baseball, this can be a given. But with basketball and hockey, things are a little more hit and miss. Struggling teams can be had cheap but you better be sure you’ve got the know-how to turn them around or you’ll keep losing money.
4. Love the Hate
Fans of your team will hate you. The honeymoon will be over quick so you had better have a thick skin going in. Oh, they will sing your praises as long as the championships keep piling up, but have one bad year and look out! You’ll be public enemy number one!
3. Friends in High Places
You’re going to have tax headaches and permit nightmares the minute you take over your very own team. Without friends in local government, you’ll be hogtied with so much red tape, the fans won’t be able to find the entrances. Every facet of government is going to want in on the deal and free luxury boxes only go so far. Government officials must become your new best friends.
2. Have a Proven Track Record
No professional league is just going to hand you a team for a pile of money. You have to demonstrate a sound business sense and a proven track record for running one or more companies successfully for a number of years. With 100s or even 1000s of employees in every facet of the sport and the local community, you’re now responsible for a lot of mouths that need feeding. You have to know what you’re doing.
1. Get Religion
Soaring player salaries. Players jumping ship for lucrative deals. Taxes. Fan complaints. Permits. Expenses. Bad press. Fighting for TV coverage. Souvenir manufacturing hassles. Profit margins. On and on and on. With all these to worry about and so much more, your team will probably give you more grief than happiness. So maybe a sincere prayer every now and then wouldn’t hurt. You might also want to stock up on the aspirin.
And there you have it: a step-by-step plan that will land you that professional sports team that can’t miss. So save your pennies and you’ll be cheering on your very own team in no time.
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This is a guest article by Andrew Salmon. He is interested in hockey and football and also writes on financial topics such as life insurance plans.
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Posted on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:07:48 +0000 at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Fryingpan...saIvEwS50/
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