An almost sarcastic question when a businessman outside of football buys a club is “Why are you getting into this mess?”. And you may have a point. Buying a sports property involves the risk inherent to any business investment – it may or may not turn out well – but others are added: completely disproportionate media exposure compared to what they could obtain with their private businesses – normally larger -; social pressure to achieve immediate objectives, and, consequently, a public notoriety that is not always desired. So why go to this trouble?
The oldest and increasingly rare reason is, paradoxically, that Many businessmen were precisely looking for that relevance and recognition that success in their private businesses did not give them.. Although many families have chosen to cash in and break the bond forged by their parents -there are the 10,000 million dollars that the Buss have received for the Lakers-In LaLiga there are some horror stories of presidents who are left stranded when buying at the notary. And more than once. Because yes, today there are still those who prioritize the social life and relevance that football gives them over a potential capital gain of tens of millions of euros compared to what it cost them to acquire that club back in the 2000s.
But there are fewer and fewer of these, or at least there is an evolution of the profile. Those who seek that notoriety now do so with a more business vision and revaluation of what they are buying. Today, buying a relevant property requires several million eurosso being clear about how you are going to be able to make money from that bet requires a long-term vision that coexists with sporting short-termism. The usual? Optimization of the structure, technology, resources for the sports city and quarry, the dream of a more modern stadium…
A profile that has existed for years is that the revaluation is not sought so much with the optimization of a property already established in the elite, but rather looking for a diamond to polish as it rises in category. I affectionately call it 'Russian roulette'. Because there is cases of notable success such as CD Leganés or Wrexhambut also notorious failures such as the CD Numancia, the Girondins de Bordeaux…
And the last group, perhaps the most distant for the fan, but the one that can do the most to sustain the relevance of sport as an entertainment product. Investment firms or large investors who choose a club on which to build a platform, whether it is football – there are multi-club holding companies that seek to scale businesses – or business, with the City of Sports as the clearest intention of European football to replicate the logic yankee. All valid options, since the important thing is execution. We have seen even our shirts lost or the unexpected won in all areas.
Sin Olympic eSports
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) wanted eSports Olympic Games and Saudi Arabia offered money and a stage. But the alliance has lasted less than a game of Valorant (it is one of the video games with the most competitive following, I encourage you to look for it). Without starting, a project that was late and without a clear roadmap has already been broken, revealing an uncomfortable reality: sport is finding it difficult to integrate video games within its ambition to better connect with new generations.
Because the titles that succeed at the competition level in electronic sports are not sports simulators, and because behind them there are no federations, but rather companies with their own economic interests that do not always fit with the strictures of the values of sport and the meritocracy of the results. It matters who wins, but also who attracts more consumers. And when Olympic values collide with the logic of spectacle and business, there is no marketing that can save it. Sport wants to connect with new audiences, but has not yet decided whether it should be a main actor or just a guest in this digital universe.
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