The Global Mess of National Sports

Sports fans accept the dynamic of trading players from one team to another (even when those trades are among national teams), but the dynamic of who owns those teams is quite a different controversy.

'BundesLeague's Big Bust'

The Borussia Dortmun franchise of Germany's BundesLeague football association is among the country's most staunchly supported teams. Its games are well attended and usually all seats are sold. A few years ago Borussia Dortmun managers decided to channel the franchise success in a direction unique to sports: They took the franchise public and listed it on the Dax. In retrospect that was the start of the end for Borussia Dortmun.

Although ticket sales remain successful, Borussia Dortmun now confronts the very real prospect of bankruptcy. Its reported losses are in the billions of euros. The organization managers announced Friday 18 February that if they are unable to pay the debts or sell the franchise (severing its Dax links), Borussia Dortmun would cease to exist as a franchise. This news received quite an emotional response from German football fans, but the extent that emotion will turn to euros to pay the debt remains to be proved.

'Chelsea and the Russian Ologarch'

An experiment of a very different kind emerged two years ago when a Russian billionaire ologarch bought England's Chelsea football franchise. Chelsea long had the reputation of a boisterous team with very boisterous fans. Nothing in its reputation matched the clammor from the British press that this foreigner with alleged peculiar prior money connections would buy the Chelsea team. A bit of a bidding war evolved, and the Russian ologarch was the last bidder standing, so hew and cry aside, he got the team. Two years later Chelsea leads its national league in terms of score.

'United States Buyer Gets Manchester United?'

The most recent installment in the "how can this happen!" category of international sports teams impacts Manchester United. A US-based businessman Malcolm Glazer (who owns several US sports teams) expressed interest in purchasing United from its current British owners. The mere insinuation that another football franchise would be auctioned away to the highest foreign bidder sent United fans into a more-impassioned-than-usual frenzy. Despite their outpouring of complaints and diatribes to all kinds of press sources, United fans may find their efforts are in vain. United profits declined sharply during the last few years as did its national ranking. If this trend continues, Manchester United easily could find it is in the same unpleasant position as Borussia Dortmun without extricating its exchange listing. All the more reason the United managers seem receptive to Mr. Glazer's offer to buy.

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