Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Real Madrid the Yankee's of soccer

Baseball isn’t the only sport where teams attempt to buy a championship. Take a look at Real Madrid a Spanish soccer club. Real had over $200 dollars of revenue in the year 2002, and only made $10 in profit. Where’s it all going? You guessed it into the top notch players they buy from everywhere. Take a look at the roster. Ronaldo (world player of the year, current record holder for goals in a single world cup, world cup champion), Zinedine Zidane (2 time world player of the year, widely regarded as the best center midfielder to ever play period, was the highest paid player in sports prior to A-rod, world cup champion, Euro 2000 Cup champion), Luis Figo (2 time world player of the year), David Beckham (prior to move to the US, Beckham was the world player of the year and international icon). So what does it all mean can you buy a championship? Why yes you can…Real won the Spanish league in 2003, winning for the 29th time and club history. That’s 3 more time than the Yankees, and they were founded just 1 year before. With all the power Real commands in Europe they sell jerseys for $65 a pop. That’s about $15 more than the Yankees. But does all this winning ruin the sport of soccer in Europe? Not quite. Real’s stadium holds 17,000 more people than Yankee stadium, it being one of the smaller stadiums in even in the country. Oh yeah its been sold out for the last 10 straight seasons (to every game)…

2 comments:

Lyncee said...

I think teams can buy championships to an extent. For example, the Yankees bought up all the star players that they could find and it lead to great amounts of success. However, I believe that buying the best players has a diminshing marginal return effect. Eventually, the benefits are going to level off. The Yankees haven't won the World Series in a few years. Yes they still make the playoffs, but with the press coverage you can see that playoffs are not good enough. After a franchise buys the best players, the team plays as individuals, rather than as one. I can see this happening with Real Madrid as well.

Sergio Fajardo said...

Real Madrid only won the 2003 Spanish Liga and since Beckham joined the club, he only won a title, which was the Spanish Liga from the season 2006-07. Real Madrid profited from selling all of the stars jerseys, however was not able to win any title until they gave up their policy of only acquiring players that sell jerseys. Financially, Real Madird was successfully, but sports wise they were unable to win a title with all of those star players.