(a tournament of the best professional basketball teams from each European country’s premier league). The basketball team is discussed further in chapter seven in “Not All about the Numbers: Real Madrid Basketball.”
29 Julio Iglesias was a goalkeeper in the Real Madrid Academy until he was seriously injured in a car accident at age twenty. While recovering, he discovered his musical talent.
30 For more details, see http://www.realmadrid.com/en/fans/madridistas/international. Even though Official Madridistas Supporters may not have “voting privileges,” Real Madrid management views them, as well as Real Madrid Fan Club members, as critical active contributors to their global community and values.
31 How does a socio becomes a season ticket holder? There are a limited number of season tickets, and during the last ten years there have been no vacancies. In 2013, the club offered a package of 5,000 season tickets for all socios, with a series of priorities such as seniority, number of years as e-ticket holder (being a socio), number of matches attended during the last seasons, etc. This package was sold out in a few weeks and has not been offered again.
32 According to the Sports Law 10/1990, the elected president and board of directors of a member-owned club have to personally pledge 15 percent of total expenses and assume 100 percent of losses. This legal provision was added in order to increase the financial accountability and responsibility of the member-owned clubs.
33 In Germany, legislation mandates that members must own at least 51 percent of all clubs. Bayern Munich is 75.1 percent owned by club members. In 2014, Bayern Munich sold an 8.33 percent stake for €110 million ($150 million) to German insurance company Allianz as part of a deal to help the club pay down debts on its stadium and to sponsor a youth academy. Adidas and Audi already owned 8.33 percent stakes in Bayern Munich.
34 For more information about the taxation of Real Madrid as a member-owned club, see chapter eleven, “Comparison of Financial Performance.”
35 David Conn, “Manchester City and New York Yankees join forces to create new MLS team.” Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/21/manchester-city-new-york-yankees-major-league-soccer.
36 There is intransigent opposition of the major sports leagues to community ownership. The NFL passed a rule in 1960 that outlawed not-for-profit franchises, effectively eliminating not only any copycat Packers but even such notions as giving the public a share of ownership in exchange for taxpayer stadium subsidies. And baseball has been equally antagonistic toward public ownership. When Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s and owner of the San Diego Padres, died and his widow, Joan, tried to give the team to the city of San Diego as a public trust, MLB stepped in and stopped the deal. There have been a few US sports teams that have sold stock for brief periods—the Cleveland Indians and Boston Celtics—but these have always been minority shares with no actual voting control. Generally, team owners dislike the idea of their finances becoming publicly available (although the players’ unions get some information; and if one knows how to access evidence in “discovery” in league and team litigation, some information is available). Besides, ruling out public ownership is a great way to stop fans and politicians from claiming that they should be allowed a stake in their local team. With community ownership it also would be impossible for a team to move cities, which could benefit not only the team owner but also the revenue-sharing league.
37 Unlike Real Madrid members, Packers shareholders are not given special priority for season tickets. They do have a vote in electing members of the forty-five person board of directors, who in turn select a seven-person executive committee that is the brain trust that makes the actual franchise decisions with the president, who does not need to be from the pool of shareholders.
38 The European Club Association (ECA), the only association officially recognized by UEFA, promotes the health of European soccer teams through democratic representation.
39 The wages-to-turnover ratio in the North American leagues is around 50 percent, but it varies by team. Collective bargaining agreements with player unions for the various leagues typically address this topic.
40 Alan Gula, “Playing the Ratings Game.” Wall Street Daily. http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2015/11/23/credit-ratings-investing/.
41 The calculation of ratio Net Debt/EBITDA is done with EBITDA as per the official accounting principles of soccer.
42 Nick Cafardo, “John Henry says Red Sox will rely less on analytics.” Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2016/02/24/john-henry-says-red-sox-will-rely-less-analytics/95uy1OmoQw0ojxr7SRcOWO/story.html.
43 In full disclosure, I have worked with McKinsey & Company as a senior advisor and as a client.
44 Eric Goldschein, “Whoa: Here’s a Great 25-Minute Interview with Gregg Popovich on Becky Hammon, Gay NBA Players, Spurs Culture and More.” SportsGrid. http://www.sportsgrid.com/nba/whoa-heres-a-great-25-minute-interview-with-gregg-popovich-on-becky-hammon-gay-nba-players-spurs-culture/.
45 Sean Deveney, “NBA Finals: Sacrifices of San Antonio’s Big 3 help sustain Spurs dynasty.” Sporting News. http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4588746-nba-finals-spurs-heat-contract-salary-tim-duncan-tony-parker-manu-ginobili-lebron-james-dwyane-wade-chris-bosh.
Sam Amick, “Why David West left so much money on the table to join the Spurs.” USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/spurs/2015/10/13/david-west-spurs/73865012/.
Other players such as Tom Brady of the New England Patriots have made similar sacrifices.
46 Lee Igel, “What’s On Deck After Boston Red Sox Send Sabermetrics, Analytics, and Moneyball To The Showers?” Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/leeigel/2016/02/26/whats-on-deck-after-boston-red-sox-send-sabermetrics-analytics-and-moneyball-to-the-showers/?utm_source=#1e509d202ec5.
47 Michael Schrage, “Team Chemistry Is the New Holy Grail of Performance Analytics.” Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/03/team-chemistry-is-the-new-holy-grail-of-performance-analytics/.
Eric Freeman, “Can team chemistry be quantified? Researchers are giving it an honest attempt.” http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/team-chemistry-quantified-researchers-giving-honest-attempt-031147093--nba.html.
48 The idea of team chemistry existed at McKinsey & Company. When I was advising the firm, I was asked to take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test as shorthand for understanding my own individual preferences and team dynamic preferences. Whenever I met with my newly