Many you know that Bozo has followed the major US sports since he was a teenager.
A client actually asked me to do some analysis on what business can learn from sport in the pay and performance management arena, and as i was doing the research and the number crunching I unearthed some interesting facts about the last ten years.
Let us have a look at winning the championship.
Year Premiership World Series Superbowl
2001 Man U Arizona Diamondbacks Baltimore Ravens
2002 Arsenal LA Angels New England Patriots
2003 Man U Florida Marlins Tamba Bay Buccaneers
2004 Arsenal Boston Red Sox New England Patriots
2005 Chelsea Chicago White Sox New England patriots
2006 Chelsea St Louis Cardinals Pittsburgh Steelers
2007 Man U Boston red Sox Indianapolis Colts
2008 Man U Philadelphia Phillies NY Giants
2009 Man U NY Yankees Pittsburgh Steelers
2010 Chelsea San Fran Giants New orleans Saints
So... in ten years the premiership has been won by 3 different teams; the superbowl by six different teams and the World Series by 9 different teams.
What we are discussing here is competition. I make no claim that baseball is a better game than football... or more popular - or anything.
I merely say that in the past ten years 30-35 different teams have participated in the premiership - yet only three different teams have won it...
30 teams have participated in Major League Baseball, and, 9 different teams have won it.
I think I know which competition is more interesting.
I would state that back in August there were only five teams that had any hope or prayer of winning the premiership. The three that have won it in the past, plus outside bets man City and Liverpool.
I would state that on January 1st 2011 we will have -at most - a three horse race and the likelihood is that at least two of those three will come from the list of three who have won it in the past ten years. Let;s face it - in the eighteen years of the premiership;s existence, those three teams have won seventeen titles.Please don't try to tell me its an interesting league. More fans will be involved in the relegation battle than the title battle.
It;s not competitive, it's not fun - unless you are Arsenal Chelsea or Man U.
There are additional reasons why Major League Baseball is more interesting.
There is clear evidence that you cannot buy success!
The premiership club by club wage bills are hard to locate online. Not so MLB salaries.
In the year that they won the world series, here are the rankings of the salary bill Out of 30 teams) for the world series winners:
2001 Arizona Diamondbacks - 8th highest salary bill
2002 LA Angels - 15th
2003 Florida Marlins - 25th (yup 25th wage will out of 30!)
2004 Boston Red Sox - 2nd
2005 Chicago White Sox - 13th
2006 St Louis Cardinals - 11th
2007 Boston Red Sox - 2nd
2008 Philladelphia Phillies -12th
2009 NY Yankees - 1st
2010 San Francisco Giants - 9th
The average rank of wage bill is 9.8 out of 30, and the median is 10 out of 30.
One of the reasons that 30 out of 30 teams start with a shot at the world series is that you cannot buy the title.
Not only to the Florida Marlins prove it - but let us consider the case study this year of the San Diego Padres.
they had the 29th wage bill ($37.8m) and were picked by every pundit to finish last in their division.
Real no hopers.
On the final day of the season they trailed the SF Giants by one game - and were playing those same SF Giants on the final day. A win would have placed them in a tie with the team that went on to win the World Series.
OK - They lost. BUT They finished with 90 wins and SF with 92.
SF's salry bill was $98.6 million.
In salary paid per win the Padres come out top of the league, having paid just $420,000 for each win - compared with SF's $1.070,000 - and the NY Yankees $2.172,000 dollars per win.
I like football - and so do millions of others. They must do - because every year millions of people pay huge ticket prices to watch a tournement which the team they support has no chance of winning.
So we can be sure of one thing - those people pay to watch football - they don;t pay to watch the Premiership.
If I were head of marketing for the premiership I would take careful note of that fact.
It is the most boring big money tournament in the world because in its history the title has been won by only four different teams....out of over 30 that have tried - and let us face it Blackburn was a massive abberation - it took management genius from K Dalgliesh - manic scoring from A Shearer and even then only a wierd result on the final day between west ham and man u let the title slip out of the big three's hands.
Aside from one single year it has been - Boring, boring, boring.
In days to come we might look more at the waste of money involved in buying success... and the lessons for the Fulhams and West Hams of this world.
Enjoy
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