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Pallotta Calls Relegation 'Kind Of Cool' While Discussing Globalization Of Sports Ownership

Copying the English Premier League and relegating baseball teams to a second division would be “kind of cool” and the citizens of Miami should campaign for the Miami Marlins to be relegated, according to James Pallotta, the owner and president of Serie A side AS Roma. Pallotta was speaking on a panel session at the Leaders Sports Business Summit in London. He was speaking on a panel session on the “globalisation of sports ownership” on a panel which included Josh Harris, the owner of the NBA Philadelphia 76ers and NHL New Jersey Devils; Alejandro Irarragorri, owner of Liga MX club Santos Laguna and Erick Thohir, owner and president of Serie A club Inter Millan. Pallotta took a well-aimed pot shot at Miami Marlins Owner Jeffrey Loria, hitting out at the manner in which he ran the team. Pallotta: “The relegation thing is kind of cool." He added that it would teach team owners to run teams more responsibility and efficiently. Pallotta said, “Let’s take the United States where there is no relegation. I think if I was living in Miami right now, I might want the Marlins to be relegated.” He added that Miami’s taxpayers paid “for the new stadium and right after the stadium was built the owner sells the whole team. And you don’t have people going to the stadium now. They are all upset about that. There is a contract I think between the fans and the owners.”

NOT THAT EASY: However, Harris disagreed and said bringing a system of relegation to U.S. sports like NBA and NHL would be problematic. Harris said that relegation “effects the value, it creates volatility, and it creates unpredictable outcomes. It creates teams that lose money, it creates teams that go bankrupt.” The panel also discussed the increasing importance of their brands boasting a global footprint. It was pointed out on the panel that in some cases there were more Chinese watching NBA games than watched in the U.S. Pallotta, who is overseeing the opening of a new stadium for Roma to be opened by '16-17, is looking to strike deals with U.S. teams to host NBA and NFL matches in Rome. He said, “We would love to have an NFL game played like it is in London. We have a relationship with the NFL and we will have a conversation with it at some point. We just would like to do that.” He added, “Certainly you could have rugby in there and an NBA weekend in there. Potentially if four teams come up you could have a round robin in preseason or a weekend and build something around that for the NBA. The NBA would definitely love to do something like that overseas.”

FINDING THE RIGHT WAY: The panel also discussed the difference between how the NHL and NFL were run, compared to the Premier League. Harris said “salary capping” and “revenue sharing” in U.S. sports created more of a level playing field. Referencing the Premier League, Harris said, “There is probably wide variety of the profitability of one team and the profitability and loss of another team. Some teams can’t survive, others teams make lots of money because they are global brands.” Other subjects discussed by the panel were the role of digital and social media to enhance football brands, governance issues and the role of football in the community. Irarragorri maintained that “passion” for sport was still crucial, pointing out that it can “bring value” to the community. He said, “I think that for many years the money that the teams generated was not captured by the team because of the management structures. Today we have a great opportunity to run the teams as a real business.” When running a sporting team, Thohir said it was important to strike a balance between realizing audience’s enjoyment of the sport but also running a sporting club as a business.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.

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