Something felt familiar to Frank McCourt when he started nosing around struggling Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille back in '15. The club had a rich history in French and European football, but was mired at the bottom of the standings and struggling financially, much like the situation at the MLB L.A. Dodgers when he bought the team in '04. "What I was struck by was how similar the OM situation was to the situation at the Dodgers when I bought them," he said. "Both great brands, huge and loyal fanbases, and great venues that they play in. Just these iconic brands that had gone into some kind of dormancy. I call them sleeping giants." McCourt said that he was initially cool to the deal. "Truth of the matter was I had no intention of buying it," he said. "I had already checked owning a professional sports franchise off my bucket list." The club’s "rich history," however, kept him interested, and after being asked to invest in the club, which he did not want to do, he was asked to buy it. He did just that. "You can’t buy the history, the pedigree," he said. "But you can fix a broken operation if you invest the money and the time. But having the history and the tradition and the iconic nature of these brands, you can’t buy. You can fix the dysfunction."
DREAM JOB: McCourt was speaking on a lively, wide-ranging panel called "Taking Ownership: Owners Share Their Agendas For Growth" at the Leaders Sport Business Summit in N.Y. on Tuesday. He was joined by Arizona Coyotes Owner Andrew Barroway and Comcast Spectacor CEO Dave Scott, whose company owns the Philadelphia Flyers. Barroway’s path to ownership included four failed attempts to take over a club before he captured the Coyotes and realized a childhood dream. "I can be very stubborn sometimes," he said. "This has been a dream I’ve had since I was six years old. I told my dad I would own the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s been a long journey, it took me 12 years, but I finally got there. And then once you finally get there, you’re like the dog that finally catches up to the car. OK, now what? I’ve got to fix this. But it’s been the most exhilarating, fun, challenging thing I’ve ever done business-wise." Regional sports rights was a big factor behind Comcast buying the Flyers, Scott said. "When you look at sports in general, typically it’s part of a broader strategy for everybody," he said. "There are some people who do it as a hobby, but for us, it was about regional sports." Media rights will be a challenge for McCourt going forward with OM. "There’s a huge opportunity in France because they’re lagging, right now, the other Big 5 countries in terms of getting proper value for their leagues."
BRICK AND MORTAR: Panelists also touched on “the big two tent poles” for sports enterprises, facilities and technology. Scott said that organizations have to “keep investing in the brick and mortar.” He said, "There were a lot of arenas in hockey and basketball that were built back in the '90s and they’re great facilities, they’ve got great bones. But it’s time for a refresh, and you’ve really got to do the brick and mortar right. You really want to have the wow factor. I don’t want fans walking in and [thinking] it feels like the old Wells Fargo Center. It’s less about the money investment at this point than it is about getting it right." And delivering the latest technological innovations is also key. "With the younger fans coming in, you’ve gotta have the technology," Scott said. McCourt said, "Technology is really the key. It will impact sports the most in the future." Barroway and McCourt are approaching the fan experience from different angles. "European football is a totally different fan experience," McCourt said. "It’s a free-flowing sport. It doesn’t have the starts and stops that you have with American sports." Barroway, trying to build a fan base in a "transient" community in Phoenix, has a different problem. "If you miss a goal and you hear a roar, you’re not sure if it’s the home or away team," he said. "As an owner, that’s one of my biggest frustrations. It’s a transient market, and I’m certainly OK with the older fans wearing the opposing jerseys, but when they have their kids wearing the opposing jerseys, that’s tough. That’s a tough riddle and I haven’t solved it."
EMBRACING ESPORTS: Regarding esports, McCourt said, "Anybody in any business, and sports is no different, that thinks their business won’t be impacted by these types of changes in technology is going to have a very rude awakening."
Barroway: "We need to own these things, too. The virtual Coyotes need to be playing the virtual Flyers and the kids training. It’s important that we embrace the technology and we own it and make it part of our game."
Scott: "That’s the key. You’ve gotta embrace it. We’re looking at bringing an event to the Wells Fargo Center. We’ve gotta start wading into it."
