Let’s Talk Business

Multi Club Ownership, a relatively new concept, is now sweeping through the sports industry. But what exactly is it? Multi Club Ownership (MCO) is where an individual or company owns multiple sport teams, often enough, in different countries. Why would an owner want to spread themselves so thin, and not concentrate on making one team the best it could possibly be? At the end of the day there is one thing it all comes down to, money.

Sports Management is a business and like many other corporations, their main goal is to turn a profit. MCO is a way of dominating the sport business world and taking full advantage of the market. But is it worth it?

One of the most well-known MCOs is the Red Bulls. They currently have five clubs spread throughout the world, all but one holding the Red Bull name: New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Brazil, RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg, and Liefering. For the tier one football teams, once they walk out of the field, you do not have to guess who the owner of the club is. The Red Bull logo is front and center for all to see. Liefering, a tier two team in Austria, serves different purpose. They are a feeder team for the Red Bulls into the big leagues. What Red Bull is in effectively doing, is creating a supply chain of talent. Not only can they recruit into the feeder team, but they can easily trade players from one team to another. They have successfully cut out the middle man.

Alongside Red Bull is another MCO, the City Football Group. They currently own Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City, Club Atlético Torque, with part ownership of Girona and Yokohama Marinos. Just like the Red Bulls, the City FootBall Group is using their teams as a way to effectively trade players and gain reign on the most talented athletes. However, when looking at the City Football clubs, there are some issues *cough*. Take Melbourne for example, they are having a great deal of problems filling out the stadium. Manchester City is one of the best well-known teams in the world, but their way of doing business is not working for their brother team down under. Another issue is attracting a solid fan base. Fans of Melbourne Victory, a longstanding Aussie team, feel like Melbourn City is just a “want-to-be” Manchester. And honestly… they may be right. 

So… is the MCO model good or bad for business? And are they taking the fun out of the game? I think used in the right way, it’s a great way to build solid talent. With that being said, MCOs like City Football Group might have to rethink their marketing efforts and realize that their ‘one size fits all’ approach isn’t working.