Haslams may need to choose between Browns and NBA
Can the Haslams own teams in 3 cities?
How exactly will Haslam Sports Group have fun owning the Cleveland Browns, Columbus Crew, and Milwaukee Bucks, while living most of the time in Knoxville, Tennessee? They simply cannot occupy all these owners’ boxes at the same time.
In October and November, all three sports will be going on, with soccer in its playoffs, football in full swing, and basketball just starting up. The Haslams are also big college football fans, alums of the Tennessee Vols. How will they even attend the games? In many cases, they will overlap.
There are other multiple sports owners around the country, but they live in the towns where they own teams. For example, Gayle Benson owns the New Orleans Saints of the NFL and the New Orleans Pelicans of the NHL, but she lives in New Orleans.
That’s not such a big problem.
Just tell the chauffeur where to go each day. Similarly, Paul Allen owned the Seattle Seahawks as well as the NBA Portland Trail Blazers and the MLS Seattle Sounders. Portland and Seattle are a two-hour limo ride away, probably not worth a private jet, although that option was certainly available.
The Haslams have the resources to have a home and a limo in each city and a private jet to ferry them back and forth. Nevertheless, there are bound to be unavoidable schedule conflicts. We haven’t even begun to talk about the many other projects they are involved in ranging from Pilot Oil to dozens of Civic projects in Tennessee and Ohio.
They really won’t be able to monitor their sports teams. They will simply have to divide the family several times a year. They have three adult children and other friends and business associates that would have to stand in for them in the owner’s box when, say, the Crew and the Bucks are playing at the same time.
That’s okay, but is that really the way that you want to enjoy owning a sports team? Forgetting about the money involved and assuming that one of the advantages of wealth is the ability to choose to do what you love, is this the way that you would choose to operate your life?
Something has to give at some point, and it would not be surprising if they elect to choose the NBA and one or both Ohio teams may be transferred to new ownership.
