Sunday 3 October 2010

Real Champions

Spain is one of the countries which produces many world champions lately. Winning the World Cup certainly is the icing on the cake for this country with long history of success. Fernado Alonso from F1 and Rafeal Nadal from the world of tennis certainly remind us of how successful Spain is in sports.


Last but not least, among the long list of champions representing Spain is Real Madrid, the famous soccer club with the home in Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. I had the opportunity to visit the home ground of Real Madrid recently and the experience was certainly amazing, even without meeting with any of the stars of the club. While not a Read Madrid fan, I thought paying homage to this great club is worthy investment. 



One needs to pay 16 Euro to be able to wonder around the empty Santiago Bernabeu, indicating the ability of the club to capture the value of its success in being one of the champions in the world of soccer, not to mention 12 Euro for a photo with the European Cup and 70 Euro for a Real MAdrid jersey without name and number of players. Perhaps this is the meaning of success. People want to know about you and want to be associated with you. On the other hand, if you are not competitive enough, begging and shouting emotional slogans could be the only way to attract attention! 


The business model of a sporting club is not much different from any other business. However, I see emotional factor playing a greater role in making clubs like Read Madrid a successful one. Hence, investing millions of Euro in world class players is really a necessity. In soccer, minus match fixing, winning is about how you perform on the pitch, no two way about it. No quota, no special preference. How would you treat a soccer club playing in a league where all better teams are not allowed to play just to ensure a designated club to win? 


There is a price to be won with real success and judging from the trophies displayed at Santiago Bernebeu there is no doubt Real Madrid, at least in the hearts of its fans around the world, is the real champion. 

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