#71 – Luka Dončić Trade: Chasing Profits or Building a Winning Legacy?
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Episode Summary:
In this episode of Sport Is Life, Ian Hawkins dives into the intersection of business and sport, analyzing how financial decisions impact on-field success. With breaking news of Luka Dončić's unexpected trade to the Lakers, Ian examines whether clubs prioritize profit over performance. He explores parallels in global sports, from Tottenham’s financial strategy to Sheffield Wednesday’s gamble, questioning whether fans prefer financial stability or championship risks.
Is elite sport still about winning, or has business taken over?
About the Host:
Ian Hawkins, host of "Sport Is Life," is dedicated to showing how sports can transform lives. With extensive experience as an athlete, a coach, PE teacher, community volunteer, and manager at Fox Sports, Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. His journey began in his backyard, mentored by his older brother, and has since evolved into coaching elite athletes and business leaders. Ian's commitment to sports and personal development is evident in his roles as a performance coach and active community member. Through "Sport Is Life," Ian shares inspiring stories and valuable lessons to help listeners apply sports principles to all areas of life.
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Transcript
From the professional level all the way
Speaker:down the grassroots, sport is a business.
Speaker:We might try and pretend it's not, we
Speaker:might say that we need to be making it
Speaker:more community minded, but ultimately
Speaker:it's still a business. It's really
Speaker:interesting decisions made by some big
Speaker:clubs around the world recently which
Speaker:where they appear to be putting business
Speaker:first before on field success when they
Speaker:explore whether that's the right move
Speaker:and what the fans think about that
Speaker:decision.
Speaker:I'm Ian Hawkins and this is Sporty's
Speaker:life. The purpose of sport, as I
Speaker:see it, is to see your vision become a
Speaker:reality, find your voice, create
Speaker:strong connections and learn to trust
Speaker:your body.
Speaker:So news broke yesterday of the complete
Speaker:shock that Luca Doncic was moving from
Speaker:the Mavs to the LA Lakers. And I'm not
Speaker:a massive NBA fan, but it's just one
Speaker:of those. Piece of news that
Speaker:just grabs everyone's attention and I
Speaker:got to be honest, I couldn't get enough
Speaker:of it looking at all the details and what
Speaker:was going on and why they would do that.
Speaker:This is a franchise player.
Speaker:Huge with the fans. He gets results. I
Speaker:mean, you have to watch him play against
Speaker:the Boomers in the Olympics the last
Speaker:couple of times, just what a superstar
Speaker:is. And he's 825. And why
Speaker:would they? Why would they suddenly trade
Speaker:him? Now? I've
Speaker:been thinking about this for a while
Speaker:because I've heard these different
Speaker:stories. Like Tottenham
Speaker:for example, and the EPL, they
Speaker:have, I think I read the best percentage
Speaker:in the profit and sustainability
Speaker:percentage. In the holy
Speaker:now, how important is profitability
Speaker:versus results because you look
Speaker:deeper into the trade?
Speaker:The maps would have been forking up
Speaker:345,000,000 U.S.
Speaker:dollars for what they call them, the
Speaker:supermax deals or whatever for the next 5
Speaker:years. That's significant money.
Speaker:So have they made a business decision
Speaker:because it also read that, you know, he's
Speaker:had some health, not health, fitness
Speaker:issues. He's had a calf problem. But to
Speaker:me, they're all manageable.
Speaker:But the fact that they've got rid of him
Speaker:now and they've had
Speaker:other people would have, you know, they
Speaker:could have thrown it open to the world
Speaker:and started the bidding war. But instead
Speaker:they they just did it quietly, which to
Speaker:be commended right in this world that
Speaker:nothing seems to fly under the radar.
Speaker:They did it in. And the deal was done and
Speaker:that's the first we read about it. But
Speaker:was it just a business decision?The
Speaker:fans are in mourning because they love
Speaker:him. But how long can
Speaker:you just operate
Speaker:on?Success from
Speaker:just a profit perspective when those
Speaker:people who are forking out their hard
Speaker:earned to go and watch the games, is
Speaker:there an element of is a mistake
Speaker:around having a team that's never
Speaker:successful so you keep going because you
Speaker:wouldn't want to not show up at one time
Speaker:that they do win or win something big.
Speaker:You want to be there the whole time. When
Speaker:I was a Parrot fan, long suffering Para
Speaker:fan. It's starting to feel a bit like
Speaker:that and we've got a really sound
Speaker:business operation now and and
Speaker:profitable. We won't go into those places
Speaker:again when the business side struggling.
Speaker:They've set that up well, but how much
Speaker:longer can we tolerate not having CCS
Speaker:on the field? One of the Tottenham fans,
Speaker:they they'll keep turning up and they'll
Speaker:continue to be vocal. But like, are
Speaker:you doing the right thing by them? Like
Speaker:is that how you want to run your club? Be
Speaker:be happy with not hitting the. A
Speaker:successful level, but just from a
Speaker:business perspective, wouldn't you want
Speaker:it to be successful from both sides of
Speaker:it? Wouldn't you want to be looking for a
Speaker:way to to try and be successful
Speaker:from a profit and sustainability
Speaker:perspective and from on the pitch?
Speaker:Because ultimately you're a sporting
Speaker:team. Now
Speaker:to me, if let's
Speaker:take Tottenham for example, if they're
Speaker:looking at a slow build and they're
Speaker:building towards something. Well, then
Speaker:you can get it. But I think I read
Speaker:was it 24 managers in the last 16 years
Speaker:or something like that. They're not doing
Speaker:it slow build. They continue just to just
Speaker:when the managers having a rebuild
Speaker:some results for by the wayside and they
Speaker:flick them again. And the last, well, a
Speaker:couple of the last few managers have
Speaker:actually called them out on that and
Speaker:going I'll never win anything.
Speaker:Ange called out the Tottenham fans at the
Speaker:end of last year when they were cheering
Speaker:for the other team to win because they
Speaker:didn't want their neighbours Arsenal to
Speaker:win the league. To me that's.
Speaker:That's part of the the culture change.
Speaker:But you've got to build towards
Speaker:something. But if you purely just profit,
Speaker:I can't get on board with that. It makes
Speaker:no sense. And I'd be curious to know if
Speaker:any of you people as fans.
Speaker:Would rather have that safe guarantee of
Speaker:locking in. We're going to be here
Speaker:forever and we're not going to collapse
Speaker:financially. Or would you rather just
Speaker:roll the dice and go well, we're happy
Speaker:for that to be more of a risk, but we
Speaker:want to see results. I remember when I
Speaker:was at Fox, we used to talk a lot about
Speaker:sport, obviously at Fox Sports, at sports
Speaker:television. That's all we talked about
Speaker:most mostly anyway. And one of the West
Speaker:Tigers fans saying, you know, when
Speaker:Parrot had a sustained run in in around
Speaker:the finals, he this probably 10 years ago
Speaker:now. And they were only 10 years off
Speaker:winning the premiership in in
Speaker:2005. He's like, I'd trade the
Speaker:premiership for making the finals every
Speaker:year because he's like, we don't make the
Speaker:finals. It's like a one off.
Speaker:As a fan, I can get that because you want
Speaker:to feel like you're in the contest,
Speaker:but also, you know what it's like to have
Speaker:sustained success being a para fan and
Speaker:not getting the, the premiership. And
Speaker:that's, that's hard to take. Oh, look at
Speaker:my youngest who's 18 now and he's, he's
Speaker:over, he's over learning. Him and his
Speaker:cousin mate, they just like they've seen
Speaker:that many heart breaks.
Speaker:So what? What are we standing for here?
Speaker:Like?At a
Speaker:community level, it's very much
Speaker:about the business of it and you do need
Speaker:to create a sustainable, sustainable
Speaker:model, not just financially but from a
Speaker:people side of things. But this is
Speaker:not community, this is elite sport.
Speaker:There's a community aspect, of course,
Speaker:but what's the
Speaker:responsibility to your fans?
Speaker:Another example, and this is from
Speaker:my team in the English football
Speaker:Sheffield Wednesday have been.
Speaker:In and around the the 2nd and
Speaker:3rd tier for a few years now, they
Speaker:rolled the dice, I think it was about two
Speaker:thousand 2001. They'dbeen
Speaker:sitting around that
Speaker:5th, 4th, 5th, 6th place for a fuse and
Speaker:they rolled the dice and invested in.
Speaker:Like fairly heavily in some quality that
Speaker:they hoped would take them to the next
Speaker:level. They had a couple of long term
Speaker:injuries to those, to those big signings
Speaker:that had a couple of flops in amongst
Speaker:those big signings and they get relegated
Speaker:and then they're deep in the
Speaker:hole financially. They get pinged 15
Speaker:points a couple of times and then they
Speaker:end up dropping a couple of divisions and
Speaker:then the long fight back.
Speaker:What's interesting at the moment is
Speaker:new manager, Young guy is connected to
Speaker:the fans, He's got the fans on board.
Speaker:Helps that they're winning. He saved him
Speaker:from like
Speaker:almost certain relegation
Speaker:on the last day of the season after they
Speaker:were, I think it was three points after
Speaker:after 13 games to start the year.
Speaker:And now he's got him like a win out of
Speaker:the playoffs to go up to the Premier
Speaker:League. And yet the fans still aren't
Speaker:happy. They're still complaining. And at
Speaker:the start of the year most of them said
Speaker:if we can hit mid table this year and not
Speaker:get relegated then we'll be really happy.
Speaker:And yet here we are being successful.
Speaker:And they still want results and they're
Speaker:blaming the owner. And the owner hasn't
Speaker:splashed out in this transfer window and
Speaker:he hasn't allowed them to buy more
Speaker:players. And they've been inconsistent as
Speaker:you'd expect, because this is a team that
Speaker:only just scraped in.
Speaker:So I think if you ask most fans. Yes,
Speaker:they want to be profitable. No, they
Speaker:don't want to have that 20 years in the
Speaker:wilderness because you've gambled too
Speaker:much on the financial side. So that
Speaker:obviously needs to be some balance there.
Speaker:But I don't think any fan, well, I
Speaker:mean, tell me, would you be satisfied
Speaker:with just having a really profitable
Speaker:business from a from a?
Speaker:Professional sporting perspective or do
Speaker:you want results? I look at a guy
Speaker:like Alan Jersey, who's the
Speaker:the CEO at the Bulldogs. I think he's
Speaker:CEO or chairman, I can't remember now. I
Speaker:know his family well and he's passionate.
Speaker:He bleeds blue and white and he wants him
Speaker:to win. He wants him to be successful
Speaker:because he's a businessman. He's got a
Speaker:huge business of his own, but he wants
Speaker:success. And that's why he's got
Speaker:himself so heavily involved. I've spoken
Speaker:to him, he's like as die hard as they
Speaker:come. He's a footy fan but he's also a
Speaker:very shrewd businessman who knows what
Speaker:he's doing. To me, that's the model I
Speaker:want. That's the sort of person I want in
Speaker:charge, someone who's who's absolutely
Speaker:going to look out after the bottom line,
Speaker:but he wants success.
Speaker:And if you've seen the change at that
Speaker:place over the last few years, you can
Speaker:see what that looks like. You can see the
Speaker:growing swell. You can see at times last
Speaker:year they played like a team that you
Speaker:like. OK, this, this team is the real
Speaker:deal. And maybe they can do something
Speaker:with a couple more good signings.
Speaker:Fans are excited. Oh man, doggies are out
Speaker:of the woodwork and making noise again.
Speaker:I've forgotten they've been quiet for a
Speaker:while. I was enjoying the silence but
Speaker:mate, you can hear them. But it's good
Speaker:for the game like and
Speaker:yeah I I just wonder
Speaker:whether well. In saying
Speaker:all of this, Dallas could prove to be
Speaker:completely wrong. They could bring
Speaker:Anthony Davis over, they've got a couple
Speaker:of other signings there, plus a first
Speaker:round draught pick ina couple of years,
Speaker:and it could be exactly what they needed
Speaker:for long term success. Who knows? Like
Speaker:maybe, maybe they know far more than
Speaker:anyone else. But it just
Speaker:doesn't look like that from the outside
Speaker:looking in, it looks like they've let go
Speaker:of franchise player from a business
Speaker:decision.
Speaker:I hope for their sake that it's worth it.
Speaker:As always, be interested to hear your
Speaker:thoughts. If you're listening to this one
Speaker:and you haven't subscribed yet, please
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Speaker:you more high quality content. I'm
Speaker:getting some. I've got some fantastic
Speaker:guests coming up, including a current
Speaker:NRL assistant coach,
Speaker:which is a great episode, but.
Speaker:Yeah, the more, the more people I get in
Speaker:front of the higher quality of guests I
Speaker:can get on and.
Speaker:Yeah, like I talked about the performance
Speaker:to be as high as possible. So if you
Speaker:could help me do that, huge appreciation.
Speaker:You've taken the time to listen to this
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