Toronto is one of the biggest cities in Canada; one surprisingly unorthodox market both successful yet unsuccessful is their professional sports market. According to the article by Glen Hodgson, Toronto professional teams, mainly the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs, NBA Toronto Raptors, and MLB Toronto Blue Jays have less incentive and motivation to perform well due to their successful market. Specifically, the owners of these companies are corporate businessmen who are seeking to generate profit, not necessarily winning championships. In addition, due to the conditions such as wide customer-base, long history, publicity, income, quality facilities, these teams stay profitable.
Although financially they are successful, is this lacking urgency of winning caused by their performance management issues? The repetitive lack of playoff appearances means lower revenues generated per season and the longer winning does not occur, the less loyal fans will become. I am curious why competitiveness is low in Toronto, where exchange rates don’t deduce player salaries, team history and services are available, and benefits are easily accessible. In class we discussed performance management, is this situation the lack of hierarchical workforce needs or lack of proper management?
Sources:
1. http://www.conferenceboard.ca/reports/briefings/bigleagues/briefing-10.aspx
2. http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/nba/article/1289396–nba-toronto-raptors-fall-to-boston-celtics