While global soccer brands are lucrative, they are not to typically at the revenue level of a NFL or NBA franchise.
The pub quiz show question involving trivial pursuits could possibly collectively flummox a dimly lit room bustling with pseudo-intellectuals and power drinkers on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving eve in year 2055. “What sporting group,” the oratory alto masterpiece bounding from the host reverberates through the matrix of implants and smart devices as no one bothers to make eye contact with another soul, but it is of no consequence, as the attention span is a relic of the past, “was the highest valued franchise on the planet in the late teen years of this century?”
In this day and age with the news fresh and time travel still conundrum and the perfect fit for the pages of science fiction and mystery novels, the correct answer is the parent company of Manchester City, the UK soccer club, worth an astounding $4.8 billion dollars. The sobering reality of the global branding hysteria and the vast infrastructure funding sports and entertainment is best served by Dr. Evil delivering the stunning financial results with his trademark sting and comedic air of intrigue.
However, it is all false, and a sham bordering on epic levels, as any lazy session of passive online research clearly illustrates that the Dallas Cowboys are by far the most treasured brand of the sporting world in eclipsing the $5 billion threshold. How a behemoth of a journalistic entity can make such a careless mistake is not surprising in the current environment favoring incredulous content, and ideology constantly bombarding the pursuit for truth.
Interesting, the legacy franchise of Manchester City born nearly 140 years ago, has undergone a renaissance of success and dominance over the last decade, which has raised the curiosity of investors in the US, and not China. With a recent infusion of $501 million dollars of equity purchased by the Silver Lake firm, an organization with heavy financial ties to Skype, the ownership group of the City, according to the misleading BBC News article, passes the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, as the most lucrative sporting conglomerate, a blatant inaccuracy on a multitude of levels.
In committing the eternal damnation sin of false reporting and displaying a complete lack of accountability, the epidemic plaguing mainstream newsrooms continues to drive readers away, and threatens to annihilate the concept of trust. According to a 10 second search on duckduckgo and the reliable source of Forbes, the Nets actually rank #37, even with the recent jolt of investment dollars. The other Manchester, Manchester United, a constant throughout the history of the Premier League, firmly holds the number six position, an obvious fact that the majority of UK citizens should be aware of, especially those who proliferate content labeled as news. About the only saving grace to the ill-fated article, is the growing investment of Chinese money throughout professional sports.
While the NFL dominates the team sports marketplace in North America, and the reputation of the Dallas Cowboys and polarizing owner Jerry Jones is inflated to an eating club monthly feast level tipping the scales of decency through gluttonous mechanisms manifested in copious portions of deep fried Twinkies smothered in a Red Bull jelly, tribal fanaticism obscures reality. But the insane level of television ratings, apparel sales, and online footprint, cannot detract from the the fact “America’s Team” and the prevalence of sustained tradition, is the most heralded and priceless team on the globe.
As rhetoric continues to inflict the storylines of electronic and broadcast copy, the burden increases on the alert individual to absorb and process information in a vigilant fashion before reacting. With AI news bots now capable of tapping multiple sources in what passes the eye test for a news story, but can’t overcome the smell test, truth is in danger of losing authority to the masses who lack a suitable set of critical thinking skills, and display attention spans that are measured by the Plank scale.
The potential hazardous repercussions of a world where details are not embraced, as evidence by the BBC News abomination assaulting the basic tenets of journalism, and the general gravitation towards the vapid and tawdry narrative of the superficial, are that reality becomes customizable and fleeting, and pliable under the discretion of an individual. Maybe, the powers that be in the tech industry should devote an app to fact checking, but with an inherent and egregious bias prevalent within the Silicon Valley ranks, the gesture would prove counterproductive, and produce yet another detrimental channel of misinformation.