Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Sports Team Owners Like to Win

Aspiration

Professional sports present an unusual financial puzzle, in that they reward finding clever ways to lose money. Most owners of companies would prefer to make a profit, and probably most owners of sports teams would also prefer to make a profit, but there are other prizes in sports, and some owners of sports teams do not care that much about profit. Some owners would prefer to lose money and win a championship, because winning a championship is cool and fun and why you probably got into sports ownership in the first place. But only one team can win the championship in each ...