FEW industries have worse labour relations than American professional sports. On September 15th the owners of the National Hockey League locked out their players, after failing to agree on a new contract. Fans howled that the entire 2012-13 ice hockey season might be lost, as it was in 2004-05. This is the fourth NHL lockout or strike since 1992, and follows lockouts by owners of teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) in 2011.
论劳资关系，没有几个行业比美国职业体育联盟更加糟糕。就在9月15号，美国冰球联盟NHL由于劳资双方未能就新合同达成一致，资方宣布关闭与球员的谈判。球迷怨声鼎沸，担心整个2012-13赛季会像2004-05赛季那样无球可看。这已经是NHL自1992年以来第四次停摆，此前，美国职业篮球联盟NBA和美国职业橄榄球大联盟NFL在2011年也出现停摆。
The hockey tiff is about money. Players refuse to accept a cap on salaries of 47% of revenues, down from 57%. Owners say the cap is needed to help weaker teams compete. Hockey has the widest income disparity of the “big four” of American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey; each NHL team depends mostly on cash it generates locally. In the NFL, far more revenues are pooled. This prevents a few super-rich teams from dominating and (in theory) makes the game more exciting.
冰球联盟的分歧是为了钱。球员拒绝接受资方把工资帽从球赛相关收入的57%下降到47%。球队老板们则认为必须设置这个工资帽以帮扶弱队参与竞争。在美国体坛“四巨头”--橄榄球，棒球，篮球和冰球中，冰球队之间的收入差距最为悬殊。冰球队基本依靠本地球赛收入为生。橄榄球联盟的生财渠道则广泛得多，因此不会出现某几支超富球队主宰联赛的现象，比赛（从理论上说）也就更加精彩。
When muscular millionaires (the players) fight brash billionaires (the owners), neither side will crumple easily. All are alpha males; most can forgo income for a long time. So the lockout could drag on.
一边是肌肉虬结的百万富翁（球员），一边是目中无人的亿万富翁（老板），争斗起来谁也不肯轻易让步。都是些自命不凡的家伙。长时间没有收入，他们大多数不在乎。所以停摆还会拖延下去。
As the global army of super-rich has grown, more tycoons have bought sports teams for fun or prestige. Many have lost squillions. Few seem to care. Roman Abramovich, a Russian gazillionaire, started a craze for foreigners buying English soccer clubs when he snapped up Chelsea in 2003. Since then he has bought stars like normal people buy Starbucks coffee—eagerly, often and with little regard to the price tag. And he is far from alone.
随着全球超级富豪军团不断扩大，又有许多大亨收购球队。有的图乐趣，有的图名气。其中许多人已经亏损无数，可是好像没几个人当回事。俄罗斯超级巨富罗曼-阿布拉莫维奇于2003年收购了英国切尔西足球俱乐部，此风一开，大批外国人立即疯狂跟进。阿布收购球队以后，买球星就像普通人买星巴克咖啡--迫不及待地买，三天两头地买，基本不问价。而这种人远不止他一个。
Men sometimes buy teams thinking ownership will attract women, says Diane Garnick, CEO of Clear Alternatives, an investment firm. However, they soon find that it primarily attracts other men and could even repel women, who assume that a sports-mad plutocrat will spend little time with them outside the ballpark.
男人买球队往往是想通过老板身份吸引女人，有家名为“明智选择”的投资公司CEO黛安-加尼克如是说。然而他们很快发现，被吸引的主要还是男人，女人反而被赶跑了。因为女人通常认为，痴迷体育的富豪肯定是整天泡在球场，几乎不会有时间陪伴她们。
Despite all these peculiarities, the market for sport teams has become far more efficient in the past decade or so, says Steve Flatow of Bloomberg Sports, which provides data and analysis to the sports industry. One reason is that a crowd of banking and consulting intermediaries has appeared to advise owners on how to make bucks from balls and pucks.
体育狂的聚宝盆
Another is that sports broadcasts are growing more valuable. No other form of entertainment persuades viewers to tune in so reliably at a specific time, nor to watch a show live rather than recording and skipping the adverts. This means that sports teams are worth more than ever, says Will Chang, a serial investor in teams such as the San Francisco Giants (baseball) and DC United (soccer).
球队买卖市场尽管怪事多多，但其效率比其十来年之前却大大提高了，为体育产业提供数据及分析的彭博资讯体育部的史蒂夫.弗拉托说。原因之一，是市场催生了一批银行业和咨询业的中介为球队老板出谋划策，教他们如何通过大球小球挣钱。另外，体育转播越来越值钱。别的娱乐节目都不能让观众在某个时间守候在某个频道，也不能让他们只看现场直播，而不是为了跳过广告去看录播。这就说明球队比以往任何时候都更加值钱了，张济民说。此人也投资了许多球队，比如旧金山巨人队（棒球）和华盛顿特区联队（橄榄球）。
When a consortium of tycoons—including Magic Johnson, a former basketball star—bought the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for $2.1 billion this year, most observers (including Mr Chang) thought they had overpaid. Yet the chance to bag a lucrative new television deal now suggests the new owners may do well.
一个寡头团队--其中包括NBA前球星魔术师约翰逊--今年以21亿美元收购了洛杉矶道奇棒球队，当时许多关注此事的人（包括张济民）都认为他们给多了。不过，现在他们有望获取一份利润可观的电视转播权的新合同，所以新老板们估计会过得很好。
The ten most valuable sports teams in the world are worth a combined $16 billion, according to Forbes. That is up from $14.4 billion a year ago—an 11% increase at a time of worldwide economic sluggishness. Two soccer teams top the list: Manchester United and Real Madrid. Joint third are the New York Yankees (a baseball team) and the Dallas Cowboys (an American-football team). Of the 50 most valuable teams ranked by Forbes, 41 are American, including all 32 NFL teams. Some see this as evidence that the American professional-sports industry is overpriced.
据《福布斯》公布的数据，全球10支最值钱的球队，总值达到160亿美元。去年这个数字是144亿，也就是说，在全球经济萧条的背景下仍然上涨了11%。其中价值最高的是两家足球俱乐部：曼联和皇马。并列第三的分别是纽约洋基队（棒球）和达拉斯牛仔队（橄榄球）。在《福布斯》最有价值球队排行榜上，前50名中有41支球队来自美国，包括全部32支橄榄球队。有人以此为据，认为美国的职业体育产业的价值被高估了。
Indeed, some businesslike owners are starting to get out. In August Randy Lerner, an investor with a reputation for prudence, sold the Cleveland Browns football team for $1 billion. On September 18th it emerged that Philip Anschutz is exploring selling AEG, his multi-billion-dollar sports and entertainment business. AEG owns several teams, including the LA Galaxy, which brought David Beckham (an English soccer star) to America.
确实，一些经营有方的老板已经开始考虑金盆洗手。8月份，素来谨慎的投资人兰迪-勒纳以10亿美元的价格出售了克利夫兰布朗橄榄球队。9月18号又传出消息，菲利普-安舒茨正在考虑出售其价值亿万美金的体育娱乐集团AEG。AEG拥有许多球队，其中包括把英国球星贝克汉姆引进美国的洛杉矶银河队。
Mr Anschutz was quick to spot the potential for using stadiums for non-sporting purposes, and has built up a music-management arm of AEG which represents stars such as Justin Bieber and Jennifer Lopez. Potential bidders for AEG, or just its sports teams, range from the Dolan family, which owns the New York Knicks basketball team, to Comcast, a media firm.
安舒茨先生敏锐地意识到，体育场馆具有比赛之外的使用潜力。于是他在AEG名下创立了音乐管理分支机构，其麾下有贾斯汀-比伯，詹妮弗-洛佩茨等歌星。目前有意收购AEG，或者只想购买其球队的买家，包括拥有纽约尼克斯篮球队的多兰家族，和有线系统公司康卡斯特。
There have been rumours, too, that John Henry of the Fenway Sports Group will sell the Boston Red Sox. Some speculate that he will buy a cheaper rival baseball team, or pump more money into Liverpool, an English soccer team he bought for $476m in October 2010.
还有消息说芬威体育集团公司的约翰-亨利有意出售波士顿红袜队。有人猜想他会从对手手中购买一支低价球队，或者把资金追注到他于2010年10月花4.76亿美元购买的英超俱乐部利物浦队。
Mr Henry may be the canniest mogul of all. He helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004, the first time in 86 years, partly by adopting the quantitative methods described in “Moneyball”, a book by Michael Lewis that became a Brad Pitt film. (Simply put: don’t hire the best players. Hire the ones who offer the best value for money.) Mr Henry paid $700m for the Red Sox and the New England Sports Network in 2001; Forbes reckons the team alone is now worth at least $1 billion.
亨利先生可能是大亨中最为精明的一位。他曾经在2004年使红袜队获得队史上86年以来首个世界职业棒球大赛冠军。这个成就部分得益于他在运作球队时采用了迈克尔-刘易斯《魔球》一书描述的量化方法。这本书后来被改编成布拉德-皮特主演的电影《点球成金》。（要诀：球员不要找最优秀的。要找最能替你挣钱的）。2001年，亨利先生以7亿美元收购了红袜队和新英格兰体育广播网；据《福布斯》评估，现在单是红袜队就至少值10亿美元。
Mr Henry says the rumour that he is about to sell the Red Sox is baseless. Yet there are reasons to sell. The Sox are having a lousy season. A rich fan may believe he can use his business skills to revive it. Such an investor could pay over the odds for a chance at the bragging rights.
亨利先生声称，认为他要出售红袜队是毫无根据的。其实卖也有卖的道理。红袜队本赛季表现糟糕。或许某个财大气粗的球迷自信能用其经商技巧使球队重振雄风。这样，他会不考虑机会大小，只图买个吹嘘的资本。
There are also reasons for Mr Henry to shift cash to Liverpool, which could use a striker who actually scores goals. Some American sports moguls see English soccer’s premier league as the best current opportunity to transfer abroad their knowledge of how to make money from a sports franchise. (China and India are good places to sell merchandise, but so corrupt that owning a team is a risky bet.)
亨利先生同样有理由把资金转注到利物浦队，以便购买能进球得分的前锋。美国的一些体育寡头认为，要把通过运作球队赚钱的知识输出到其他国家，那么目前最好的去处是英超。（中国和印度这些地方腐败盛行，去那里卖东西不错，买球队有风险。）
Five of the 20 English Premiership teams are owned by Americans: Mr Lerner (Aston Villa), the Glazer family (Manchester United), Stan Kroenke (Arsenal) and Ellis Short (Sunderland), as well as Mr Henry. He bought Liverpool from two other American investors, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who had burdened the team with debt and left it nearly bankrupt.
在英超20支球队中，有5家的老板是美国人：勒纳先生（阿斯顿维拉），格雷泽家族（曼联），斯坦-克伦克（阿森纳），埃利斯-肖特（桑德兰），以及亨利先生。他从另外两位美国投资人--乔治-吉列特和汤姆-希克斯--的手中收购了利物浦。这两人把球队弄得债台高筑，濒临破产。
The money available to the best English soccer teams is growing fast. In June the domestic rights to televise Premiership games for 2013-16 were auctioned for $5 billion, a 71% increase on the previous deal. A forthcoming auction of foreign rights may raise even more, says Stefan Szymanski, an economist at the University of Michigan.
伺机流向英超顶级球队的资金日趋富足。6月份，英超2013-16赛季的国内电视转播权卖出了50亿美元，比上次增加了71%。即将开拍的国外转播权上涨幅度会更大，密歇根大学经济学家斯蒂芬-西曼斯基说。
The problem for profit-maximising Americans is that they must vie for trophies with even richer foreigners who don’t mind losing money. Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, an emirati sheikh who bought Manchester City in 2008, makes even Mr Abramovich seem stingy, which is why the club won the Premiership in May.
追求利润最大化的美国人面临的问题是，他们必须和比他们更有钱而且不怕亏钱的外国人去争夺比赛奖杯。2008年，阿联酋的一位酋长曼苏尔-本-扎耶德-阿勒纳哈扬购买了曼城队，其出手之豪阔使得阿布拉莫维奇先生都相形失色。曼城因而在5月夺得英超冠军。
The best hope for American investors may be that new “financial fair play” rules now being introduced across Europe will rein in lavish spending and create a de facto cap on players’ salaries, says Mr Szymanski. Yet it may not be clear for several years if these rules will be enforced with enough rigour to give Moneyball a sporting chance against munificence.
西曼斯基说，美国投资者的最佳机会，是寄望正在欧洲推广的新的“金融公平竞争”规则，能制止老板们狂掷滥花，并制定出限制球员工资增长的可供操作的工资帽。然而这些规则能不能得到有力实施，魔球理念能不能与烧钱行为公平竞争，几年之内恐怕难见端倪。
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