Celtics' championship comes just in time for owners
The turnaround is complete. And it came just in time.
For the owners of the Boston Celtics, their team's championship victory was not only elating but necessary. The trophy came in their fifth full season of ownership; any longer and their chances of ever reaching number one would have declined dramatically, recent history shows.
"We had a sense of urgency from day one, and we knew we had a three-to-five-year window to make progress to build a championship team," said Stephen Pagliuca, co-owner of the team with Wyc Grousbeck.
Spending money was critical. The owners paid millions to bring in stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, along with numerous other talents. But there was a heavy dose of pure desire in the mix, too. "We kind of lived and died with the team," Pagliuca said.
Owners of professional sports teams who lack that kind of drive often never see a championship, the Globe found by examining the records of owners across the four major US sports leagues earlier this year. Of 231 current and immediate-past ownership groups, 27 won a championship within five years of buying a team. From there, the numbers fall off quickly: 11 teams took up to 10 years; a whopping 77 percent of owners never have won.
Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College who specializes in sports economics, said it's hard to turn around a basketball team, particularly due to hiring and pay challenges. "The ownership is an incredibly important variable," he said.
Pagliuca, a buyout executive at Bain Capital in Boston, knows a thing or two about buying businesses. But even he says there's some luck and magic sprinkled into making a sports franchise a winner.
"All you can really do is plan to contend for a championship," Pagliuca said. "You can't plan to win one."
BETH HEALY 