The mandate of financial fair play in Europe is for clubs to live within their means.
Boston had the first public library, Liverpool had the first lending library. Both cities have pioneered medical advancements during the decades and both have the largest economic powers in the world exactly 213 miles to the south by car.
I'm a tough manager. I question almost every assumption in what are hopefully pragmatic ways. The more you question, the more you learn and the more the person you are questioning learns.
In the digital world of today, one can say almost nothing is local.
I invested in the 'Globe' because it is one of the best and most important news organizations in the world. We saw this vividly in the days and weeks after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, and we also see it in many other ways every day.
Our goal in Liverpool is to create the kind of stability that the Red Sox enjoy. We are committed to building for the long term.
I had the good fortune to call George Steinbrenner both partner and friend.
I started John W. Henry & Company because I enjoyed applying mathematics to markets, and it was a profound challenge that resonated within me.
We know there is a very powerful fan base for Liverpool in Asia. We are not embarrassed to say we want to exploit that.
If you build a 70,000-seat stadium it will cost much more than double to build than a 35,000-seater. The higher the seat the more expensive it is to construct.
When the Red Sox spent $300million on Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, Liverpool fans were irate. It actually should have been Boston fans.
When I think of how special Anfield is and how special Liverpool is, everywhere around the world everyone is talking about Liverpool, it is because of the fan base.
But NESV has always had debt from the first day we purchased the Red Sox. We have some partners who look at Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and almost demand that we have debt as a consequence.
There was a lot of criticism in Boston that we weren't going to spend money on the Red Sox after we did the Liverpool transaction. Then there was the fear we wouldn't spend in Liverpool. Hopefully the fans of both clubs will eventually see what we see clearly - that there is nothing to fear from the existence of the other club.
To me, the word profitable means sustainable - able to sustain a business that has a high degree of excellence.
You cannot stick with the same media strategy forever any more than you can stick with the same football tactics forever.
Truth is, I prefer to think that I have joined the 'Globe,' not purchased it, because great institutions, public and private, have stewards, not owners.
Manchester City seems to have unlimited spending restraint and are attempting to have all-star quality at each position - two deep. That will be hard to beat.
The nature of markets, and that includes player acquisition markets, is such that sooner or later any set of successful formulae that provide an excess return above investment are discounted.
I believe almost any sports fan would purchase a club, if they had the means.
