McMahon vs Steinbrenner

[IrishCanadian25]

Who's a Better Business Man?

Vincent K. McMahon vs George Steinbrenner

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McMahon

1. Took over a quasi successful wrestling promotion from his father.

2. Successfully navigated the transition of pro wrestling from territorial to oligopolous.

3. Created and marketing some of the biggest brands in sports and entertainment history, such as WWF, WWE, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, John Cena, Steve Austin, The Rock, and Wrestlemania.

4. Challenged by a negative perception of professional wrestling and the inability to be considered "real" in a sporting sense. Turned the concept of pro wrestling into "entertainment."

5. Opened the XFL. Swing and a miss.

6. Successfully created a films division responsible for profitable, yet awful action films.

7. Up until age 60, also actively participated in pro wrestling as a performer.

8. Revolutionized pro sports viewing by broadcasting wrestling mega-cards on pay-per-view, a practice which has been used by WCW, TNA, and Ultimate Fighting.

9. McMahon has recently announced plans to launch a new cable network by 2011.

Steinbrenner

1. Purchased the storied NY Yankees franchise for $8.8 million. His net worth as of 2009 was $1.19 billion according to Forbes magazine.

2. Responsible for the now famous "Yankee Grooming Policy," requiring players to be clean-shaven and professional at all times.

3. Largely credited with beginnging the shift in baseball - and to a degree all sports - to a heavy free agency focus after paying men such as Reggie Jackson and Dave Winfield hefty amounts of money to play for him.

4. Completely revolutionized baseball business by selling cable rights to MSG, and later with the creation of the YES Network.

5. As a lifelong pro wrestling fan, he wrote the foreward for Dusty Rhodes' book.

6. Has been challenged by a lifetime ban from baseball (it lasted 3 years) and the changing baseball landscape.

Between these two men, who was the greater / more accomplished business man / business leader? How would you compare and contrast them to one another?

 

[Tenta]

Good Thread, IC, and I have to admit, the parallels are quite there, indeed. Both of these men played characters that were larger than life. Steinbrenner is the last of a dying breeds, in vocal owners that give a damn about the product. Now that he has passed to another time, we're left with pretty much Mark Cuban, and even then, he doesn't have the class and dignity that a George Steinbrenner.

Unfortunately, the problem is, this isn't a quantifiable relationship. both are successful men, but there's no correct way to distinguish McMahon's success, other than profit, Steinbrenner was way more about profit. He also had to make a yearly profit, which he did normally, mind you, and also worry about winning World Series Championships. Which he did... Seven times. The problem is, we can't quanitfy these two in the same way, though if we had to, I'd still probably pick Steinbrenner.

That isn't to take away from either men, they're both legends. But to use the cliche, it's comparing apples to oranges

 

[jmh1971]

George Steinbrenner by far! Vince runs a TV show where George runs a real sports team and media power house called the YES NETWORK. People hate George but without his money a lot of teams in small markets wouldn't be competitive or might not exist this day and age. I don't see VINCE helping out small markets or even caring what happens to his employees. The BS help rehab with was done to protect himself when being investigated by Congress for the whole steroid scandal. Vince has no loyalty and is all about business. George was well known for his loyalty and never cared about making money, he cared about winning. George would create jobs for former Yankees if they were down on their luck.

Vince is the owner of a male soap opera and modern day PT Barnum while George owns a real sports franchise and brought them back from the dead. Every where the Yankees go, ticket sales rise in the stadium. Not so for Vince or any wrestling unless it's a HUGE EVENT. George did more for baseball then Vince could ever do for sports entertainment.

 

[jmh1971]

Tenta- You're wrong about George! The Yankees lose money every year thanks to revenue sharing and luxury taxes. George never cared about profits he even said that. He cared about winning. By winning he has made money. He was the ONLY OWNER who voted against revenue sharing. He only voted against it because he said the owners would pocket the money and not spend it on the players like they are supposed to and he was right.

 

[Davi323]

Steinbrenner, no question. The New York Yankees are THE sports brand. Love them or hate them, the Yankees are the single biggest entity in all of sports. Between the famous pinstripes, the NY logo that has become synonymous with the entire state, to the fact that everyone has an opinion about them, what Steinbrenner did will never ever happen again. I am generally the first to acknowledge Vince McMahon's strengths, but there is no real comparison here.