"Just Cut The Checks"

On SportsCenter tonight (April 17), one of their NBA analysts (whose name I did not catch) talked about how the owner of the Clland Cavaliers needs to "clean up the mess" there, and his solution was to hire "basketball people" and let them run the team. "Just cut the checks. That's all he needs to do. Just cut the checks."

I was struck by the assumption that the owner of a professional sports franchise is assumed to be incompetent at running the business. Imagine if this were the universal assumption about small businesses (and, yes, most pro sports franchises, whatever their alleged values, are still basically small busineses). Hard to do? Yes, it is.

Yet it is clearly a widespread attitude about the sports business. The separation of ownership and control is assumes to be a virtue in this business, if not anywhere else.

I just find that interesting, and faintly bizarre.