Earlier this month, in my post Buy American? What Does that Mean?, I wrote about the impact of globalization on the economy and our everyday life. It appears globalization has now changed the American sports landscape. On May 24th 2009, the Cleveland Cavaliers, one of the four remaining teams in the NBA playoffs, sold a 15% stake in the team to a group of Chinese investors. The deal must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors but this would be the first major American team to be owned by foreign investors, even if it’s only a minority share. Foreign players on US teams has become ordinary and foreign ownership overseas is more common in football clubs(soccer for us Americans). In the English Premier League alone Derby County is owned by a US based group, Aston Villa is owned by the Cleveland Brown’s owner, Chelsea is owned by a Russian Billionaire, and Fulham is owned by the Egyptian owner of Harrods department store.

Mark Cuban owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, actually predicted this would happen in his blog post, When Will Foreign Ownership of US Sports Teams Start? on Feb 29, 2008. A little over a year later he has his answer. The irony of the whole thing is that one of the hardest hit parts of the Rust Belt is Cleveland, OH. Globalization has caused many manufacturing jobs to go overseas; no doubt bitterness for foreign companies and the US companies that moved operations elsewhere, must be high. In April, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 10.2%, one of the highest rates in over 25 years. One place the city of Cleveland could find solace was in the Cavs who looked poised to win the team’s first ever NBA championship. Now a championship might be bittersweet.

The only thing for sure is globalization is here to stay and will continue to change the way all business is being done.