The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Marc Gasol, from NBA star to business guru

2022-09-15T15:09:56.707Z


The Catalan center and businessman tells his experience as founder of Bàsquet Girona to other investors


Marc Gasol is testing his own sports company model with the club he created in 2014 and which will debut in the elite of Spanish basketball in a few weeks.

Bàsquet Girona wants to be an entity rooted in the city that saw the pivot stand out in his day, but it also wants to copy things from the NBA business model and “generate” 365 days a year.

“The thirteen years in the NBA have served me a lot.

I am very curious and I pay attention.

There you work differently and you try to apply some of the concepts from there, knowing that the context here is something different”, he has pointed out.

In Spain, he has pointed out, sport accounts for 3.3% of GDP.

As happens in the United States, Gasol wants, for example, to attract the fan who enjoys (and spends) but does not suffer with the team.

“People who go to dinner anyway if their team loses” so that if possible they do it in the pavilion.

He, too, had no qualms last season about removing a stand to put up a bouncy castle so that fathers and mothers could watch the games in peace "and repeat," he remarked.

Earn fan loyalty.

He explained it this Thursday before the nearly 250 people who have come to the Juan Roig Business Marina in Valencia to attend the Investor's Day.

If it had been any of the previous summers, Gasol would have been one of the stars of the previous semifinals of Spain in the Eurobasket but the Catalan center continues with his path from the playing field to the companies.

His, he recalled, is a path that more and more elite athletes are following.

From Gerard Piqué to Fernando Alonso.

From Lebron James to Stephen Curry, he has targeted.

And to explain what the change of becoming an entrepreneur has meant for him, he has used two photographs.

The first, in 2007 after winning the Eurocup with the former Akasvayu Girona.

"Then I was only concerned about the size of the rod that I was going to take later," he confirmed.

The second, after rising to the top flight with his own club this summer.

“There, instead of the cane, I was already thinking about balancing the budget and the next day's 'rua'”, he has compared.

dodging plugs

Investor in some 'startups', Gasol has recounted the reluctance he had to overcome when he decided to promote a project in Girona.

"The people who were there wanted us to help their clubs but not make our own, but we stood firm," he recalled.

In just eight years they have a team in the ACB but in total they already have about forty, including girls, 3x3 and wheelchair.

The budget they will have for this course is 4.5 million, one of the lowest in the competition but by far the highest in its history

In the front row, his former teammates Álex Mumbrú, coach of the Valencian team since this summer, and Fernando San Emeterio, one of his assistants and how the Catalan is a restless investor.

With a black shirt and jeans, Gasol has presented himself as "founder, president and player" of Girona.

Because just a few hours ago, under the orders of Aíto García Reneses, he had been key in Girona to win a friendly against Joventut.

He was also a few months ago in the promotion to the ACB, on the track and in the offices, taking the promotion phase to Girona.

A SAD without losing DNA

The owner of Girona has advanced that from a sports club they will become a Sports Limited Company this campaign.

To do so he has surrounded himself with a dome of trust.

“The vice president (his brother Pau), surely you know him.

He is a very good boy, as well as a good player”, he joked.

Everything is decided by consensus he has assured.

“But if there is not, I decide”, he has assumed.

“My name is relatively important to me, but that essence should not be lost.

I want my 'DNA to be transmitted and for people to understand it”, she emphasized after detailing the values ​​and habits that they want to instill or the integration work that they also carry out.

Spain, very team

Before, Gasol had told journalists how he is experiencing the first major tournament in Spain since the resignation of several heavyweights from a historic generation like him or his brother.

“I am living it with the illusion that the team transmits, which gives the security that they are going to leave everything on the track and that they are going to face the difficult moments as a group”, he said.

“Besides, the fact that Sergio Scariolo is on the bench is a guarantee”, he remarked.

Gasol sees the selection focused and has only asked his former teammates one thing.

“That they defend as they are doing”, he has demanded.

“Germany is a very difficult rival and they are brave but Spain is not short on that”, he concluded.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-09-15

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.