Top 30 John W. Henry Quotes

Football officiating is so subjective – much more subjective than any other sport. But the more I watch – and I watch too many matches – the more impressed I am with referees.

I started John W. Henry & Company because I enjoyed applying mathematics to markets, and it was a profound challenge that resonated within me.

I don’t read fiction.

In the digital world of today, one can say almost nothing is local.

If you make a certain type of statement, you can make a pretty good prediction of how George Steinbrenner will react.

You can’t win in any sport without heavily concentrating on revenue generation. You have to be relentless in that regard if you are going to be able to afford the kind of players you need to compete at the highest level.

You cannot stick with the same media strategy forever any more than you can stick with the same football tactics forever.

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.

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.

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.

I admire Arsenal very much, and part of that is that they are profitable.

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.

LFC is not servicing debt other than stadium debt.

I do not think any thinking individual buys a sports franchise, or an English football club, to make money.

Back when I was an idealistic 18-year-old on my way to Chicago, I might have believed that being on the side of virtue would guarantee a good outcome. These many years later, I know better.

I believe almost any sports fan would purchase a club, if they had the means.

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.

We know there is a very powerful fan base for Liverpool in Asia. We are not embarrassed to say we want to exploit that.

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.

Markets are really people.

Manchester United has done an incredible job of building a young, talented, deep squad.

Credit is probably more acceptable in American culture than elsewhere.

When the Red Sox spent $300million on Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, Liverpool fans were irate. It actually should have been Boston fans.

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.

The fact is, LFC is going to require substantial investment, as did the Red Sox.

I have been driven by causes in almost every major endeavor in my life, beginning when I was a 16-year-old in Southern California where I wrote and published my own newspaper.

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.

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.

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.

To me, the word profitable means sustainable – able to sustain a business that has a high degree of excellence.