You clearly don’t understand the nuances of Pro sports/big business management. The Championship is just one of many business goals. And yes, you can fall short of the ultimate goal and still succeed in other areas in big business. That’s what these are...businesses with owners who would like to succeed and build value.
In past years I ran a group that did $20mil in revenue annually, but we were only a small part of a multi-billion $ company. The company’s ultimate goal each year was to get to number one in their industry. When that didn’t happen at first, it wasn’t seen as some colossal failure. When they eventually attained that goal, they waffled back and forth between 1/2 and still fluctuate because their competitors are strong, they also know what they’re doing, have good products and services and they’re run by equally smart and driven people. Sr Management didn’t look at those things as some huge negative, because there were other areas of success to be proud of. No business of that size sets one singular business objective and measures success or failure each year based that singular objective.