Dan Friedkin expresses interest in buying the Houston Rockets

Apparently lots of people here have not bought a car before.
Except for Tesla, no car company sells direct to consumer, they go through dealers.
One Dealer can have many dealerships with many types of cars, domestic, foreign etc.

 

just goes to show how little most folks on here know about anything real world related if they think someone like dan freidkin isn't wealthy enough to purchase the rockets. i wouldn't be shocked if many folks here think he'd be paying cash.

 

And that dealer model will die within 10 years. Tesla will have a hand in it too. I'm not into car dealers being my team's owner. I still remember Charlie Thomas.

 

The Summit was great, Charlie was a hometown guy. Clutch City was built by Steve Patterson, Charlie's GM.

 

This is close but not exactly correct.

Gulf States Toyota is the distributor of vehicles to every Toyota dealer in the states listed. So they sell every Toyota at a markup to every Toyota dealer.

They also have a Finance arm that makes an insane amount of money on your rate/insurance/warranty etc.

Gulf States doesn't own dealerships, but they definitely "own" every step of the process.

Also, a clarification...

The naming rights for Toyota Center are paid by Toyota Motor Sales, which is a separate company from Gulf States Toyota.

So Friedkin wouldn't need to change anything there. TMS would just pay Friedkin instead of Alexander. Friedkin wouldn't be paying himself, as I saw mentioned elsewhere in the thread.

 

I got to ride in an elevator with Mr. Thomas not too long ago and express to him how much better an owner I thought he was than Les.

You would've been proud.

 

You kept it real.

I remember when Steve Patterson was working to get Houston an NFL stadium, I would see him the tunnel with my coworkers.
I say "Yo Steve" he acknowledges. My coworkers asked me who he was, I said, "Clutch City".

Downtown tunnels
real

 

Doesn't Friedkin own a safari company where hunters kill exotic animals?

I think Les is an animal lover.

Could be a problem I wonder?

 

I tend to doubt it. Alexander and Friedkin already know each other well and have worked together before.

I could be wrong, but I don't see that being a seal-kille...deal-killer.

 

If anything, these two have likely discussed the idea previously.

 

Texas has some law Tesla tried to change to sell cars over the internet in Texas. It did not get changed. I didn't understand the brief part I read on it, and did not look into it. Seemed silly of Texas. Just $0.02 worth.

 

We just passed a bill that "protects children in bathrooms" because of the huge public emergency of transgender people in bathroom. The politics in this state are a circus.

 

As a rabid fan of the Oilers from the time they began as a franchise in the AFL and won the first two championships (we had season tickets), until Bud Adams (may he continue to rot in Hell) stole the team and moved it, I am far less sanguine about the possibility than you are.

 

True, but Bud Adams wasn't foreign. You might disagree, but I don't think foreign owners are any more likely to move the team than any other American *******. In fact, the economics of keeping the Rockets in Houston are so good and obvious, I even prefer non-Americans without regional bias. For example, I trust the Chinese way more than anyone from Seattle to keep the team here.

 

I strongly disagree and will leave the politics out of it. Wrong forum, of course. My preference continues to be local ownership, with hopefully a couple of well known former Rockets involved in some way.

 

Now I'm really confused. What does politics have to do with this? Of course local owners would definitely keep the team in Houston, but between non-local buyers, I don't see how an American is more likely to keep the team in HOUSTON over foreign owners.

 

You also have to consider how his net worth is consist of. A venture capitalist may be able to sell whatever he has for cash in a heart beat. If the guy has $2B in his car dealership business, how much can he take out without ruining his existing business? Of course loan is another option.

 

I can't explain it to you without going against forum rules. Just blow the comment off and press on.

 

Its not fair to leave @kevC in the dark lime that though. thats teasing