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[ruh-oh] Restaurateur Tilman Fertitta Desperately Seeks Cash Infusion For His Hospitality Empire

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by iJHolmes, Apr 9, 2020.

  1. francis 4 prez

    francis 4 prez Contributing Member

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    Look, I know it's easy to hate on fertitta during this crisis for being cheap and possibly costing us a championship or two
     
  2. Corrosion

    Corrosion Member

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    Even without his financial stress , I can't see anything remotely close to $2.2B for any franchise with so much uncertainty surrounding the business model.

    What is the NBA or any sports franchise without fans asses in seats buying overpriced concessions ? With the "Corona Scare" fans aren't going to pack stadiums with 30-50k people like they did before this started , not for a while at least.
    Then factor in the economic issues outside the league - sponsors are likely to be just as cash strapped and then there's the TV deals that probably won't live up to expectations.

    The damage to the league is estimated at $1.5B if the rest of this season and playoffs are lost but that's just this season and doesn't account for anything beyond that.

    The best economic days could well be behind professional sports - this virus may change a lot of things.
     
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  3. Magicsaint

    Magicsaint Member

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    Agreed. Hopefully, this is a wake-up call for Americans to stop living beyond their means and businesses to stop adventurism with cheap money. None of these over-leveraged individuals should be bailed out.
     
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  4. Magicsaint

    Magicsaint Member

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    Although, there could be the opposite effect. When the economy opens up people could end up spending more eating out, socializing and shopping. People could end up spending more money on entertainment as well. Considering news in China when they opened up their economy recently, a huge wave of luxury shopping was noticed. Similar overall effects could be possible in the US as well.
     
  5. sealclubber1016

    Supporting Member

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    As soon as the vaccine goes public, people will pretty quickly start behaving like they always have. I suspect even before the vaccine most people will start falling right back into their normal routine.

    The next few years are probably gonna be a little bumpy, but there's absolutely no reason to think that sports won't be right back on the same trajectory it's been for decades. People in this country consume sports like it's a drug and I will be shocked if this impacts anything long term.

    Broke ass fritatta is in a bad spot because he's underequppied to be an owner to begin with, but this will just be a nasty bump for the majority of the league.
     
  6. Smacktle

    Smacktle Contributing Member

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    It better happened or all of us are screwed. The economy has suffered irreparable damage. There is no magic .gov thing to fix all this. Most of those jobs ain't coming back.

    There may never be a vaccine and I would be very cautious of any vaccine they come up with, especially if it shows up quickly.
     
    #166 Smacktle, Apr 14, 2020
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2020
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  7. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    Hey Mango, really appreciate you putting all that in one post. It's very helpful having it in one place, and (having followed this over the years) I know the effort that goes into tracking bonds and following the money of Tilman.

    I guess it doesn't really make a difference if we call it GNI's debt or Tilman, since he owns 100% of GNI. But legally, I always thought it is a significant difference, based upon the safety of the Rockets, and NBA franchises, in general.

    It is GNI's debt, not personal debt. The Rockets NBA franchise license is protected from GNI bankruptcy. In fact, to prevent such exposure, the NBA has a limit on the amount of financing an owner can use to buy one of their 30 franchise licenses. He max'd that with the Les loan.

    The rest was a GNI payout to its owner (Tilman). GNI paid their CEO/owner by releasing bonds. (And thx for putting all those numbers in your post.) That action, imo, wasn't much different than other owners liquidating stock in their companies.

    bottomline: it means Tilman is personally protected from GNI bankruptcy; Rockets are protected, too, so Tilman could (if he wanted to) watch GNI die, yet keep the Rockets.​
     
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  8. Gray_Jay

    Gray_Jay Member

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    What vaccine? While there has been at least one coronavirus vaccine for a disease which affects cattle (e.g., https://www.drugs.com/vet/bovilis-coronavirus.html), there hasn't been one for any of the coronaviruses that cause disease in humans: SARS, MERS, the small subset of common colds caused by Cvs. The SARS vaccine was notable for causing more damage in the test animals, than the disease itself.

    Immunology has proceeded by leaps and bounds since SARS in 2002, so maybe it's a sure thing, but I wouldn't be absolutely confident that it's coming anytime soon, human trials and press releases notwithstanding. Moreover, how mutable is this virus, and is it likely to mutate enough to lower the efficacy of a vaccine from lifetime immunity to something more akin to a flu shot? Especially since it looks like it might be harbored within various feline species.

    Coronavirus season may be just another, new component to the present flu, cold, and pneumonia season.
     
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  9. thesonofsam

    thesonofsam Member

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    “You’re doing the people a favor if you get them furloughed first because you have them first to unemployment line after the severance that you give them,” Fertitta said. “It’s a trick that I’ve learned many years ago.”

    What a POS. A never-ending embarrassment since he got the team.
     
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  10. Icehouse

    Icehouse Contributing Member

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    Damn. Must be nice to be able to buy a team with less than 15% down. I woulda did the same thing.
     
  11. Mango

    Mango Contributing Member

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    I know that is how it is in a legal sense, but how are the other 29 owners going to feel about Fertitta taking GNI into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and getting a huge chunk of debt written off?

    I have started reading through the Trump bankruptcy stories of the past to get a feel about what could happen with Fertitta and it isn't going to be good in a PR sense. There won't be much sympathy for the big institutions that have to take losses on a restructure of GNI, but I am expecting some small business owners to take losses as well and I have quite a few NBA owners not being comfortable with that.

    With Fertitta's stuff being private, it has been difficult to get accurate information on the financial numbers. When/if things meltdown on the GNI debt, I will expect the league to closely monitor what is happening.

    It wouldn't surprise me at all if there is a connected person in the NBA world that has put together a model of the businesses under the GNI umbrella to run whatif scenarios. I would expect the NBA would want to be well ahead of things rather than wait on Fertitta to tell them that GNI will be going Chapter 11 the next day.
     
    #171 Mango, Apr 14, 2020
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2020
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  12. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    fwiw: it's interesting to note that Tilman actually bought two companies from Les: the Rockets, and the company that owns the operating lease of Toyota Center.

    The lease (from city/county to Les) grants full operating control over all TC events ... which is highly profitable, when there isn't a lockdown. Not all owners own stadiums or have full operating rights to revenue from the stadium. This is part of the reason the Les sell was valued so high.

    One wonders if Tilman would consider selling the lease to someone ... I guess it would require city/county approval, but technically is separate business from the NBA franchise.
     
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  13. jdiggidy

    jdiggidy Member

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    Hilton Koch should step up! Seeing he made such a sweet investment in the Comets back in the day! Man, Les bamboozled that fool! :D
     
  14. Mango

    Mango Contributing Member

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    Do you think the other owners are going to be comfortable with Fertitta taking GNI into the messy business of Chapter 11 or will they start pushing to get him out as an owner?
     
  15. YOLO

    YOLO Member

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    Tilman was hacked

    [​IMG]
     
  16. TilmanFinancialWindfall

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    Difference is, China buy luxury goods with CASH. They aren't using Credit cards to buy luxury goods.

    We have Americas driving $40k car Luxury car, using credit to purchase their car, and now they are waking up at 4am so they can get in line for the food hand out

    In China, if you're purchasing luxury goods or driving a luxury cars, you 're not driving to the food line for hand out, you're driving with your sugar babies that are 40 years younger than you are

    USA Luxury car drivers:

    [​IMG]




    In China

    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/mon...-chinas-sugar-daddies-and-broker-gold-diggers

    https://ww[​IMG]w.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2015/05/04/guomeimei_0.jpg?itok=aQoynmCQ
     
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  17. TilmanFinancialWindfall

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    He's probably just some old guy living in the past. You know, the old ground in the basketball playground talking about how much booty he used to get and who he ran with from 30 years ago. Probably doesn't believe the virus happened. Probably doesn't believe people should live in vaccine.

    We should pray for him and hope he doesn't do anything to harm himself such as leaving the house without wearing a mask because he believe the virus is an actual hoax. Mental illness is a serious issue and we need to pray these folks get proper treatment and not from posting on CF or yelling at 13 years old on XBOX LIVE playing NBA2K or COD
     
  18. Mathloom

    Mathloom Contributing Member

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    I don't believe all that about him, I just think he's somehow connected to Tilman closely.
     
  19. TilmanFinancialWindfall

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    well, he is the biggest Tilman cheerleader and biggest Les hater, so those are facts.
     
  20. BigBum

    BigBum Member

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    I’d like to know more about future spending ability because House and Ben are not playable, Tucker is too old.
    MLE for starting power forward,,
    BAE For starting SF.

    After Gordon salary dump trade,
     

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