Let's give Les a break since he gave us one with the lower ticket prices$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I'm confused. Are you saying don't sign Dream, because Les deserves to save money. This is as weird as TheFreak's logic that we should we should sign Dream, because we will never win again.

Les did NOT lower prices this year; he simply did not raise them for the first time EVER. And he gaves us a souvenir clock as a present...woohoo. Prices increase on an average of 4-5% every year. The year AFTER our worse season since 1984, Les raised prices 4.5%.

The excuse for that was, "We need to offset a drop in attendance by raising prices." Anyone who has taken Economics 101 knows that is illogical.

The NBA is looking at 15-20% growth the past two years as an industry. Further, the NBA is doing so well that preliminary estimates are in saying that revenues are growing faster than salaries so no luxury tax will be needed this year.

Lastly, Les's NBA franchise license increases in value each year. I'm betting it has tripled in value since he bought the Rockets.

So, let's give Les a break.

 

There are few more deceiving phrases in major pro sports than, "the owner is losing money." Someone pointed out that the value of the franchise (realized upon the sale of the franchise) is far more than it was purchased for. This has been true for every owner in all of the major pro leagues, as far as I know, forever! The one that stands out is Drayton McLane. We heard over and over again (and we still do hear it quite frankly) that he lost money in the Dome. OK..but now they're not at the Dome. Now a new owner would step into purchasing a team that has a brand new beautiful money-making ballpark in Downtown Houston. Revenue streams don't make up the only source of postitive financial growth in pro sports.

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Max and crispee: Definitely right on on both counts. When I said the Rockets "lost money over the past five seasons," it was based solely on revenue versus expenditures related directly to operations. It did not include investments, licencing, etc. It was based on ticket sales, tv money and merchandising versus salaries and day-to-day business expenses.

No question they are making money off of other things.

One thing that is interesting to note is that someone told me last year (not someone with the Rockets) that the team gets significantly less than 100% of ticket sales, none of the concessions and has to pay a percentage of their merchandise sales at the Laptop. I still am trying to figure out why Les bought into THAT lease!

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Who's your buddy? Who's your pal? I am, aren't I?

[This message has been edited by Jeff (edited July 29, 2001).]

 

the only ones loosing money are us, the fans.

Athletes get millions and can get any/all the team/sponsor merchandise they want. If someone is/has worth over 100 million dollars, I personally don't care if he lost 'x' millions dollars (unless of course x is everything). And these are in US dollars. Should try this with Aussie dollars!!! (around 1:2 US:AUD - great reason to visit (hint to my relatives reading this))

on the proposed waive/no-trade-for-garbage-and-contract: let them walk if needs be. The Clippers did well by letting Mo & Anderson walk for nothing
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D'oh! (_8(|) - a thought on Hakeem leaving

[This message has been edited by harumph (edited July 29, 2001).]

 

Les is not a billionaire. Last I heard, he is worth roughly 700-800 Large. Still a player, but by no means an elephant.

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Les is the LAST PERSON who needs a break. The only reason they didn't up prices this year is because they got a new arena. They've been losing millions every year at the Laptop for the past 5 years but they'll probably make all that back in the first 2 at the new downtown arena.

If you want to get rid of the contracts for cap space or just because you don't want the players, that's fine. Maybe, pick a different reason than for Les. He doesn't need any help.

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Who's your buddy? Who's your pal? I am, aren't I?

 

Right, Jeff, and let's also keep in mind that a billionaire's sports franchise is not his only revenue source.

Even if the Rockets lost $10 million last year, Les probably made more than that in interest on his holdings.

I'm not saying that the Rockets should keep on losing money just because Les is rich-- I'm just pointing out that even when the Rockets lose money, it doesn't have much of an impact on Les' pocketbook all things considered. I hope the Rockets return to profitability as soon as possible, but either way I don't feel too bad for the guy overall.

 

I was wrong: Les has raised prices as much as 7% every year, until the lockout. And if you are correct a.k.a about his purchase price of $80m, then Les's profits on his Franchise License alone has quadrupled.

You know, guys like Les don't get into businesses to lose money. The franchise license commodity alone makes them profitable (just like real-estate investment can make you profitable). Everything else is gravy.

Kagy, according to the new CBA, any subsidiary revenue that is basketball related is now audited and open to Union inspection. Not so surprisingly, these numbers are slowly leaking to the Internet. Not so surprisingly, these numbers are not being reported by Beat Reporters who need to remain in good graces with their teams. Not so surprisingly, this beat reporters are actually saying a luxury tax is in effect, when the league office says there isn't one, yet, nor will there probably be one.

According to the new calculations of Basketball Related Income and subsequent independent audits, Les is not losing money on the Rockets, despite management propoganda to the contrary.

I love these economics discussions, especially with the new CBA. What is great about it now is that we actually get to see the real numbers closer than we ever could before.

The Rockets sold out every game from '95 to '99. Then the owners had a locket-out, so naturally they had a losing year that year. That one doesn't count, because the owners got a big win out of that loss.

Since then the Rockets had their worse season since 1984. Based on pure tickets sales alone, it was a loss. But based on BRI, it was not. Early estimates are in from the Internet CBA gure Coon (and group), based on numbers from the league office. On average, each team is making $88.5m each year on $54m in Salaries. Rockets produced in-line with those averages throughout the league. After subtracting out player salaries and benefits, for Les to get a loss last year, he would have to had more than $34m in costs to play games and manage his franchise. If he can't operate a franchise within that gross profit margin, he deserves a loss.

I think this Summer's numbers are definitely indicating that the 2000 and 2001 season were not losses, most certainly not for the league.

Now, could Les have been making much more money...yes!

poor Les. He didn't get to own his stadium outright; we made him share it.

[This message has been edited by crispee (edited July 29, 2001).]

 

Apparently Les hardly had the cash to even buy the Rockets from Charlie T in the first place for $75 mm. Basically he slipped through the NBA radar screen and it all worked out because the franchise appreciated in value so quickly and he started selling out games left and right, but at the time, he wasn't even close to a $700-$800mm player.

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