You own a basketball franchise. Enough Said. You don't buy sports franchises to make money. Business 101. They are not 'For profit' ventures. They SHOULD THEREFORE be bought because you Like / Love a team! You buy it for Baller status at least. "I own the Pacers. Yea I lose about 50 million a year, but in my REAL business, I'm a billionaire who gets about 75 million put in my pocket annually anyways..." Owners of franchises have always known this. They are just getting greedy because their other ventures are not growing at the same rate they were due to the stagnant economy. They are squeezed up, and are trying to tighten their "assets", which for some reason a basketball franchise is now an asset, and I couldn't care less if they are losing money.
Half of the owners never really made a dime for themselves by working hard...they inherited the business. ...next
The Hornets tried that and are currently unowned and managed by the league. You'd think that if profitability were just an issue of management they'd be able to find a buyer. Maybe some teams just shouldn't exist, but players won't like contraction either.
every NFL owner is shrugging his shoulders at this post. these are absolutely business deals for these guys...with great returns in many cases. if this were nothing more than recreation, we wouldn't have things like lockouts and strikes.
That is true but a move can at times help. Like it did for Memphis and Oklahoma City. Hornets where in ok shape till Katrina came and completely change the shape of that cities economy. Katrina Virtually wiped out the middle class in New Orleans. That was a large base of the fans that supported the team. Saints are successful but it is alot easier to sell out 8 games plus playoffs Vs. 42 regular season games.
Owners are greedy for not wanting to lose "50 million a year" in a tough economy while their employees make millions? You're basically throwing any pretense of fair deal out the window. You know what else is for "Baller status"? Entourages. Several players have them. When they start feeling the money crunch of the lockout or retirement I hope you call them greedy for cutting back on spending.
No, your confused on what Im getting at. Im referring the industry of professional basketball. There is no true competition in the market for their workers. Im not referring to the monopoly within in the league. Euroleague could become a future competitor for business, but not in the US market and with FIBA regulations of the amount of American players on local teams. The only competition to NBA basketball in the US is college bball. Which would be like comparing Wal-Mart to Goodwill in their respective markets. Both have similar good & services, but one of them does not pay their workers. ( I realize Goodwill pays workers, but its just an analogy.)
The issue that seems to have infected the players (I am looking at you DWade) is that they think each team is a seperate company when in fact they are all just seperate divisions of the same company - who compete for the same pool of talent. DD
I think that the owners are entitled to a system that stops them from losing money. But the idiots like Gilbert are going about it completely the wrong way and looking really shady. Seriously, “Trust me”? That’s like if a used car salesman told me, “You can buy this car for $10,000 but you can’t test drive it, or get it inspected, or get a history report. Just trust me.” Who’s seriously going to say yes to something without knowing exactly what they’re getting themselves into? Why can't they work on BRI and system issues together?
-"In Theory" if somebody wanted to sell me an NBA franchise the price would need to be negotiated much lower than current owners are purchasing their franchises. Another problem with the overall structure of NBA ownership is supply/demand. Regardless or the "supposed" losses of franchises like Indiana, there is high demand to own these NBA teams. I would assume the price should be decreasing in the next 5 years bringing the price down dramatically. The value when owners like Dan Gilbert purchased at were at an all-time high, and pre-recession. -secondly, I would hire a GM a little more like Morey and less Michael Jordan/Isiah Thomas(GM), that make financially sound moves, and would never pay the kind of money the Bucks paid for a role player as old as Drew Gooden. Find me a Chuck Hayes any day to be a role player. I by no means think that Morey is the perfet GM, but there is an oldschool approach to running an NBA franchise that continues to get it wrong time after time again financially when signing free agents like Charlie V., Ben Gordon, and Joe Johnson. Role players are severly overpaid time and time again by NBA GMs. Star players, however are worth the money. The billion dollar question to ask though is - If these owners are hurting so bad then why do they not sell their teams to the endless amount of rich playboys out there chomping at the bit to buy their team?????
This reminds me of a idea I once had of the NBA paying the collective salaries not the individual teams. Teams would have to pay a portion of total salaries based on the amount of revenue the team makes a whole. A team that Brings in a large share of revenue would have a larger payment toward total player salaries then would a team who brings in less revenue. I am not obligated to pay the same tax payments that Bill Gates does because our income levels are much different. The idea needs to be fleshed out. But the principle is that the lower your team revenue is the more subsidization you should receive for player salary from the league. At the end of the day no mater how profitable your team is their is a expectation that you do your best to field a competitive team. And no matter how you slice it doing that costs money.
Wrong. Hornets were already bleeding money and were busted for shady accounting practices and double counting attendance figures. Moving the Hornets from Charlotte was one of the worst moves Stern made. They languished in NO, and the Bobcats have never gained traction after the way Charlotte was jilted.
I know quite well what you are talking about, but your point is base in my opinion. But you probably should step back and look at what you are saying. On the one hand, you say that there is no competition to hold the nba accountable for fair business practices, yet you fail to see that the reason there in no competition is because the nba is the best league for the players. Which is it? Also, your claim that the us market is an unfair competitive advantage is questionable at best. In your roar for unfettered contracts and business as usual mindset, you fail to realize that this alienates a great number of teams and players, who could just sell out and be done with it. The players need organizations to play for. You seem to assume that the franchises that are there will always be there, no matter how much money they lose. Beyond this, the real problem I believe the players have with this deal has more to do with the fact that the economy could turn their deal into a windfall for the owners in the future, if the economy does turn around. They are viewing the deal in a more long term outlook rather than a short term basis of what they see in the economy right now.
Jay Z, minority owner of the Nets, was on the Howard Stern Show last year and asked him about what it's like to own a NBA team, financially. Jay replied, "Owning an NBA team is like paintings for billionaires." Interesting answer.
Keep in mind that given inflation over time, if they hold on to their franchise long enough the value should rise with inflation. An NBA franchise is an investment, not a short term get-rich-quick hedge fund.
99.9 percent is over exaggerating a bit. Takes a lot of work to be a Doctor, takes a lot of work to be a soldier. Some 9 to 5 people are working more than one job... Any ways I'm not saying they don't deserve it but be grateful. That's what I ask of the players. They are taking a pay-cut but it's not millions to thousand. The owners are still going to make these guys millionaires but they are haggling over 2 or 3% as if they take less then they are going to go broke. What's going to make them broke though is losing games so meh if that's what they want to do...
Did not know that. Things visibly got worse after the hurricane. Had no idea they all ready where headed down the crapper before then.
