i attended many games in my years in dallas. many of them at reunion arena. and many more at the american airlines center. while the mavs were the bottom feeders for most of the 90s, their attendance averaged between the low end of 12,839 (93-94) and the high end 16,686 (95-96). they moved in to the ACC around the same time as their play began to improve. it's not surprise that their attendance increased, and they have averaged 20,000+ per game for the past 4 seasons. now, pure numbers don't really guarantee a great atmosphere, and there are still plenty of corporate people sitting in the lower bowl at the ACC... but they haven't had a losing season since 00-01, and have been somewhat competitive in the playoffs each year. sadly, winning and bandwagon fans improve the arena/game experience. we were what? a .500 at best team when we made the transition to the toyota center. we have a much nicer arena in my opinion, though the surrounding development is slightly lagging behind the victory project that cuban and hicks are doing in dallas. and i don't think you can use the houston is a football/baseball town as an argument. true the rangers are crap, but the cowboys dominate sports up there. dfw is just as much a football city/metro area as houston is. http://www.databasebasketball.com/teams/teamatt.htm?tm=dal&lg=n
When has Les invested in Sina? Link? Isn't it kinda ironic that you had the urge to start a thread in the feedback forum to complain about other posters spreading false information when you yourself are also spreading false information here? Do you own a mirror at home?
the guy isn't worth a buttload of money because he's financially r****ded... i wonder what he put that $128 mil towards to hedge his losses?
I'm not sure why anybody thinks its bad news if Subprime Les sells the team. I hope he does, his meddling last offseason was not helpful.
Like him or hate him, Les Alexander tried the last offseason to improve-- he got Mike James, who has a longer contract than Juwan. He paid Spurs cash for Scola and ate Jackie Butler's contract. If the Rockets failed, it's not for management's lack of trying. I do, however, believe in the bball gods and bball karma. Blaming a hardworking coach when he doesn't deserve it is the kind of thing that angers the bball gods and ruins your karma.
FMD won't go belly up. It will recover once this credit crisis turns around. Beside, he might have sold some if not most of his shares as the stock tanks. Anyhow, Les didn't become a billionaire overnight, so he is not dumb enough to risk loosing half his net worth overnight. I didn't bother looking up his stake in FMD, but it would surprise me that he would think that highly of FMD to place that much money in it. disclosure: I will take a stake in FMD if it drops below $10.
As much money than Yao brings to the team, Les would never trade him. You have to give props to Les, He always tries to put together winning teams and loves this Rockets team, as you always see him sitting court side. He's never be scared to make the big trades. Les you've done a great job, just wish it showed on the basketball court. Good way to make the value go back up? Start Winning!!!
I've got a little in my 401K. Where's that poster who manages the bank branch? Let's put together an offer and right this ship.
If he is losing money in the financial markets, all the more reason to hold on to the team. This team makes money with the whole Chinese influence.
Well the stock price is a reflection of the market's perception of Marblehead's inability to fund its obligations. Student loans are not going to go away, so there will always be underlying assets to be repackaged. The issue then becomes if Marblehead has enough capital to retain their credit ratings, because that in itself is essential to the gurantees they provide for their products. The problem with the student loan market is that many principal/interest repayments are funded by other forms of debt. So when credit dries up in other areas, the student loan market will obviously falter. Like many other financial firms, they are in need of capital infusion. With the credit market freeze, that can only come from one of the following: 1) Current owners adding a capital cushion, 2) A bailout from other domestic financial institutions, 3) A bailout from the sovereign funds, which seems to be the overwhelming theme these days. With Sallie Mae also struggling, I can't see Marblehead getting any priority over them in terms of investments, therefore it will get pretty ugly from here on out.
Oh, this is a gift to me during the season of giving. Just the possibility of Les selling the team brings tears of joy to my eyes. Merry Roxmas!
Well the stock price is a reflection of the market's perception of Marblehead's inability to fund its obligations. Student loans are not going to go away, so there will always be underlying assets to be repackaged. The issue then becomes if Marblehead has enough capital to retain their credit ratings, because that in itself is essential to the gurantees they provide for their products. The problem with the student loan market is that many principal/interest repayments are funded by other forms of debt. So when credit dries up in other areas, the student loan market will obviously falter. Like many other financial firms, they are in need of capital infusion. With the credit market freeze, that can only come from one of the following: 1) Current owners adding a capital cushion, 2) A bailout from other domestic financial institutions, 3) A bailout from the sovereign funds, which seems to be the overwhelming theme these days. With Sallie Mae also struggling, I can't see Marblehead getting any priority over them in terms of investments, therefore it will get pretty ugly from here on out. DING DING DING DING DING! We have a winner! I owned a very small interest in FMD until this morning when I bailed out of it after listening to the Fannie Mae conference call. Make no mistake, Les is NOT going to have a Merry Christmas this year. He has literally lost hundreds of millions of dollars in a very short time, and his Rockets are playing like a bunch of little girls. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be working for the man right now!
Yes, but as someone pointed out, this is all on paper. The "loss" doesn't come out of his checking account. It's only truly a loss if he is idiotic enough to sell his shares at this time. All I would want to know about this "loss" is how much he got the shares for. Maybe the price dropped from 40, but maybe he got the shares at 10 or for free. The same way, if my house value drops from $300,000 to $150,000, that doesn't exactly mean I lost money if I bought the house at $100,000.
Hm.. I don't think that's relevant. Let's say he bought shares 20 years ago, nobody cares how much money he had 20 years ago you get what I'm saying? We're not talking about his NET LOSS/GAIN of his financial standing of 20 years ago. He's still ALOT poorer than he was a few months ago..... That's what's important and that's the bottom line.
Great, this means we should expect more rash decisions coming from Mr. Alexander. The best thing that could come out of this situation is less selling the team. I am most definitely crossing my fingers.
