Every fan, player, and coach in Houston loves Yao. Yao loves Houston. With all we've invested in Yao and with all his talent, it would be dumb to get rid of him, Remember, Hakeem, the greatest rocket ever, didn't get a ring till 94. Yao is staying here forever. I think the only reason he doesn't show up games is because it pains him to see us play while knowing he cant go in aND HEL OUT.
mmkay, so what IS a player's purpose then? lol anyways, how much money do you guys think yao brings to the franchise? and in what kind of ways? I know little about this game on the business side.... or maybe the game itself as well...
Absolutely true... The question is "how much" they'll bring in... I can almost guarantee you that Yao is one of the top (next to the obvious Lebron, Kobe, etc.) revenue generators in the league... and he's not even playing... Stern just recently said that Rocket's and the Net's might play in the preseason in China because of the possible Yao and Yi match up... I'm going to predict a possible 150+ million viewers for that game and it's not even a Superbowl or a World Cup... It's a freak'n preseason game...
The only way Yao leaves Houston is if Yao wants to leave Houston. Which given his personality, he probably won't. He has a loyalty thing going on. But, as a player, in a business, he might should consider leaving if he wants a ring. That's not to say we won't be in that position to win a title. But still, just saying.
I'd think Yao will be probably traded too, considering Morey is collecting young talents. He may also want to move to a contender team pursuing a ring. I really doubt he'd want to spend his career helping young guys growing up, might be another Garnet who finally leave a re-building team. BTW, I see a lot of times people mentioning about lots of money Yao brings to Les, can someone please point me to an analysis about this? I'm really curious.
there isnt one. Ive tried before to get these folks who claim Yao brings in all the untold amount of riches to back up what they say with verifiable facts, and they cant do it. All they do is point to an increase in how much the franchise is worth....which of course is ignoring all the other factors that go into that outside of Yao. Ive given up getting straight answers....the people claiming it dont have details, they jsut expect you to believe them.
The place where Yao's absence is hurting is in individual ticket sales and in team shop merchandise sales on game nights in the Toyota Center. I would say over the last few years that about 10% of the population or even more was at a game just to see Yao on any given night. Most were Chinese tourists or Asian Americans wanting to see Yao play in person. They also were more likely to spend money in the team shop as they bought some Rockets merchandise on their visit. Mostly Yao jerseys or items but Rockets clothing as well. Exact figures? I don't think anyone can put a number on it because of the added economic factor and sluggish team performance at home.
R2K.... Please break it down one more time if you don't mind.... I actually have an open mind to what the OP is saying.. I remember back in the day when Bill Walton was the man and the people in Portland never thought that they would get rid of him... But history shows us other wise. Now I know a lot of you will say that Walton never brought in the money like Yao (that is why i'm asking R2K to enlighten us with his knowledge). From a business stand point, if Yao is not making the team better that can hurt Les and the Rockets... No matter what the team will still have to be competitive and if Yao is bringing the team down, will Morey and Les still invest in him. Sometimes you need to step back from the trees so that you can actually see the Forest. T_Man
check the bar graph...income, revenue,and value have risen consistenly since Yao and err....Tmac came to houston http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/32/basketball-values-09_Houston-Rockets_322525.html
I've never really looked at this perspective. If he is not helping the team win and is costing so much why would the team keep him other than maybe he does bring in substantial revenue? This being said I'm a Yao fan and believe he makes it back and is productive, therefore not ready to trade him. Good post as far as playing devil's advocate type argument
Pretty much. One poster said its about bringing money to the team not winning a ring. Well, thats enough of a piss poor reason to keep a guy as any. Mark Cuban doesn't have a cash cow and neither does the pistons or bulls ownership, yet they generate more money than the rockets. This whole cash cow syndrome and rocket for life stuff with yao is crazy.
Seems like good common sense to me but there are some numbers reflecting just how much money Houston is making "post Yao". Note in the first article that FSN is mentioned and that deal occurred post Yao and now doubt has at least something to do with the fact more people watched Yao/Yi than the Super Bowl. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/32/biz_07nba_Houston-Rockets_322525.html http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/32/basketball-values-09_Houston-Rockets_322525.html ...but on the to bigger point - Yao will be a Rocket for life. He produces when he's on the court, is a good teammate, is a good face for the organization, and he makes them quite a bit of money. I would think Yao, Kobe, and Lebron are probably the top three guys in the league in terms of what they mean financially for their team. ...the injuries are a shame, but I said it before - when this season started, Amare Stoudamire had missed MORE games that Yao over the same period of time in the league. How many times have you heard anyone mention that about Amare in the zillions of reports about him over the last week? To me it just says injuries are just a fact for for most big men - certainly most who log serious minutes. Yao is just one of many current big men who face injury issues. You still keep him because he is effective when he plays.
Nobody has the figure, but there are some examples for Yao effect: Are there a lot Chinese ads in Toyota Center? Those money goes to Les, I believe. Haier is one of the sponsers for all-star game and NBA, that generates revenue for NBA, also for Rockets. Every Rockets game is broadcasted in China, sometimes by multiple channels, and a whole lot more games are broadcasted there since Yao joined NBA. Rockets related products are also sold in China, nobody would buy that without Yao. A lot current or former Rockets players got endorsment from China, that keeps them happy for relatively low contracts. All those are because of Yao. The franchise's value made the biggest leap the year joined Rockets, I guess that more or less has something to do with Yao too. Not sure how much is directly or indirectly related to Yao, but you can safely assume those money has exceeded what Yao gets paid by Rockets(including his rookie contract) through out his career by a lot. That being said, Yao's marketing value would go down dramatically if he can't produce on the court. Wang ZhiZhi/Yi Jian Lian didn't have nearly the same financial impact as Yao because they couldn't do that. So it's still possible for Yao to get trade if he can't play. It's a business after all.
What that graph deosn show is thats the same year the rockets moved from a outdated arena on the southwest side to the upscale arena downtown. Go buy a house on the southwest side and then come back and try to buy one downtown and see the difference.
As much as Yao supposedly brings to the organization financially would be nothing compared to what a championship or deep playoff run would bring in.
Yao will be here till he doesn't want to be here. Yao just does his job and goes home. Tracy is a loud mouth diva that thinks the world is his playground. Centers are hard to find, especially 7'6 ones.
That is for fans, not for owners. Otherwise Memphis wouldn't trade Gasol for Kwame's expiring contract.
Google is our friend... There are many more examples out there. There is no denying what Yao brings to Les and the league. Example Example Example Example Example - players benefits Les after Yao injury
i'm not quite too sure why everyone is assuming that Yao will no longer be able to play. See: Zydrunas Ilgauskas I can easily see...especially in this offense...putting up a good 17+ppg and 8+rpg. He doesn't need to play 35-40 minutes to be effective. He doesnt have to be in the LOW post to be effective. Just having a 7'6 guy with his skill-set makes this team leaps and bounds better! Everyone keeps saying that Yao will not be able to keep up with this run n' gun style. Does "Showtime Lakers" ring a bell? They had a 35+ year old Kareem Abdul Jabbar starting. Rockets will continue to run and gun. If they dont get anything on the break... setup half court through Yao. DO NOT TRADE YAO AT ANY COST! (except of course you get Lebron :grin: )
