problem is this al basketball attendance seems down
with core4 their would be exitment
I beg the differ. If you were to go and look at other cities playing young guys - they're not doing so well attendance wise neither.
https://espn.go.com/nba/attendance
Looking at this list, right at the bottom you have: Kings, Hornets, Pistons, Bucks, Pacers, Hawks, Suns, Bobcats.
Prudent approach is - get attendance up - pay for Big Al - THEN - rebuild.
Which is what they've done. Well except the "rebuild" part, which I'm predicting will be next season.