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Get to know an NBA owner!

The profits in the previous two examples are only about 7% annualy. There are many investments that have done much better than that over the same period of time. If the owners really are losing money every year (and their willingness to cancel games strongly suggests that they are) they have a more reasonable case than I previously believed.

How many other businesses can you name that are both losing money and at the same time appreciated 7% annually over the past decade?
 
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Good morning! The owner of the Sacramento Kings is Joe Maloof and other members of the Maloof family. The Maloof family has an estimated net worth of $1 billion. Their fortune was inherited from their father and grandfather. Their father George Maloof was once the owner of the Houston Rockets. The family business includes beer distributorships, trucking, banking, and gaming. The Maloof family also owns Power Balance Pavilion (formerly ARCO Arena), which was completed in 1989 (two years before ESA). Power Balance is a manufacturer of sports wristbands which consist of a plastic band with a hologram sticker attached. The wristbands are purported to "use holographic technology" to affect the wearer's "natural energy field" and have attracted numerous high-profile endorsements, including Shaquille O'Neal, Lamar Odom, Derrick Rose, and Brandon Jennings. These claims have been widely declared as fraudulent.

Earlier this year, the Maloof family attempted to relocate the Kings to Anaheim, because the local government refused to finance a new arena in Sacramento. The family eventually relented and the team will play the 2011-2012 in Sacramento. The campaign for a new arena in Sacramento is ongoing.
 
I’m not really pro player or owner. I would like to see a deal that will result in the league not losing money, the players making their fair share of revenues (whatever that is), and a more competitive league where we actually have a chance to compete for a championship every now and then. The latter is especially important to the Jazz considering the young talent we are collecting. If anything, I am pro fan. I would love to see ticket prices cut in half so more people can afford to go to games. If the total ticket revenue is $1 billion this would cost the owners and players, on a 50/50 split of revenues, $250 million each. Simplistic, I know, and it won’t happen, but I can dream.

Rustbucket has gone out of his way to paint the owners in the worst possible light. Sometimes lumping them in with even bigger perceived injustices, like Kroenke with Walmart or Gilbert with the decline of the entire housing market. That’s fine, I think the owners have too much money and I take it all with a grain of salt. It’s been pointed out though that owners are wasting their fortunes on this and that and it made me wonder what the players have done with their wealth and whether you think they have any responsibility to the common good. I’m all about jobs, and for all their faults many of the owners, while creating wealth for themselves, have started and and/or manage business enterprises that create and sustain jobs. I won’t argue that they have made more than their fair share in the process but they do employ people and contribute to the economy. Do you think the players have the same responsibility? I read somewhere that the total salary number is around $1.6 billion per year. If you project that over a six year CBA, that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 billion paid to a relatively small group of people. That’s salary only and does not include revenue from outside sources. Without looking it up, I would guess Dan Gilbert alone employs more people than all of the players combined. This seems to be a similar situation to Wall Street where tremendous wealth has been amassed that doesn’t really make nor do anything that benefits society as a whole (and I don't count 'The NBA Cares'). I’m just wondering if you think we should be occupying the yards of NBA players.
 
Sometimes lumping them in with even bigger perceived injustices, like Kroenke with Walmart or Gilbert with the decline of the entire housing market.

Kroenke makes his money building Wal-Mart stores. His wife is an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. Gilbert made his money selling mortgages during the housing bubble. That would seem to be a pretty direct involvement in the particular injustices that resulted and continue to result. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.
 
What the NBA players do is irrelevant. They didn't go on strike on grounds of being broke.

It may be irrelevant to you, but that doesn't necessarily make it irrelevant. The players want the same thing the owners want. As much money as possible. The owners didn't claim to be broke either, they claim to be losing money. Hard for the players to lose money since they have nothing invested.
 
It may be irrelevant to you, but that doesn't necessarily make it irrelevant. The players want the same thing the owners want. As much money as possible. The owners didn't claim to be broke either, they claim to be losing money. Hard for the players to lose money since they have nothing invested.
So everyone that doesn't own a business has no debt? Whew, that's a load off.

And it's funny how the league is so quick to show off it's collective managerial ineptitude by claiming 20 gajillion dollars lost annually but they won't actually furnish any real evidence of that.

And yes, it is irrelevant. The model has worked for a long time and the owners are locking out the players with this Oliver Twist non-sense. If they're going to paint this picture of "poor us", they should have their lives scrutinized.
 
So everyone that doesn't own a business has no debt? Whew, that's a load off.

Where did I say that? The players do not have money invested in the league and are not losing money from its operation.

And it's funny how the league is so quick to show off it's collective managerial ineptitude by claiming 20 gajillion dollars lost annually but they won't actually furnish any real evidence of that.

And yes, it is irrelevant. The model has worked for a long time and the owners are locking out the players with this Oliver Twist non-sense. If they're going to paint this picture of "poor us", they should have their lives scrutinized.

I'm not sure how you got to this since it doesn't have much to do with my original post, but whatever. The model has obviously not worked but I’m not really arguing for the owners or saying they shouldn't be open to factual scrutiny. I just don’t blindly take the players side. And thank you for determining for everyone what is, and is not, relevant
 
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Let us continue our celebration of NBA ownership by introducing James Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks. Mister Dolan is estimated to have a net worth of $500 million. He amassed his wealth as the chairman of Cablevision, and also happens to be the son of Cablevision founder Charles Dolan. James Dolan has never worked any job outside of his father's company. In 2007, he was named as a defendant in the lawsuit brought by Anucha Browne-Sanders alleging sexual harassment by then Knicks coach Isiah Thomas. She alleged that Mister Dolan fired her out of spite because of the allegations. Browne-Sanders won the suit and Mister Dolan was ordered to pay her $3 million in restitution. Mister Dolan performs as the singer for the blues-rock band "JD and the Straight Shots". He is an avid sailor and owns a yacht.
 
How many other businesses can you name that are both losing money and at the same time appreciated 7% annually over the past decade?
Actually a lot of financial and technology firms would probably fit that definition.

But in any case, even though some owners overpaid to buy up the NBA teams, the inflated market value of these firms has little to do with their operating profits. Given that the players don't incur risk in their income under the CBA, it's not unreasonable for the owners to have a higher share revenue than before, given that the risks on both the revenue side and the expense side have gone up.
 
How many other businesses can you name that are both losing money and at the same time appreciated 7% annually over the past decade?
I'm not sure why it matters but a whole bunch of dot com companies have fallen into this category, numerous pharmaceutical companies, and tons of other start-ups. The list is really long.
 
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