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Post by mikecubs on Sept 20, 2020 16:52:00 GMT -6
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Post by mikecubs on Nov 24, 2020 17:49:24 GMT -6
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 22, 2020 23:44:44 GMT -6
Seattle Sonics ‘likely first in line’ if NBA expands, which Silver says is possibleAdam Silver has been the commissioner of the NBA since 2014, and since then, he’s been asked about the possibility of expanding the league beyond 30 franchises, usually answering that the league isn’t really considering it at the moment. He was asked about potential again this week, and this time, he appeared more open to the idea, prompting speculation that the Seattle Sonics could return to the Pacific Northwest. O’Neil: A Seattle NBA team needs to be acquired, not poached from Memphis “I think I’ve always said that it’s sort of the manifest destiny of the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said during a preseason press conference, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “I’d say it’s caused us to maybe dust off some of the analyses on the economic and competitive impacts of expansion. We’ve been putting a little bit more time into it than we were pre-pandemic. But certainly not to the point that expansion is on the front burner.” As with other professional sports leagues as well as businesses in general, the NBA has lost money due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Bontemps writes that it’s “notable” that Silver acknowledged the potential of expansion because any expansion franchise would come with a “hefty sum” likely exceeding $1 billion, which would be be passed on to the league’s 30 teams. “One of our focuses as the league office is always on how do you create better competition. So that’s one of the things that we continue to think about as we consider expansion,” Silver said, per Bontemps. “… It’s an economic issue and it’s a competitive issue for us. So it’s one that we’ll continue to study, but we’re spending a little bit more time on it than we were pre-pandemic.” Any time that there’s rumors or speculation of NBA expansion or a franchise moving cities, the first thing that comes to mind is often whether the Seattle Sonics would be able to become a franchise again as a result. According to Bontemps, should the NBA choose to expand, “Seattle would likely be first in line.”
The Seattle Sonics left the Pacific Northwest after the 2007-2008 season and became the Oklahoma City Thunder shortly after the franchise was sold to Clay Bennett, who wanted to move the team to his native Oklahoma. Since then, there have been multiple instances of Seattle Sonics fans getting their hopes up for a team coming back to Washington State, most notably when Seattle nearly got the Sacramento Kings in 2013 before Vivek Ranadive bought the team and kept them in California. The NBA hasn’t expanded since the inception of the Charlotte Bobcats — now Hornets — in 2002, with the team beginning play in 2004. One issue that caused the Seattle Sonics to leave after 2008 was due to the arena they played in, Key Arena. Seattle was awarded an NHL team which is set to begin play in 2021, the Seattle Kraken, and Key Arena has been renovated and is now Climate Pledge Arena. The arena is up to NBA standards in the event that NBA expansion is on the table or a different franchise chooses to relocate. sports.mynorthwest.com/1246929/seattle-sonics-likely-first-in-line-if-nba-expands-which-silver-says-is-possible/
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 23, 2020 0:01:16 GMT -6
Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena will be ready if NBA announces expansion plans, Tim Leiweke saysOak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke said Tuesday that Climate Pledge Arena will be “state of the art” and ready to go for the NBA from a design, revenue and organizational perspective as soon as the league announces expansion plans. But Leiweke said he isn’t making assumptions about that timeline, despite NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s statement Monday that the league is studying expansion more closely than it was pre-pandemic as a possible revenue booster. Leiweke, whose company is in the midst of a $930 million overhaul of the former KeyArena in Seattle, has been an executive for multiple NBA teams and spent decades working closely with the league’s head office and longtime friend Silver on arena projects in North America and abroad. “We’re not anticipating anything,” Leiweke said of the league’s expansion timing. “ The league knows the leadership on our side — from ownership to our management of the building — are NBA ‘family’ members. They’re well aware of that. They’re well aware of the steps we’ve taken so that if and when they come knocking on our door, our building will be 100% ready.”He said nearly $50 million of the arena’s cost has gone toward outfitting it with particulars the NBA insists upon.Silver for years dismissed talk of NBA expansion or relocation, especially in the middle of the last decade when Seattle-area groups were pitching future arena projects for the city’s Sodo district, Bellevue and Tukwila. But that changed Monday during Silver’s annual preseason news conference with reporters, when he suggested the NBA was looking at expansion more closely. “I think I’ve always said that it’s sort of the manifest destiny of the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said, as reported by ESPN. “I’d say it’s caused us to maybe dust off some of the analyses on the economic and competitive impacts of expansion. We’ve been putting a little bit more time into it than we were pre-pandemic. But certainly not to the point that expansion is on the front burner.” That last part is important. While Sonics fans have impatiently awaited a replacement NBA team since Seattle’s was relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, professional sports leagues often view the creation of new teams in time frames of decades rather than years. It isn’t uncommon for cities to wait 15 or 20 years for departed sports teams to be replaced, meaning the Sonics’ absence here is still nascent. But it’s also unclear whether COVID-19 and the financial havoc wreaked on all sports has increased the appetites of current NBA owners for lucrative expansion fees — some estimates peg those at $1.5 billion to $2 billion — they could garner. “We’re very appreciative of the markets that have indicated an interest in having an NBA team,” Silver said. “One of the issues for the league office — and this comes up all the time in terms of competitiveness — it’s not a secret that we don’t have 30 competitive teams at any given time right now when you go into the season, measured by likelihood of ability to win a championship.” Silver was expressing similar concerns back in 2015 and right up until May 2016, when the Seattle City Council effectively killed off the Sodo arena proposal in a 5-4 vote. The difference now: Rather than dismissing expansion outright, he’s openly contemplating where it fits within the context of competitive balance. “One of our focuses as the league office is always on ‘How do you create better competition,’ ” Silver said. “So that’s one of the things that we continue to think about as we consider expansion. … It’s an economic issue and it’s a competitive issue for us. So it’s one that we’ll continue to study, but we’re spending a little bit more time on it than we were pre-pandemic.” Leiweke, from the time he began touting KeyArena remodel plans in October 2016, has long balked at playing up NBA expansion. Instead, he focused on the more realistic NHL — which was openly seeking expansion locales — and by December 2017 had league permission to apply for a team that was officially approved as the Kraken franchise in December 2018. But all along, Leiweke reassured anyone listening that the NBA was always on his mind. The nearly $50 million spent on NBA particulars at the arena include home and away locker rooms of specific sizes and proximity to the court along with secure player access. They’re also designed so opposing players can’t cross paths in the arena tunnel or back-of-house areas. The WNBA’s Storm also will play its home games at the arena. Additional locker rooms for NBA officials — men and women — also had to be provided within a certain distance from players. Leiweke noted that the Populous architectural firm, which is working on Climate Pledge Arena — due to open late next summer — has designed numerous NBA buildings. And that sports venue consultant CAA Icon, serving as Oak View Group’s (OVG) representative in the arena’s development, worked on the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, which opened two years ago as home to the NBA Bucks. “So, we know all of the NBA standards,” Leiweke said. “And they were built in to this building.” H e added that all arena-related investments have an NBA component within those deals in case the league puts a team in Seattle again. That way, he added, any future Seattle NBA owner will be guaranteed revenue streams “in the top percentile of the league” even though the city will actually continue to own the building.“Everything we’ve done — from naming rights, to sponsors, to suites, to opera boxes, to club seats — we have built in to protect the economics of the NBA team,” he said. “And that’s critical — to maximize the revenue streams. So, we’ve done that as well.”Leiweke said the league is well aware of the NBA-specific expertise behind the arena project. The “NBA family members” he mentions on his group’s ownership and management side includes OVG partner and Seattle Kraken principal NHL owner David Bonderman — a minority owner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Also, Kraken minority owners and Climate Pledge Arena investors Chris and Ted Ackerley are the sons of longtime former Seattle SuperSonics owner Barry Ackerley.OVG executive vice president and arena general manager Steve Mattson spent the prior decade in an identical job managing the Target Center for the NBA main tenant Minnesota Timberwolves. Eric Bresler, OVG’s senior VP of programming for Climate Pledge, most recently was executive director of the Chase Center in San Francisco — home to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors — and was a marketing VP at American Airlines arena in Miami when the Heat moved in there two decades ago. www.seattletimes.com/sports/seattles-climate-pledge-arena-will-be-ready-if-nba-announces-expansion-plans-developer-says/
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Post by wolfmannick on Dec 23, 2020 0:01:32 GMT -6
Any thoughts where else they might consider expanding to?
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 23, 2020 0:11:46 GMT -6
Any thoughts where else they might consider expanding to? 1. None, just a 1 team expansion for now would be the top guess if you are going to charge $1.5-2 billion. Remember the NBA(along with NHL and NFL) can play with an odd number of teams. They had 27 teams for a while 2. Mexico City maybe later in time once they see how their experimental g-league team does post covid You'll probably hear mention of Las Vegas but that is awfully small for 3 teams but maybe the casino's could prop it up and Vegas pre-covid did have a fast growth rate. Louisville will be mentioned too but the college teams owns the arena which would mean the NBA team would be a tenant which wouldn't work. Louisville is awfully small with a very slow growth rate so I doubt it. 1.5M college town with not much growth=yuck!!!! Vancouver could be mentioned but the Canucks owner says the market can't afford an expansion fee. Canada has a 75cent dollar and Vancouver is too small yet for NBA/NHL. Plus the NBA would have to solve it's super team problem to go into a market like that(along with Louisville). Vancouver Vegas would be good expansion places 10-20 years from now maybe. Bad idea to pick either now. Hell no to Louisville now and forever. Mexico City is a total wild card. I think that's the other the NBA wants but will want more time to work that one out.
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 23, 2020 0:19:53 GMT -6
I think the price will be $2B dollars which would be just outside a top 10 franchise value. If you charge only $1.5B that would be the value to the 25th ranked Charlotte Hornets. The only city I could see the NBA giving a break is Mexico City so they capture the Mexican/Latin American market. I doubt the give any breaks to a small American/Canadian market like Vegas/Louisville/Vancouver since they wouldn't add much value to the league as a whole.
Last NBA franchise value rankings from 2 years ago
1 New York Knicks $4.6 B 2 Los Angeles Lakers $4.4 B 3 Golden State Warriors $4.3 B 4 Chicago Bulls $3.2 B 5 Boston Celtics $3.1 B 6 Los Angeles Clippers $2.6 B 7 Brooklyn Nets $2.5 B 8 Houston Rockets $2.475 B 9 Dallas Mavericks $2.4 B 10 Toronto Raptors $2.1 B 11 Philadelphia 76ers $2 B 12 Miami Heat $1.95 B 13 Portland Trail Blazers $1.85 B 14 San Antonio Spurs $1.8 B 15 Sacramento Kings $1.775 B 16 Washington Wizards $1.75 B 17 Phoenix Suns $1.625 B 18 Denver Nuggets $1.6 B 19 Milwaukee Bucks $1.58 B 20 Oklahoma City Thunder $1.575 B 21 Utah Jazz $1.55 B 22 Indiana Pacers $1.525 B 23 Atlanta Hawks $1.52 B 24 Cleveland Cavaliers $1.51 B 25 Charlotte Hornets $1.5 B 26 Detroit Pistons $1.45 B 27 Orlando Magic $1.43 B 28 Minnesota Timberwolves $1.375 B 29 New Orleans Pelicans $1.35 B 30 Memphis Grizzlies $1.3 B
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 23, 2020 1:22:42 GMT -6
They have replaced the old Key Arena signage on the roof with Climate Pledge Arena
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 24, 2020 5:23:04 GMT -6
pic
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Post by mikecubs on Jan 1, 2021 19:39:58 GMT -6
The driving force behind the renewed Seattle Sonics expansion talkBringing the Sonics back to Seattle has long been a priority for local sports fans, to say the least. Brian Robinson started a Save our Sonics blog back in the day, and is now currently a community commissioner at the Seattle Center. He joined the Dori Monson Show to discuss what’s new in the drive to bring the Sonics back as, for the first time in a while, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said he is thinking about expansion. “I think where we’ve been through, people know we had a gut wrenching loss of our team. We have fought, and we have fought, and we have fought, we have been kicked down a lot of times, and I think a lot of Sonics fans just felt lack of control over the situation,” Robinson said. Spencer Haywood’s journey from poverty to SuperSonics legend “But where we are today is that we have this beautiful new arena coming online, right at the moment where the NBA is facing a need. We know COVID has hurt their revenue, … and recently the commissioner opened up the door to expansion,” he continued. “In a notable change from prior conversations, he described expansion as inevitable. He describes Seattle as the first choice. And I think a lot of people who are close to the situation understand that the commissioner doesn’t make these comments lightly.” Robinson believes that costs are much of the driving force in the renewed Sonics talk, taking into account expansion costs as well as the collective bargaining agreement. “ I think that it’s the driving force. I mean, the dollars were the reason that it was unable to move to the forefront until now,” he said. “And there’s this concept of the collective bargain agreement that expansion dollars are not shared with the players. Every other dollar that comes into the NBA is shared — 52% to the players and 48% of the owners. But expansion dollars go directly to the ownership.”“Oddly enough, in relocation — relocation dollars and arena revenues — are something that led directly to ownership, that kind of drove the loss of our team,” Robinson said. “So I think at the end of the day, in these big billion dollar deals, multibillion dollar deals here, dollars do drive the ship.” Is there a potential timeline for an expansion? “I don’t want to get people overly excited,” Robinson said. “As Tim Leiweke always says, you don’t get ahead of the commissioner. But Brian Windhorst on ESPN recently speculated, and there’s speculation that they felt fairly strongly about a potential for a relocation process by March, with a big process to go in around November and have teams awarded this year, opening the doors in 2023 or 2024.”“So there is a real chance that over the next several months we could see a bid emerged, similar to what we saw for the Kraken, where there is an active, visible, or more than one active, visible groups working hard,” he added. “ And we might have on opening night in Climate Pledge Arena at the Kraken, and simultaneously have a Sonics season ticket drive going on by an ownership group there — that would be a lot.”mynorthwest.com/2405530/seattle-sonics-nba-expansion/
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Post by mikecubs on Jan 7, 2021 16:57:37 GMT -6
NBA expansion talk intensifies by Kevin Reichard on January 6, 2021 in Basketball, NBA NBA horizontal logoAn NBA expansion team could cost as much as $2.5 billion, as there’s plenty of chatter out there regarding the addition of two teams to the circuit.
Expansion is a time-honored way for professional sports leagues to raise capital, so it’s no surprise that MLB types are quietly discussing expansion as a way to offset operating losses this year and last. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed the possibility of expansion when the 2020-2021 NBA season launched in December, saying that it was within the realm of future possibility but not a front-burner issue for the league.
Since Silver’s comments, there’s been plenty of chatter about expansion markets and the financial impacts of expansion. After a 2019-2020 season shutdown followed by bubble play in Orlando last fall and a 2020-2021 season that’s begun with only six teams hosting fans, it’s only natural owners would want to see the impact of expansion.
And that impact? Potentially $2.5 billion for each expansion team, with potentially $166.7 million passing through to each existing NBA team. (That’s a significant hike of the $1 billion price tag per team floated when expansion talk started.) Those are high numbers, to be sure–those kinds of prices for expansion teams would be the highest ever for professional sports teams in North America. It would go a long way toward addressing losses suffered by the league in the last 10 months, though there would be some long-term drawbacks (the media rights pie would be split 32 ways, not 30), but given the current state of things, a dollar in the hand this year is worth more than a dollar five years down the line.
And it doesn’t sound like a $2.5 billion price tag isn’t scaring off anyone–or at least not Oak View Group’s Tim Leiweke, who sounds pretty eager to add an NBA team to Climate Pledge Arena:
Other cities likely to be discussed in the expansion talks: Las Vegas, Kansas City, Anaheim and Louisville.
The NBA has not expanded since the 2004-2005 NBA season, when the Charlotte Bobcats joined the league.
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Post by mikecubs on Jan 10, 2021 16:04:35 GMT -6
Seattle mayor ‘pretty optimistic’ about Sonics return after talk with NBA commissioner Could Seattle see a return of NBA basketball? Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is feeling good about it.Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan recently spoke with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and left feeling "pretty optimistic" about the prospects of a return of the Seattle Sonics. D urkan told KING 5 she spoke with Silver via phone just before Christmas after the commissioner let it slip that the league was re-examining expansion prospects and that Seattle was at the top of the list.Durkan acknowledged, in the interview with KING 5, that she has maintained regular contact with Silver and has recently attended NBA games with him. "I've met him on a number of occasions,” Durkan said. “I actually was a guest of his at some games in New Orleans when I was down there for conference. Number one, the commissioner never gets ahead of the owners. And number two, if you want a city that wants a team, don't get ahead of either of them. But it is very good news for the city of Seattle that they are thinking of an expansion team. And I was honest with him. He knows Seattle wants to be at the front of the line. We're where the team should be. But we will be respecting them as they move forward to their ownership because the (owners), you know, has to approve it." She continued, "I think it's real. But I think again, the commissioner is going to, you know, consult the ownership, and the ownership for the first time itself is being very public that they think it is probably a good idea for basketball. Part of that is the COVID economics. Part of it is the economics of sports. But look, there's no city that I think is better positioned to be successful. We're going to have the best arena in the country. I'm not just saying that when people walk in that building, they will be amazed. We are a city that even with COVID, when we come out of COVID, we have so much upside here." It's no secret that the NBA has been hemorrhaging millions of dollars since the start of the pandemic, forced to play in fan-free venues and everything that goes along with it. Silver has long suggested expansion was not on the horizon and not being discussed. That's why his change in tone in December raised eyebrows and was seen as a message. An expansion fee worth perhaps billions of dollars would be split among league owners and not shared with players, thus providing an economic infusion for struggling franchises. Durkan says she believes expansion could be on the table sooner than people think. "I think he's not going to get ahead of the (owners),” Durkan said. “They've got to make the decision there first. I think that him saying it publicly means that they are very seriously considering it, and if you look at how sports moves, I don't think it's going to be a long multiyear process. I think it can be a shorter process than that, but it might be, you know, more than one year. I think first you got to get the ownership group in line. And they've got to decide what an expansion team price could look like. And how they choose the cities that goes to. As we know, there's also teams that are underperforming in the NBA, so they have to look at the economics in those cities and make sure that the teams they have are competitive. So they've got to look top to bottom as they're coming out of COVID and went through a very different season than they had before." Durkan's conversation is the surest sign yet that momentum is building once again for a SuperSonics return. The franchise left Seattle in 2008 after a lengthy and protracted fight between then-Mayor Greg Nickels, owner Clay Bennett and late NBA Commissioner David Stern. Bennett bought the team from Howard Schultz, who was once highly visible in his adopted hometown and has become persona non grata in the city ever since. Schultz, Bennett and Stern all complained about then-KeyArena, and Nickels agreed for the city to take a buyout on the day a federal judge was set to rule on the terms of the franchise's lease, which allowed the franchise to move to Oklahoma City. The Sonics had been a part of Seattle for 41 years before that. But the arena is no longer an issue. The over $1 billion Climate Pledge Arena at Seattle Center is scheduled to open by late summer and host the NHL expansion Seattle Kraken, and WNBA's Seattle Storm. Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke, whose firm won the right to build the privately financed building, says it has been built with an NBA team in mind. In a conversation on Thursday, Leiweke said his company spent an added $50 million worth of changes to the arena's original design to include an NBA tenant, but "we are following Adam. We don't want to get ahead of the commissioner, but they know of Seattle's desire to get into the league." He pointed out that he believes NBA owners, which include Seattle-area residents Steve Ballmer and Jody Allen, are aware of the region's history. "This isn't a new market,” Leiweke said. “This is a marketplace that has led the league in attendance."
He continued, "Guys like (Dallas Mavericks Owner) Mark Cuban know the marketplace, players like (former Sonic) Kevin Durant know the marketplace."So, exactly who could have the financial wherewithal to pay a reported $2.5 billion NBA expansion fee? Kraken Majority Owner David Bonderman, a University of Washington grad, is a Boston Celtics minority owner. He has made it clear that he is willing to take a financial position with a local NBA franchise as well. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could speed up the process and makes sense for many reasons. In fact, he could shoot a three-pointer of a deal spanning sports, business and politics that the city has never seen. Bezos' company has already secured naming rights for the new arena and instead agreed to the "Climate Pledge" moniker, which falls in line with their corporate initiative. But it is clear that Amazon also wants to up its streaming game and acquire league rights packages. Amazon has aired a handful of NFL games and recently struck a deal with Seattle's Sounders FC. The NBA will be looking for a cash infusion with its upcoming rights deal. Its current deal runs through the 2024-2025 season. Bezos could easily front a majority of the expansion fee and gain entry into the exclusive club of NBA ownership at a time when the league considers its next broadcasting move. If he also was to show any interest in bringing back the Sonics to an arena that could be nicknamed "The Green House," he would also gain some local political capital. Such an announcement, in say the spring, could come at a time when his local political thorn Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant could potentially face a recall effort. Call it a "Reverse Schultz" tactic. However, he has never indicated a willingness or interest in being an NBA owner. Yet, it explains why his name was immediately linked to chatter about a new franchise the moment Silver softened his tone. "The ownership group is there; that's not the issue," said OVG's Leiweke on Thursday, as he was in the middle of planning for the April groundbreaking of the Kraken's American Hockey League franchise arena in Palm Springs, California. He said Bonderman is "the greatest asset we have. He's part of (the NBA). He's respected. Do not underestimate the opinion of him and his relationships within the league." Yet, he said, "There will be other partners."Leiweke also went on to say that the expansion Kraken, with his brother Tod Leiweke at the helm, are set up to serve as a dual operating group. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke once ran Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, which included the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers. He was also in Vancouver in the 1990’s when Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment controlled the NBA’s Grizzlies and NHL’s Canucks. Tim Leiweke says other examples include New York's Madison Square Garden Company and Toronto's Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the latter of which he ran before starting OVG. Durkan, who is a longtime Storm season ticket holder and major sports fan, has long said she wants to be the mayor who brings hockey and the NBA back to Seattle. An expansion announcement in Durkan's last year in office would fulfill that goal. D urkan says she's had a handful of conversations with prospective owners over time and would only say that Leiweke's group is best positioned to bring a team to Seattle. "I think that, you know, the ownership group of the Kraken has the best connections,” Durkan said. “Tim Leiweke, he has been involved in a number of those organizations. They built this arena, so it's basketball NBA ready. So, I don't think that the right ownership group will necessarily be the obstacle. I think that getting the owners to the place where they're willing to do it, making a price that is one that's market reasonable is going to be the real challenge." The mayor says she also believes after talking with the commissioner that Silver knows the city is perfectly aligned to host a NBA franchise, again. "I think it was a very positive conversation,” Durkan said. “I think he has said publicly that Seattle is at the top of the list. Look, if there's basketball karma, we'll get the Sonics. If there's economics involved, we'll get the Sonics. If there's just smart, what's the best city in America, we'll get the Sonics. So, I'm pretty optimistic."www.king5.com/article/sports/seattle-mayor-jenny-durkan-nba-sonics-return/281-99300eea-7a40-4120-98e8-7e4b7ee6df2d
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Post by mikecubs on Jan 10, 2021 16:17:51 GMT -6
I bet this gets approved this year. The owners aren't turning down $2.5B dollars after all these covid losses. Only question is if this is a 1 teams expansion or 2 and someone from Vegas pays an expansion fee. No way in hell do cities like Vancouver/Louisville pay $2-2.5B. Vegas at 2.3M people is insanely small for 3 teams but maybe it's different because casinos can buy the tickets or maybe the NBA could force the NHL out after while.
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Post by mikecubs on Jan 21, 2021 20:07:34 GMT -6
NBA commissioner, team owners talk league expansion and valuation At a seminar, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver discussed a possible expansion team and weighed in on reported valuations of the current teams.NBA Commissioner Adam Silver tempered expectations Tuesday that his league could immediately expand to a city like Seattle but continued to leave the door open about renewed conversations. Silver, along with four NBA owners, appeared in a morning seminar sponsored by Sportico.com, which recently released a comprehensive valuation of all 30 NBA franchises. The sports business website's study says three franchises, the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers, are worth more than $5 billion, and the average franchise is valued at nearly $2.4 billion. It served as a talking point for the value of an expansion franchise. Silver indicated in recent weeks that the league has dusted off the discussion and that Seattle, the former home of the SuperSonics, is at the top of the list. An ESPN report suggested a Seattle entry fee could be $2.5 billion. " I think clearly though (Sportico's) evaluations are showing that some of the reported numbers are very low, in terms of a notion of a value at which we expand, I think," said Silver on Tuesday when questioned about expansion. "Remember the other side of the coin is that as we see these valuations go up the math isn't as obvious as many people might think for expansion, because in essence at the end of the day we're selling equity in our league by virtue of expansion, and if you're selling equity, part of the calculation therefore needs to be, what will 1/30th, 1/31st, 1/32nd of our team be in the future?"Silver continued, " Ultimately, the main driver for expansion should be the ability to grow the pie, not necessarily to bring in, you know, to sell equity, to bring in cash now, you know, as opposed to generating the money later. I don't say there are other significant issues around the pandemic in that related to expansion, and that it doesn't feel necessarily like the right time to be diverting our attention to expansion as we're just doing everything we can to work through the day."Silver again acknowledged that some franchise owners are struggling, which is what has precipitated more expansion talk and new investors with other teams. "Some have speculated that's a reason to expand right now. As I've said it's not something we're looking to do in the middle of a pandemic,” Silver said. “On the other hand, there are real cash needs for many of these teams right now. It's one of the reasons that people often, you know, would sell equity in an enterprise because they do have cash that they need to invest in an ongoing business and what by virtue of bringing in these additional funds." The more than billion-dollar Climate Pledge Arena is slated to open by October 2021 and will play host to the NHL's Seattle Kraken expansion franchise and the WNBA's Seattle Storm. Developer and Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke says his investors spent an additional $50 million in upgrades to the original plan to host an NBA franchise. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said she has spoken in the past month with Silver and was optimistic about what she was told. However, NBA owners like Ted Leonsis sounded a bit more cautious on Tuesday. Leonsis owns Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which controls the NHL's Washington Capitals, NBA's Wizards and WNBA's Mystics in addition to the Monumental Sports Network. He's a key power broker with both the professional hockey and basketball leagues and has extensive history in over-the-air game presentation. "Seattle has built a world class organization," said Leonsis about the Kraken. But he was hesitant to talk about NBA expansion as a way to solve any COVID-19-related economic problems. "I think it's just a matter of time to find the right partners and do the right thing, but no, we should not be planning for expansion to solve these problems,” Leonsis said. “These problems that we have are deep, and they run through our partnerships, through our sponsors, most importantly, our players, our employees, and so I would say the focus right now should be on our partners, our people and our players and that's what we've been trying to do locally and at the league." Leonsis also provided insight about what the league may be thinking about its next broadcasting deal based on what he has done in his home market. "The world's most valuable companies are the digital companies,” said Leonsis. “It's Apple. It's Amazon. It's Facebook. In a way, they've been getting a free ride on our content. They have not really stepped up right now to get our content, and that's what, you know, we have to look at. Should we become, if you will, more an end to end solution? Or should we be doing bigger deals with those companies to stream, both locally and nationally? I know locally there are more Prime subscribers in my media market than there are cable subscribers.” Seattle-based Amazon has been aggressively pursuing digital sports rights to expand its Prime offering and paid for the naming rights for the new arena. "Should we go direct, should we be going directly to the cable company, losing one of the middlemen? That's going to be a huge, huge development over the next decade," Leonsis told the Sportico moderators. The Wizards owner gave credit to the Seattle area's own Steve Ballmer, who bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in 2014, and said he viewed the purchase as "not just a team. It's a platform." Ballmer, along with the Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, were also part of the Sportico seminar but didn't discuss the expansion proposition. Don Cornwell of New York's PJT Partners worked on the sale of the Buffalo Bills and Toronto's Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, as well as other major sports business deals. He believes the NBA is talking about Seattle because of more than just the immediate influx of an expansion fee. " For the other owners it's just a matter of the dilution right, and that's just math, right?” Cornwell said. “We can figure that out. As to how much upfront proceeds they need to get comfortable with the math dilution and the financial revolution, but also understanding what does it mean to have a team back in Seattle. You know for the folks that have been around this league for a long time, I think they get it that like the Seattle SuperSonics are important from a licensing perspective, right. There's obviously a massive market with a lot of wealth that right now the NBA is not servicing in a direct way, and so longterm value that beyond just the pure math of the dilution would have."
He said any franchise fee should be big.
"Because you are effectively having the opportunity to buy, you know, about a 3% stake in the NBA, and that shouldn't be a low number,” Cornwell said. “That should be a very high number."www.king5.com/article/sports/nba/nba-commissioner-expansion-seminar/281-2bbae89a-0b1c-43fc-9e2f-f4c672193e23
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 22, 2021 17:59:58 GMT -6
Steve Ballmer says Seattle likely gets expansion team, but 'isn't going to be the Clippers'The Clippers are staying in LA. FARBOD ESNAASHARIFEB 12, 2021 The NBA world wants Seattle to have a team. Steve Ballmer wants Seattle to have a team. When they finally do get a team, it won't be the Clippers. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had a special broadcast on the Clubhouse app, where he discussed what it was like owning the Clippers, the likelihood of Seattle getting an NBA team, and the future of the Clippers. When it came to the topic of Seattle, Mr. Ballmer seemed to have some knowledge but played it coy. "I gotta sleep on that," Ballmer said. "I know nothing, I see nothing. The commissioner talked about the fact that it's an open consideration at some point to do expansion. If an expansion were to happen Seattle would be up at the top of the list. I certainly haven't participated in any in-depth discussions at this point. I can't tell you the timing, but I read the commissioner's remarks at the same time the rest of you did."Many have speculated that the Clippers would be the team to move to Seattle, but Steve Ballmer assures that isn't the case. The new Inglewood arena should have been enough proof to convince people, but some still weren't buying it. For them, Ballmer emphasized one more time that the Clippers aren't going anywhere. "I'd love for Seattle to have a basketball team again," Ballmer said. "It isn't going to be the Clippers. Clippers are the LA Clippers, they will stay the LA clippers. I love having the LA Clippers. We're building a new arena, you can call it a new $2 billion home for the Clippers in Los Angeles. I gotta say owning a team or having a team in LA is a competitive advantage. All things being equal, guys love being in LA. It's a great place to be." For those who were a fan of the Seattle Supersonics, the time to rejoice is coming soon. The likelihood of a team coming there seems tremendously high, and now it's only a matter of time. www.si.com/nba/clippers/news/steve-ballmer-says-seattle-gets-expansion-team-but-not-clippers
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