Ballmer buys the Clippers

[mosesbotbol]

This whole thing was a clever rouse by Sterling to inflate value and get a feeding frenzy for his team. Brilliantly played as 2 billion is way more than it would've sold other wise. He is no racist IMO.

Bravo Mr. Sterling, bravo....

[CRIMPS]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

This whole thing was a clever rouse by Sterling to inflate value and get a feeding frenzy for his team. Brilliantly played as 2 billion is way more than it would've sold other wise. He is no racist IMO.

Bravo Mr. Sterling, bravo....

Actually the sales price is based more on the the expiring, and consequently the renewal, of the television contracts that come up in one or two years. The LA market will bring a HUGE new contract, worth billions of dollars.

$2Billion may look cheap in a few years.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by CRIMPS

Actually the sales price is based more on the the expiring, and consequently the renewal, of the television contracts that come up in one or two years. The LA market will bring a HUGE new contract, worth billions of dollars.

$2Billion may look cheap in a few years.

That is almost what the Dodgers sold for. It may look cheap in a few years, but what teams are trading for recently world wide; 2 billion is top dollar for a historically losing team.

[GreekGodX]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

That is almost what the Dodgers sold for. It may look cheap in a few years, but what teams are trading for recently world wide; 2 billion is top dollar for a historically losing team.

I believe the Dodgers sold for more ($2.16 billion) but that deal also included parking lots and other assets which makes it more expensive.

Clippers are back in a big way competitively and the LA market loves it. With Chris Paul and Blake Griffin on the team you have a perennial championship caliber team. That combined with some other factors really drove up the price. Shelly Sterling deciding to quickly sell the team and giving all bidders a deadline to submit an offer inflated the price since no one else knew what the bids were. Ballmer is a diehard fan of the NBA and definitely has the money to bid whatever he wanted. He knew he would have to be the highest bidder and he obviously did just that.

Regional markets really affect the profitability and viability of sports teams. LA is a huge market and when their teams are winning everyone wants to be a part of the team. While the Clippers obviously aren't the Lakers, there is a diehard fan base. Clippers should come close to the Lakers T.V deal when it is up in 2 years. Combine that with the money infusion Ballmer will bring to the team (Sterling has always been notoriously cheap) and the team should be very profitable in a short amount of time for him.

It is an insane amount of money but professional sports (especially NFL) is worth big money. You have to pay to play and Ballmer made a big splash doing it.