Quote:
Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
Owners NEVER lose money on pro sports franchises. Whatever they pay won't really matter because teams always appreciate in value.
Kind of makes you think the players union got played during the last lockout when so many owners were crying that they were losing money. The Bucks sold for $550,000,000 with a decrepit arena, no stars in the countries 39th largest market.
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A large part of what has driven the price of any franchise's value up has been the preposterous prices cable networks will pay for television rights. We might be seeing tops reached on those and if they stabilize, then so will the value of the franchise.
In L.A., Time Warner paid $7 billion for 25 years of rights to broadcast the Dodgers. They have, so far, been unable to resell the network they created to carry the games to any other provider. They are allegedly asking about $4/subscriber. They probably need close to that to reach break even on the deal they signed.
Absent a deal, most of L.A. can't watch the Dodgers. If your local bar isn't in an area served by Time Warner, you can't go there to watch either.
Dodger ownership gets their sack if cash regardless but they have to think about what happens to a fan base that can't watch any games outside the stadium. And Time Warner may become the cautionary tale for other networks if they wind up taking a loss.
The Clippers current TV contract expires in 2016.