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The disaster brought to Houston by Hurricane Harvey is not over yet, but for fans of this city, the Rockets' sale is still smooth. Beijing incident On September 6, the NBA Rockets officially announced that team owner Leslie Alexander has reached a team sales agreement with Tilman Fertitta, a local billionaire at Houston , for a price of US$2.2 billion.
Rockets new owner Tilman Fertitta
html $02.2 billion transaction price also set a new North American professional sports team sales record. In 2012, the Los Angeles Dodgers of MLB sold for $2.15 billion (Los Angeles Times data). Previously, the highest selling price of NBA was Ballmer who acquired the Clippers for $2 billion.In fact, when Fertita bid for the Rockets in 1993, he lost to Alexander by $4 million. Since then, he has served as a business consultant for the Rockets and has long had sideline seats at the Rockets' home court. The takeover Tilman Feltita is a Texas native. Forbes is estimated to be worth about $3.1 billion in 2017. He is the founder of American restaurant giant Landry's and owns casinos such as golden nugget casino. In addition, he is also the host of the reality show Billion Dollar Buyer.
In addition to the team, he also obtained the operation rights of the Rockets' home Toyota Center . As a local fan, his acquisition means that the team will not move out of the Aerospace City, which is good news for citizens who are suffering from disasters.
According to data released by several affected counties in southern Texas, the United States, Hurricane Harvey on August 25 has caused more than 60 deaths and disappearances.
The Rockets' sale originated on July 18, when Houston Rockets President Ted Brown suddenly announced to the media: Team owner Leslie Alexander has decided to sell the Houston Rockets.
For the Rockets, who had just signed Paul and renewed the contract with star Harden, last season's amazing performance and offseason operation were quite successful. The sale of the team at this time may not be purely due to commercial factors.
Sure enough, he then said in a public statement to the media that although the team is in good condition, he still wants to get out and devote more time to his family and charity.
Indeed, for Alexander, who is 73 years old, his existing work has begun to make him unable to bear it. Although he is not involved in complicated business, the Rockets is undoubtedly his hard work. It is all about recruiting players, participating in important team events, etc., which still affect his life. In addition, his life has reached this stage, so it is reasonable to sell the team. Before that, Alexander had listed three luxury houses in New York and , California, , mainly retaining houses in Houston and Florida (vacation), which is also a routine practice for retirement.
Alexander was a Jewish man who invested in stocks from Wall Street and later moved into the investment field. He was a business model starting from scratch. In 1993, the 59-year-old Jewish took over the Rockets for $85 million. Alexander spent 24 years to increase the value of the Rockets by 19 times. Then the team won two NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, and their popularity and value soared. Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. According to statistics, the team's current annual revenue is about 244 million yuan. In February this year, Forbes' latest valuation of its 1.65 billion US dollars, ranking eighth in the league. With the support of the big market, superstars and record, the Rockets' market value has a high recognition of its sales.
Rockets retired Yao Ming jersey, Alexander and Yao Ming attended the press conference together
According to foreign media reports, many former Rockets players are interested in participating in the acquisition of the Rockets, including Elvin Hayes, Hakeim Olajuwon and Deakinbe Mutombo. In addition, American actress Beyoncé is also interested in acquiring the Rockets, and Fertitta's biggest competitor before was another billionaire Dan Friedkin, Houston.
In addition to the influence of the US market, the global expansion of the NBA has also boosted the value of this league. The entry into force of the new communication contract last year has accelerated the development of the league.
Last season, the TV broadcast agreement signed by league president Adam Xiao Hua, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Walt Disney Company, officially took effect. The amount of the agreement is US$24 billion and will last until 2025.
huge broadcast contracts have brought a series of domino effects, the most obvious of which is that it has greatly improved the income of the league and players. The team's salary cap has risen, and sky-high contracts are everywhere, which also allows Warriors to still be able to take the Durant contract after the Big Three.
In addition to player income, the team's valuation also rose with the trend. The Hawks' valuation reached 850 million in 2015. When Jiang Lizhang acquired 5% of the Timberwolves' shares in 2016, the team's valuation was about 1 billion, and this valuation was only 430 million US dollars in 2014. Going further forward, in 2010, Prokolov acquired 80% of the Nets' equity and the property rights of the new stadium for $200 million. Now the price of Prokolov's sale has surged to 2 billion.
Looking at the development of the NBA over the past few decades, investing in a team is indeed a good deal, but there are still risks. This risk mainly comes from the relationship between copyright prices and market.
In the new broadcast contract, Walt Disney Company will broadcast NBA games on its ABC and ESPN platforms. Turner Broadcasting Systems will play on TNT and TBS platforms. Both companies have invested huge sums of money in it, and behind the heavy money is a big bet.
In August 2017, Disney recently released its third-quarter financial report for 2017 (as of July 1). The financial report showed that the company's revenue for the quarter was US$14.24 billion, a year-on-year decline of 0.3%; net profit for the quarter was US$2.37 billion, a year-on-year decline of 8.9%. The revenue of cable TV business this quarter was US$4.09 billion, a year-on-year decline of 3%.
Due to the Warriors' sweep, the NBA playoffs this year are five games less than last year, but this year's live contract is much more expensive than last year, so the revenue is not as much as expected. ABC is also in the same situation. The financial report shows that the revenue of public television networks led by ABC TV was US$1.78 billion, an increase of 4%, but operating profit was only US$253 million, a year-on-year decline of 22 percentage points. Disney said that "lower advertising revenue, higher program spending, lower ratings" are the main reasons for the sharp decline in profits. In terms of the number of users of
, according to BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, a big problem with ESPN is that it is lower paying for TV. As ESPN's subscription audience continues to decline, ESPN is likely to be trapped in sky-high sports contracts.
These current situations also urge ESPN to make changes. At the end of April, ESPN laid off more than 100 employees. At the same time, Bob Iger also revealed that in the era of the Internet, ESPN will gradually start transformation, including US$100 million in investment in BAMTech and continuing to develop OTT show platform. These are all ESPN's future layout. Not only that, ESPN has also strengthened interaction with users on the Internet and mobile terminals. In August, Disney will recently remove its content from the Netflix platform at the end of 2019 and transfer it to its own streaming platform.
is not long or short for ESPN and broadcasters, but it is certain that there are not many opportunities for trial and error. Before the contract expires, the two companies still need to find a more efficient way.
Recently, James has also started his Chinese tour in many cities
, but the high salary for players, stimulates their desire to expand infinitely. Before the signing of the new labor-cap agreement in December 2016, the players' union discussed the issue of the salary cap with the league, and the players demanded the cancellation of the salary cap to ensure they had more salary.
"Look at how much players in Major League Baseball earn, everyone will no longer agree with the current standards," James said. "I need enough salary levels to prove my worth.My current value cannot be reflected in the current NBA salary system. "
" Look, is this fair to us? "
It is undeniable that too fast growth also contains risks, because for players, wages can only rise, not fall. Therefore, the rising valuation of the same team also includes operating costs and superstar wages, especially the salary costs of players.
However, at present, the valuation of NBA teams is still in a stable increase in the short term. The new labor-management agreement has begun to take effect on July 1, 2017, until the end of the 2023-2024 season, and the contradictions and debates between players and the league on the distribution of interests will still take time to give answers.
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