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December 10, 2009
NBA Valuations: The Business Of Basketball
Forbes
By Kurt Badenhausen, Michael K. Ozanian and Christina Settimi
Teams like the Indiana Pacers, Minnesota Timberwolves and New Jersey Nets were forced to slash ticket prices to lure fans to games in the midst of a recession.
Leading the pack of "franchises... reeling from bad management more than a sour economy" are:
...the New Jersey Nets, whose owner, Bruce Ratner, made the brilliant announcement after he bought the team in 2004 that he wanted to move them to Brooklyn as soon as he got a new arena. Talk about losing fans in a hurry. The Nets handed out 5,200 comp tickets per game last season to try and get fans to show up at their current home, the Izod Center. The Nets set an NBA record by losing their first 18 games this season and will not get a new arena in Brooklyn until at least 2011, if they ever do. The Nets are now worth $269 million, $31 million less than what Ratner paid.
article [Click graphic to enlarge.]
Atlantic Yards Report Forbes: Nets value keeps declining, 5200 free tickets a game distributed
The value of the Nets keeps declining, and an astonishing number of free tickets are being distributed.
...
Last year, according to Forbes, the team was worth $295 million, down from $325 million the previous year. The Nets are again ranked 26th out of 30 in value.The Nets' debt/value ratio, last year a league-leading 71%, is now up to 77%.
If they are distributing 5200 free tickets a game--a number new to me--that's more than one-quarter of the house. (Ticket revenue last year went down 29%.)
Maybe that's part of why the team could give only 15% of total tickets away in the planned Brooklyn arena without incurring a license fee.
NoLandGrab: Remember that Nets CEO Brett Yormark touted, last July, that the Nets were "having one of the best off-seasons that we've had in years," which leaves us to wonder how things might look if the off-season had gone poorly.
Posted by lumi at December 10, 2009 5:49 AM