The Los Angeles Clippers are among the most successful and young franchises in the professional sports world. After decades of cellar-dwelling in the Western Conference, the additions of Blake Griffin and Chris Paul over the past few seasons have given fans in Southern California hope that this team is prepared to make a championship run.
Absolutely nothing that happened during the whole Donald Sterling scandal has impacted the quality of the product that Los Angeles plans to throw on the court over the next couple seasons. With the Los Angeles Lakers struggling and one of the biggest markets in the world embracing Doc Rivers’ squad, the opportunities are endless here.
You better believe that Shelley Sterling, who is in the process of selling the team for her disgraced husband, knows this full well. And according to Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal, bidding may have already started getting out of control.
Just got off phone w/ sports banker who says clippers bids out of control, defying reason, and will mess up sports M&A market 4 awhile
— Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) May 29, 2014
With such high-profile names as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Oprah Winfrey, former NBA All-Star Grant Hill and NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson with his billionaire backers, there is a potential that a bidding war will increase the Clippers final selling price.
According to Forbes, the Los Angeles Clippers rank 13th among NBA franchises in total value at $575 million. Just in the state of California, the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors are worth more.
What does this really mean? The short-form answer is…not entirely too much.
Courtesy of the LA Times: New owners will likely look to move the Clippers out of Staples.
It’s believed that a new ownership group would want to build a brand new state-of-the-art arena, eliminating the Clippers as a housing partner with the Lakers. That would increase the value of the team a great deal.
In addition to that, billionaires waging war against billionaires in order to take control of the most successful NBA franchise in the second-largest market in North America will only increase the value of the team.
This could have a major impact on future sales around the professional sports world. If a team without an arena of its own and without a single championship in the city it is currently residing in can net a record sale, the opportunities are endless for other teams that could be put up for sale in the not-so-distant future. In that, it’s important to look at the Clippers sale when drawing a conclusion of what could happen with the Buffalo Bills, among other franchises.
Photo: ESPN.com