Lebron better start making friends with some other billionaires then because he doesn't have the cash for a team

desertgeek: bhcompy: Lebron better start making friends with some other billionaires then because he doesn't have the cash for a team

He's already a partner in the ownership group that owns the Red Sox, Liverpool FC, and recently brought the Pittsburgh Penguins. If that's not enough, he can talk to whoever doesn't win the bidding for the Suns.

He's worth about a billion.  Silver said that the speculated $2.5b expansion fee discussed at an event last year was too low and that the league would likely demand more.  FSB just dropped nearly a billion on the Penguins.  Not sure how much more they've got lying around.  Those guys aren't Ballmer rich.  The top owners are "only" worth a few billion each.  And they have to have enough leftover to not just buy an expansion slot, but also build a franchise and perhaps a stadium(can probably lease TMobile Arena, but that's also owned by Lakers minority owner Philip Anschutz, which would be an odd wrinkle.. part of the money is in the arenas these days, anyways, so they may want their own, which is another $400m+).  Probably need to find some other rich guys

iamskibibitz: bhcompy: Silver said that the speculated $2.5b expansion fee discussed at an event last year was too low and that the league would likely demand more.

That's 10x the revenues and probably around 100x the profit (if there is any). Only way you could justify buying a team is the "greater fool" theory: there is someone dumb enough to eventually pay you more for it. The ROI is garbage.

Of course.  It's a mix of prestige and a toy.  What else are people like Steve Ballmer, Tilman Fertitta, Joe Tsai, etc going to do with the rest of their lives when they're worth billions and billions of dollars?

That said, they appreciate quite well over time.  NBA teams have gone from being worth <$100m in the early 90s to >$1.5b today.  Your heirs are well compensated for your investment