Comments on: MetroFocus (Thirteen)’s Interview With Harvey Araton

By: BigBlueAL

BigBlueAL — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:51:11 +0000

Right now we should be talking about the Knicks 1st win of the season.

By: DS

DS — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:16:32 +0000

Great article. Here’s a better one I found trying to get my Jorts fix: http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Former_Wildcat_Josh_Harrellson_helps_stop_drunk_driver_127690928.html

By: latke

latke — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:25:11 +0000

That’s a good article, Brian. Surprisingly easy to understand, too, considering it’s written by two economists.

By: Brian Cronin (@Brian_Cronin)

Brian Cronin (@Brian_Cronin) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:00:42 +0000

Excellent summary of the situation in the lockout at Grantland: http://t.co/94tl5iPJ

By: Brian Cronin (@Brian_Cronin)

Brian Cronin (@Brian_Cronin) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:05:32 +0000

That is exactly it, nicos.

By: nicos

nicos — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:45:33 +0000

Look, the Warriors sold for 450m in 2010. Cohen bought them for 119m in 1995, made the playoffs all of once in the intervening 15 years, sold at the height of the recession, and still managed to set a record for price of an NBA franchise. Yes, the league is having trouble finding a buyer for the Hornets who will keep the franchise in NO but you can’t tell me that there aren’t buyers in Seattle or Vegas who’d snatch them up in a heartbeat. I think the issue is the owners want to guarantee that even a poorly run franchise in an unsustainable market like New Orleans can turn a profit and would rather the players bear the burden than agree to some sort of meaningful profit sharing arrangement.

By: KnickfaninNJ

KnickfaninNJ — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:51:24 +0000

As a follow on to my post, let me add that personally, I would love to own the Knicks (or any other basketball) team for that matter and just break even. I am sure the rest of you feel the same way too.

So I don’t feel sorry for the owners if they are not making a normal business return on their investment.

By: iserp

iserp — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:53:58 +0000

Stratomatic, i want to raise a couple of points:

- Owners don’t buy teams for profit, the buy teams for entertainment purposes. In most of the world, owners lose money. Teams are built to win championship, not to get money.

- Is NBA more expensive to run than other leagues? why the split is much more favorable for the owners in the NBA than in the NFL?

- Is that expensive to run a NBA team? Players are the most important expense, and they are fixed at 57% of the revenue, what eats the other 43% (and more if the teams are losing money)? Aside from building an arena, i don’t seee where the money goes. Arena maintenance, security, producing merchandise are that expensive? how many people does a NBA team have under payroll? If they have so many losses, why don’t NBA teams show their books, or at least some kind of summary (this went to security, this to directives, this to training staff, this to medical staff, …)

What i don’t get is how someone can be on the side of the owners. They are outright greedy.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:22:19 +0000

This amnesty period, whenever it comes, is going to be crazy. If the WWL can be believed, guys like Mike Miller and Jermaine O’Neal may be cut. I’d be very happy to see those two in NYK unis with grudges against MIA and BOS. Play Turiaf 25 minutes, O’Neal 15 minutes, and Amare 8 min/game at center and we might have something. A small lineup of Billups/TD, Shumpert/Miller/Extra E, Melo, and Amare would run a lot of teams out of the building.

By: KnickfaninNJ

KnickfaninNJ — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:24:30 +0000

It’s not true that the NBA is just a business where the owners have to get a return on their invesrment any more than a Ferrari is just basic transportation. Most or all of the owners bought an NBA team because they wanted to own one. And they all want to own a winning team. Of course they prefer not to lose their shirts, and they are probably all very competitive guys, so they want to win the negotiations too. But normal standards of business should not and do not apply here. If Mark Cuban was solely concerned about making money he would be spending his time on something high tech, not on the Mavericks.