On Thursday, it was announced that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made agreement to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion dollars from embattled owner Donald Sterling & the Sterling Family Trust. The deal, which would put the Los Angeles Clippers as the most expensive franchise in all of sports, happens ahead of a previously scheduled vote of NBA owners to get Donald Sterling out of the ownership & basically move past this chapter of the NBA history timeline.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, 58, has signed an agreement to become the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Right? Well……………Not so quickly. Before we can move past this, we have to look at what the future will hold for the Clippers, the NBA, other teams & the rest of sports & what it means from a society standpoint. All tonight. Sit back & enjoy the read.
Why Did Steve Ballmer Buy The Los Angeles Clippers For Far Over Value?
Well, because he has the money. Ballsmer was the former Microsoft CEO during the Bill Gates years from 2000 through 2013, retiring after 13 years. He first started at Microsoft in 1980, when he was one of 30 employees.
Before he retired, he was already dabbling in sports a bit, working to try to buy his home team, the Detroit Pistons, when they were available for sale back in 2012. After that fell through & the team went to Tom Gores & Platinum Equity, Ballmer came back & worked to try to purchase the Sacramento Kings, but that deal didn’t happen.
Ballmer finally won the bid that Donald Sterling’s wife, Shelly was operating, at over $2 billion. However, Ballmer is only getting the team – for right now. Many people believe that Ballmer’s major operative will be to move a team back to Seattle & make the Clippers the Seattle Supersonics again.
The NBA had worked a very shady deal years ago to take away the Sonics from Seattle when Clay Bennett took the team to Oklahoma City & renamed them the Thunder. Oklahoma City proved to be a viable market after many of the New Orleans Hornets games were played in Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina.
Ballmer could make the team move to Seattle & be a hero to the people as well as the NBA, which has mentioned that they would eventually entertain the idea of bringing a team back into Seattle, especially with an NHL team possibly coming to Seattle coming soon.
What is more likely, though, is that Ballmer will stay in Los Angeles & something that could be in play is purchasing the Staples Center, the arena where the Clippers share time with the Lakers & Los Angeles Kings. By purchasing Staples Center, the land where AIG was planning on possibly building a stadium, the Nokia Theatre & the convention center space, Ballmer will be able to make a major impact in the sense of not only having the Clippers franchise, but also getting the land space to possibly bring an NFL team to Los Angeles, something the league has wanted to do for many years, since the Raiders & Rams left town for Oakland & St. Louis respectively.
Ballmer’s purchase of the Clippers makes them one of the most profitable & dominant franchises in United States professional sports, & it gets them headlines & the ability to take away some of the press from the Los Angeles Lakers, who are still trying to refine themselves & figure out a head coach, let alone an actual roster that doesn’t look like an NBA Developmental League squad with a player/coach essentially in Kobe Bryant.
What Does This Mean For The NBA?
For the NBA, as a whole, it means a ton for owners of all of the franchises. By having Ballmer purchase the Clippers for $2 Billion, every team’s value has gone up ten fold in the span of 24 hours & the league as a whole has gone up a ton.
Even though the Clippers have been the laughing stock of the NBA for a long time, today has been a huge day for the organization, & oddly enough, a situation that was initially a horrible situation where sponsors were pulling out from being a part of the franchise will now want to do a complete 180 degree turn & advertise & spend a lot for that advertising space with the Clippers.
But, with the other teams around the, in finance, when one property goes up, the other similar properties in that niche go up as well. When you look at just the team across the hall – the Los Angeles Lakers – one of the most successful franchises in all of sports, then you look at the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, even a team in a small market like the Oklahoma City Thunder – all of those teams now will be able to be worth close to a billion dollars, if not far, far more.
If you figure that the teams we listed above – because they have had far more success than the Clippers historically & are better overall brands – the game has completely changed in the NBA to where the league’s overall market value has gone up to be close to the NFL.
Speaking of the NFL, their teams’ values will go up much higher now because of this deal. To get into the sports team ownership game is going to cost someone close to a billion & a half dollars just to get a consideration. Every NFL team – especially the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots & others – will be worth close to the $2 billion if not closer to even $8 or $10 billion.
For the image of the league, it helps the organization because of the fact that players will be taken care of & the image & presence of Donald Sterling is out of the league. Also, a topic that is overlooked is that by having the sale of the team, there isn’t a vote that will happen from all of the NBA owners on Donald Sterling. The question isn’t whether Sterling would be out of the league or not, but if it wasn’t a unanimous decision, players would want to know who is really likable or if their owner is similar to Donald Sterling.
The NBA wins again.
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