Want an example of why it's perfectly okay to blame the NBA lockout on the owners? Well let's look at Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. He's been described as one of the more hawkish owners in the lockout war, and one writer said he's willing to miss the entire season, and he's among a group of owners demanding guaranteed profits for the next ten years.
Owning A Basketball Team Is Like Owning Art (Except During A Lockout)
And as noted by True Hoop, he once said this:
To me, NBA franchises are like pieces of art. There are only 30 of them. They aren’t always on the market, especially a franchise that would have been such a natural fit ... If you just looked at the Cavaliers in terms of revenues, profits and balance sheets -- and you paid this amount for it -- people would say “You’re insane! You’re nuts.” But if you look at all the tentacles, the impact on our other venues, it makes tremendous sense.
And there’s more.
This all comes from Brian Windhorst and Terry Pluto’s 2005 book, The Franchise:
“We have now opened a Cleveland office [of Quicken Loans] and that’s tremendously successful. Our employees love it that we’re associated with the Cavs and can come to games -- that helps us attract and keep better people. There are a lot of non-profit things that can be done with pro sports. It brings an unbelievable amount of excitement.”
In other words, in 2005, Dan Gilbert justified his losses on the Cavs by explaining how many other revenue streams the franchise had created for him. Like his Cleveland branch of Quicken Loans. Or, say, how Gilbert parlayed his popularity as Cavs owner into almost a billion dollars’ worth of casinos. Remember: There’s hidden value to owning NBA art.
In 2011, though? If Dan Giblert’s NBA team isn’t profitable on an annual basis, then we might as well blow up the whole damn league! Yeah! Right?
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