Seattle Ute
 

If per your assumption "NBA teams don't make any money" why doesnt any of them ever file for bankruptcy? In the past 25 years not one team has filed.

why doesn't the United States?

You mean NBA team owners can print their own money?

Pretty much.

Meh. While sports franchises may lose money season to season, the real value is in the growth of equity. It's a long-term investment, and it almost always pays off.

Why pray tell do they increase in value if they can't make money, and there's no prospect of huge future profits like, say, hot biotechs? Any other business model that is old and still experiences gains despite losing money year after year?

Just like cemeteries.

I suppose it would be easy to find lots of billionaires willing to pay hand over fist for a biotech franchise that will probably lose money in most years, just because they love the industry.


I won't get into the micro-economics of it. Simply put, if someone bought a pro sports franchise twenty years ago, and they were to sell it today, they would end up being FAR ahead, despite any lost negative profits absorbed during the interim.


Larry H. Miller did an interview with Locke a few months back, and they discussed that very thing.

Pro sports value proposition has peaked. Public tax/stadium subsidies declining faster than Boozer's playoff intensity, aging boomers losing interest.