The NBA has broadly been anticipated to discover enlargement following the sale of the Boston Celtics, which got here in at a $6.1 billion valuation and can assist set the benchmark for a possible enlargement price. The NBA, nonetheless, continues to take a sluggish method in the direction of enlargement and cited the continued regional sports activities community points as a motive for being cautious.
“The brief reply is not any new developments,” stated Adam Silver. “However I might solely say by way of taking a look at this 12 months, I believe we’re nonetheless within the means of digesting the Celtics’ transaction. There’s little question {that a} main transaction like that turns into related to enlargement.
“That deal has simply been introduced to us, so we’re nonetheless analyzing it. My sense is as soon as we’ve been via that course of that we’ll flip to it in a extra severe means.
“The league workplace has continued to mannequin what potential enlargement might seem like during the last 12 months or so. And once more, that included each understanding dilution from an financial standpoint — we now have a greater understanding of that now that we’ve our nationwide offers in place — and likewise from a participant standpoint.
“I’d simply add the final part, which is also giving me only a little bit of pause, is that we’d prefer to have a greater sense of the place we’re going with native media. Invoice Koenig is right here, our head of media. He made a reasonably prolonged presentation to the board on that. It’s well-known that we’ve seen some important declines there. Nearly two-thirds of our groups at the moment are coping with RSNs that lately skilled bankruptcies or have shut down.
“I believe whereas we perceive the nationwide media panorama now, to the extent we’re taking a look at enlargement domestically, I believe we’d actually like to know what that chance for native media is, as a result of it’s a fairly vital part of our groups’ economics.”
