Kori Ellis
05-28-2005, 12:13 AM
Buck Harvey: Sell high, live low: Why Holt would stay on the train
Web Posted: 05/28/2005 12:00 AM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA052805.1S.COL.BKNharvey.2b86ffbec.html
San Antonio Express-News
Red McCombs will pocket about $350 million in profit after last week, when the NFL officially approved the sale of the Vikings. So isn't it time for Peter Holt to cash in, too?
After all, Holt will take his seat tonight in a corner on the first row, across from the Spurs' bench, and he will see what every sports owner loves to see: Big-money players creating bigger-money revenue streams.
The Spurs have a 2-0 lead in the series, with Holt, the CEO of the franchise, leading by more. The investors have basically paid their share of the SBC Center already, buffeted by both luxury-tax benefits and one of the lowest payrolls in the league, and they have the prospect of many more home playoff games for years to come.
If selling high is the smart business move, this is high time, right?
"No," says McCombs. "It's not the way a sports owner thinks."
They may think alike, but they sure don't act the same. The Sonics' owner, in the previous series, jumped around so much on the sidelines in Game6 that a Seattle columnist wrote that his behavior "evoked a barefoot Yosemite Sam on a hot griddle."
The Suns' owner? He merely flapped his arms earlier in the season, calling the Spurs "chicken" for not playing Tim Duncan.
Holt instead stays in the background as he always has, and maybe that's partly because of events last year. Rehab can have that effect.
But whatever personal battles Holt has had, the Spurs haven't been one of them. Those in the organization say he's enjoying the franchise as much as he ever has, and for good reason.
How many owners have had this kind of run? Others lose money while firing coaches and getting stuck with the luxury tax; Holt oversees the most consistently successful team in the league.
The franchise has earned at least $10 million a season since 2003, and some think the totals are higher. Not even a pending lockout puts much of a dent in this business.
The clucking Suns owner, Robert Sarver, enjoys similar dollar-for-win success. According to one Web site, the Spurs have the 24th-highest payroll in the league, the Suns the 25th.
Among those who spend more: Nine lottery teams, including the Knicks with a payroll more than the Spurs and Suns combined.
But Sarver also bought the Suns last summer for $401 million, and it's typical franchise escalation. For example, when Charlotte got its first expansion team, in 1988, the franchise cost $32.5 million. The latest one went for about $300 million.
Each deal has its own financial variables, but this is clear: The Spurs as a product have never been more lucrative. Holt could sell today and perhaps get four or five times his initial investment.
And what happens if he waits? For one, the contracts of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili would escalate. And what happens if, for whatever reason, trips deep into the playoffs stop, and attendance sags?
McCombs waves off all of it. "My mind is running while I'm talking," he said Friday, "but I don't know of a single sports owner who looks at it that way. It's not speculative in a sense that they say, 'The market is right and it's time to get off the train.'"
McCombs got off the Vikings' train for a specific reason: Stadium issues. And Thursday, when he issued a statement to the media in Minnesota, he sounded like a man still with regrets.
"The league approval hit me with mixed emotions," McCombs wrote. "I should have been excited — after all I had pushed for some time to get a buyer — but rather than feeling excited I realized I was walking away from a lifelong dream — an empty feeling at best."
McCombs has always filled up that empty feeling with a lot of money, and he did when he sold the Spurs in 1993. That time, he says, the reason was about him.
"I got disappointed," he said. "I didn't think I could take the team to the championship. I couldn't get there, and I didn't know how, and I got disappointed in myself."
That's why McCombs says sports owners sell. "If you lose your passion," he said.
He hadn't lost it in the '80s, when he sold the Denver Nuggets. He had no plans to sell until "a guy just flashed so much money in front of me I couldn't ignore him."
McCombs laughed. "I sold the team in a 10-minute phone conversation."
Doug Moe, then the coach of the Nuggets, didn't understand. "We're riding in an elevator to the ground floor," McCombs says, "and Doug calls me the dumbest man he'd ever met. He told me I was having fun, that we were going great, and I had enough money anyway."
McCombs says he was second-guessing himself before the elevator doors opened. "I still call selling the Nuggets the worst mistake I've ever made."
McCombs says he hasn't talked to Holt about selling, and he says he's never told him this story. But McCombs also says he doubts Holt has lost the passion, and tonight is a reason.
When Holt takes his seat across from the Spurs, on the cusp of another NBA Finals, why would he want this to end?
Web Posted: 05/28/2005 12:00 AM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA052805.1S.COL.BKNharvey.2b86ffbec.html
San Antonio Express-News
Red McCombs will pocket about $350 million in profit after last week, when the NFL officially approved the sale of the Vikings. So isn't it time for Peter Holt to cash in, too?
After all, Holt will take his seat tonight in a corner on the first row, across from the Spurs' bench, and he will see what every sports owner loves to see: Big-money players creating bigger-money revenue streams.
The Spurs have a 2-0 lead in the series, with Holt, the CEO of the franchise, leading by more. The investors have basically paid their share of the SBC Center already, buffeted by both luxury-tax benefits and one of the lowest payrolls in the league, and they have the prospect of many more home playoff games for years to come.
If selling high is the smart business move, this is high time, right?
"No," says McCombs. "It's not the way a sports owner thinks."
They may think alike, but they sure don't act the same. The Sonics' owner, in the previous series, jumped around so much on the sidelines in Game6 that a Seattle columnist wrote that his behavior "evoked a barefoot Yosemite Sam on a hot griddle."
The Suns' owner? He merely flapped his arms earlier in the season, calling the Spurs "chicken" for not playing Tim Duncan.
Holt instead stays in the background as he always has, and maybe that's partly because of events last year. Rehab can have that effect.
But whatever personal battles Holt has had, the Spurs haven't been one of them. Those in the organization say he's enjoying the franchise as much as he ever has, and for good reason.
How many owners have had this kind of run? Others lose money while firing coaches and getting stuck with the luxury tax; Holt oversees the most consistently successful team in the league.
The franchise has earned at least $10 million a season since 2003, and some think the totals are higher. Not even a pending lockout puts much of a dent in this business.
The clucking Suns owner, Robert Sarver, enjoys similar dollar-for-win success. According to one Web site, the Spurs have the 24th-highest payroll in the league, the Suns the 25th.
Among those who spend more: Nine lottery teams, including the Knicks with a payroll more than the Spurs and Suns combined.
But Sarver also bought the Suns last summer for $401 million, and it's typical franchise escalation. For example, when Charlotte got its first expansion team, in 1988, the franchise cost $32.5 million. The latest one went for about $300 million.
Each deal has its own financial variables, but this is clear: The Spurs as a product have never been more lucrative. Holt could sell today and perhaps get four or five times his initial investment.
And what happens if he waits? For one, the contracts of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili would escalate. And what happens if, for whatever reason, trips deep into the playoffs stop, and attendance sags?
McCombs waves off all of it. "My mind is running while I'm talking," he said Friday, "but I don't know of a single sports owner who looks at it that way. It's not speculative in a sense that they say, 'The market is right and it's time to get off the train.'"
McCombs got off the Vikings' train for a specific reason: Stadium issues. And Thursday, when he issued a statement to the media in Minnesota, he sounded like a man still with regrets.
"The league approval hit me with mixed emotions," McCombs wrote. "I should have been excited — after all I had pushed for some time to get a buyer — but rather than feeling excited I realized I was walking away from a lifelong dream — an empty feeling at best."
McCombs has always filled up that empty feeling with a lot of money, and he did when he sold the Spurs in 1993. That time, he says, the reason was about him.
"I got disappointed," he said. "I didn't think I could take the team to the championship. I couldn't get there, and I didn't know how, and I got disappointed in myself."
That's why McCombs says sports owners sell. "If you lose your passion," he said.
He hadn't lost it in the '80s, when he sold the Denver Nuggets. He had no plans to sell until "a guy just flashed so much money in front of me I couldn't ignore him."
McCombs laughed. "I sold the team in a 10-minute phone conversation."
Doug Moe, then the coach of the Nuggets, didn't understand. "We're riding in an elevator to the ground floor," McCombs says, "and Doug calls me the dumbest man he'd ever met. He told me I was having fun, that we were going great, and I had enough money anyway."
McCombs says he was second-guessing himself before the elevator doors opened. "I still call selling the Nuggets the worst mistake I've ever made."
McCombs says he hasn't talked to Holt about selling, and he says he's never told him this story. But McCombs also says he doubts Holt has lost the passion, and tonight is a reason.
When Holt takes his seat across from the Spurs, on the cusp of another NBA Finals, why would he want this to end?