As everyone in the NBA waits to see how much the Atlanta Hawks will sell for --with some suggesting the number could go as high at $1 billion-- Sports Business Journal reports on how the Nets negotiations with YES could be a factor, perhaps a big, factor in the Nets valuations.
Daniel Kaplan reports...
Part of the value of the Nets is that club’s ability to soon renegotiate its RSN (regional sports network) deal with YES Network. The Sacramento Kings, for example, secured an extension earlier this year with NBC Sports Group worth an average of $35 million a year over the next two decades, a lucrative sum for a team that plays in the country’s 20th-biggest designated market area. The Nets are currently at $25 million a year playing in the nation’s No. 1 market.
According to someone familiar with the negotiations, that number is actually closer to $23 million and the Nets would like to see it considerably higher. The source noted that the Nets could potentially add more revenue from an increase in a renegotiated local TV rights deal than it will from an increase in the national TV package set to go into effect in 2016-17. In the national deal, each team will get $89 million annually. That's up from $31 million in the current deal.
The Nets would also like YES, now controlled by FOX, to give Nets games more and better promotion, said the source. Although Nets ratings on YES jumped dramatically with their move to Brooklyn, they dropped 20 percent last season and are only about one-third what the Knicks get on MSG.
As for current state of affairs, Kaplan writes that Bruce Ratner failed in his first attempt to get a billion dollar valuation for his 20 percent holdings in the Nets but that he wants to try again. Various media, including SBJ, report that Ratner is also willing to sell part of his 55 percent holdings in Barclays Center, but not give up control. Will Ratner succeed? Kaplan thinks an Atlanta sale at a high price would help.
- Team valuations reflect hot market - Daniel Kaplan - Sports Business Journal