Warning—what you’re about to read is purely speculation at this point. The fact that the man speculating happens to be ESPN/Grantland.com’s Bill Simmons, however, makes it a bit more interesting, because Simmons is pretty connected in NBA circles. So no, there’s no actual news here, but what the heck, when you’re a region without a team, what’s the harm in a little speculation in a blog post, right?
Anyway, during a video segment previewing the Milwaukee Bucks’ season, Simmons had an interesting conspiracy theory. The way he sees it, it would be in the NBA’s best financial interest to eventually have the Bucks end up in Seattle.
You can watch what Simmons has to say in the video below, starting at the 10-minute mark, but basically his argument goes like this:
The Bucks were sold earlier this year for $550 million. Part of that sale was the agreement that there would be a new arena built to replace the BMO Harris Bradley Center, and if one isn’t built by 2017, the agreement allows the NBA to buy the team back from the new ownership group for $575 million. As of this week, the team and the city still haven’t even settled on a location for the arena.
Not long after that sale of the Bucks, the L.A. Clippers sold for a whopping $2 billion. And while nobody expects a team outside of L.A. or New York to be worth that much, that sale of the Clippers, as well as the big boost of revenue the league is going to get from its new TV deal, have inflated the value of franchises across the league.
And this is where the conspiracy theory comes into play. If you’re in a position of power in the NBA, why not do everything you can to keep the Bucks from getting that arena? Unlike when then-commissioner David Stern was a huge advocate for the Sacramento Kings in that team’s push for a new arena, would it make more sense for the NBA to work behind the scenes against the Bucks? Because if Milwaukee doesn’t get the arena, the league could buy the team back for what is now a well-below-market-value price and flip it for a big profit. Seattle has an owner waiting in the form of Chris Hansen, several of the steps to building a new arena are already done, and as Simons speculates, the NBA could stand to profit somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 billion in this hypothetical scenario.
“It’s in their vested interest for Milwaukee not to have an arena,” Simmons speculates.
But it’s not like the NBA would ignore 40-plus years of history and just rip a franchise away from a loyal fanbase over something like a new arena or money, right? Oh wait…
So yes, as unfortunate as Simmons’ conspiracy theory would be for Milwaukee, it’s not that hard to envision a scenario in which the league jumps at a chance to make a quick billion. This will be a story worth watching, however as the Sacramento Kings saga taught us, don’t get your hopes up until something is actually done.
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