Fans at the recent Sixers Jazz game at Xfinity Mobile Arena were apparently threatened with ejection if they continued to chant “Sell the Team” during the broadcast. For some reason, ownership was not happy to hear the suggestion that they receive a huge profit on their now 15-year-old investment. Considering the recent trade of Jared McCain was done because Josh Harris (net worth $11b) and David Blitzer (net worth $4b) were strapped for cash and could not spare the roughly $5m it would have cost to keep him, this was peculiar.
Things have hit a fever pitch for Sixers ownership. Previously they tanked for years,1 hired multiple Colangelos, threatened to move the team to NJ, nearly demolished a Philly neighborhood, and ditched the tax for years, but recent events have been a bridge too far. It’s not just the tax dodging McCain trade either. Along with the release of the Epstein files, the longtime partner of owner Josh Harris (Leon Black) has been implicated as one of the vilest humans alive. Harris himself is mentioned as well and goddamnit what are we doing here?
Anyway, it’s pretty clear that Josh Harris and company aren’t here for the basketball considering the McCain trade was simply the easiest way to avoid losing a single extra penny in the team. These guys come from the world of leveraged buyouts and private equity. Hell, they learned at the foot of one of history’s great financial fraudsters in Michael Milkin. They are only about the dollars and cents. Making money is the game and owning a sports franchise is a great way to do it. Let’s play this process out a bit.
The Sixers were sold by Comcast in 2011 to what became Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) during an NBA work stoppage for $280m. They are now worth $5.45b! It’s been flying up in value too, more than doubling in six years. Recent sales of the Boston Celtics and LA Lakers shot the market up considerably. With long time owners of those historic teams cashing out, it is possible that HBSE might get out while the market is hot.
Is the team ripe for a sale though? Unfortunately, not quite. Two big events are about to happen that will delay any possible sale and cause the value of the Sixers as an asset to increase even further: the new WNBA team and the new arena. While technically, they are separate, they represent HBSE’s full investment in the Philly basketball scene and are essentially a package deal.
HBSE just bought into the WNBA for $250m. This was a 4-5x spike from the previous expansion prices in the league. Even better for them, the team doesn’t start until 2030. Why is this good? Because they basically got a 4-year headstart on valuation. Before they play a single game, the team will probably double in value at the very least. That’s a sweetheart deal.
Then there’s the stadium situation. The Sixers held the city hostage for almost 2 years declaring their intention to move the team to NJ if they didn’t get a new arena because they didn’t own their own. This is a huge asset in the valuation of a team. In the end, it was apparently only a ruse to get the Flyers to GIVE them part of their arena. I don’t know what the hell happened, but after a $400m renovation to XMA, there will now be another arena built right next to it basically to make the Sixers happy. With this new project will come even more of a business and entertainment presence than what is currently offered by Whateveritscallednow LIVE! HBSE will have its hands all over that. The plan is to have this new arena opened in time for the WNBA, but considering there aren’t even real plans yet, I seriously doubt it will be done in 4 years.
The worst part of this whole stadium debacle is that in the end, HBSE WILL probably sell their stake soon after the place opens when they offload their whole Philly portfolio. They didn’t want a new arena for basketball reasons obviously, they wanted to sell it. Their stadium stake will probably be worth close to a $1b by the time it opens.
I hate to say it guys, Josh Harris and company aren’t even going to consider selling before 2031. As much as we care about the on-court product, they simply do not. This is a business and business is good win or lose.
Valuations from Forbes
- I’m pro-Process, but it certainly wasn’t popular ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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