Bob Johnson selling the Bobcats?

Sorenson dropped this little nugget in his latest column:

I hope he does, but only because I see the Bobcats having a dismal future in Charlotte otherwise. My gf and I went to the Open House a couple of weeks ago, the way they treated us was amazing. We got a one-on-one (two) tour of the arena, including the players locker room, the training room, rehab room, and the locker room of the 'inner circle.' It was great, even got a free Bobcat t-shirt and a few min to take shots on the court.

The most shocking part was how few people were at this 'Open House/Ticket Drive.' As someone who grew up in Charlotte and remembers the thousands of people that used to cram the Hive during Fan Day, it's just hard to imagine how far the NBA has fallen in this town. I know how/why it all happened, it's just shocking how little the Bobcats even register.

Perhaps a new owner would help, it certainly couldn't hurt. I only worry that a new owner would be even more inclined to move the franchise (Bob obviously can't afford to do that.)

 

I hope so. It's obvious BJ and MJ cannot run an NBA team. They need to GO. Now.

 

But will Charlotte support a new owner? And who would buy in this type of economic climate? Who knows how this will all influence professional sports but it will impact it at some point.

 

Who would buy the Bobcats, even if Bob wanted to sell them?

 

There is always some rich guy out there willing to shell out $$$ so he can get his face in the news for being a "team owner".

 

Thanks for building that shiny new areana. Bye

 

I wonder if Bob would even get his $300 mil 'expansion fee' back, with the way the team lease is structured. The value of the team has to be lower than it was day 1 when they still had the hope of the new arena drawing fans.

So, the Bobcats are likely a bargain (unless Charlotte is permanently soured on them,) but are they so devalued that Bob would be crazy to sell?

I wonder if he has any options.

 

According to Forbes, the team is valued at $287 million, so there's pretty much no chance that he'll make his money back. I'd say that if the economic times were different, he wouldn't have much of a problem getting out, but in these times I don't think he has very many options.

Whoever buys the team pretty much has to keep them in Charlotte or spend millions fighting the city trying to leave. Given the current climate for the team and the short term prospects for that situation improving, I don't think anyone would come forward to buy them.

So in short, I think Bob's pretty much stuck with them for a while unless he's willing to take a financial bath.

 

I could see Jordan trying to put together a consortium to buy them. You could never rule out McColl or Bruton either. If Humpy could lead a team, I'd bet that they could make it work out.

 

here is a video from this week with Bob and Cuban. BJ says the team is like "beachfront property".I could totally see him wanting to sell this team at some point . he also calls Sean May "Scott May". what a fuckin idiot.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=c32d676a-3905-4ce2-a425-0eb02ae3aa35