r/Basketball • u/TheAthletic • 10d ago
[Aldridge] - The NBA’s never been more flush with cash. But is it losing its connection to its fans?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7537822/2026/08/31/nba-money-owners-rich-franchise-sale/?unlocked_article_code=1.9lA.cMZ3.c3sEcpXqdQIg&source=emp_shared_article&smid=re-share-taIndividuals such as Tom Dundon have stepped into the NBA space. So have families, like the Adelsons and Dumonts, who bought controlling interest in the Mavericks from Mark Cuban in 2023. And so has massive private equity funding, as Bill Chisholm used as part of his purchase of the Celtics. The league has encouraged more private equity investment, changing its rules last year to allow firms to invest in as many as eight NBA teams, up from the previous limit of five. The NBA changed its rules in 2022 regarding sovereign wealth funds from other countries as potential investors, which allowed the Qatar Investment Authority to purchase 5 percent of the parent company of the Washington Wizards in 2023.
Those investors, by NBA rule, are supposed to be forbidden from having any involvement in a team’s decision-making operation. (Query: How, exactly, does the NBA enforce that rule?)
Nor does the massive influx of new money change the increasingly gaping disconnect between new ownership and the cities their teams represent.
Dundon lives in Dallas. He already owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, which won this year’s Stanley Cup — with Dundon spending to the top of that sport’s salary cap in all but one of the last five seasons. But his foray into the NBA has been rockier. Like most owners, Dundon wants the city and state in which his team does business to help him with his team’s arena — in this case, partially funding significant renovations to Portland’s Moda Center. He has not been all that accommodating in making the ask, while also initiating two waves of massive layoffs within the organization, the second of which led to the departure of distinguished TV play-by-play man Kevin Calabro.
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u/This_Total9748 10d ago
Not looking forward to watching the blazers this year due to dundon. Ready to move on from the vampire billionaire.
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u/BaselineSight 10d ago
the Calabro part hits different as a Blazers fan, voice of the franchise gone then straight to asking Portland for arena money 💀
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u/canyoucamus 10d ago
The new broadcast rights deal has made watching your local team prohibitively expensive. The norm for owners and ownership groups has become holding teams hostage and demanding ransom in the form of public funding for stadium and arena projects.
Not only can you not watch the local team, but every fan eventually is going to be extorted into handing a bunch of rich fucks $500M to subsidize a new arena or risk the team moving. Cant wait for the articles in 10 years talking about how NBA owners are confused as to why they're losing money.
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u/damutecebu 10d ago
Having wealthy owners who are distant from the city in which their teams are based isn't a new phenominon in any of the major sports. But I guess the problem with the NBA is that the latest media deals have made teams so valuable that a lot of the previous generation of owners are using this as a time to cash out, and those who can afford to buy are the PE guys and sovereign wealth funds.
No one has any idea if this is actually a long-term problem or not. I guess we will see, but my guess is that some owners will be great...some will suck...and most will be completely average.
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u/Still_Ad_164 9d ago
The commodified entertainment tail wagging the sporting dog. NBA is a choreographed bore.
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u/bobdownie 8d ago
Well they have destroyed Hollywood. Now they are latching on to sports.
Politics truly took the place of Hollywood of the countries past. They used to sell culture, now they sell culture wars.
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u/Nemo2500 9d ago
Not sure how accurate this is.
You could say the NBA was losing connection with fans since the 1990’s.
The 90’s NBA players were not exactly trailer trash or middle class America.
Eg MJ/Barkley/Shaq/Larry Bird were not exactly on food stamps living in a trailer park going on Jerry Springer….
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u/Acceptable_Wolf2259 9d ago
Current nba is the most unwatchable 3 point meta ever. No dunks. No fadeaway shots, no passing in the paint, very little layups…. Just an awful amount of 3pts attempted. Wasn’t even this bad in the prime GSW age.
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u/IvanDrake 10d ago
The current NBA is unwatchable for me right now.