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The Indiana Pacers have lost a staggering amount of money, according to a team executive.

"Almost every year [Mel and Herb Simon] have owned the team, they've lost money. The cumulative losses probably approach something in the neighborhood of $200 million," said Pacers Sports and Entertainment President Jim Morris.

wow that is a lot

I think this means Pacers need to step it up soon before owners start to pull a circuit city.

That's not a positive sign.

I'm worried, because relocation and things like happen are happening these days. However, that $200M has been "over the life" of their ownership. Every team is losing money now, well most, it's a result of the fact that everyone else is as well.

They have owned the team for how long? I really dont know. 25 years? Thats really not tooo bad. Almost all owners of any professional sports team lose money. Its not a business you get into if you want to make money. Its the prestige of it all. I dont think we need to worry about relocation. We have a beautiful, state of the art arena, the owners have shown a great commitment to the community, and their business is headquartered here.

cdash wrote:They have owned the team for how long? I really dont know. 25 years? Thats really not tooo bad. Almost all owners of any professional sports team lose money. Its not a business you get into if you want to make money. Its the prestige of it all. I dont think we need to worry about relocation. We have a beautiful, state of the art arena, the owners have shown a great commitment to the community, and their business is headquartered here.

not to mention indiana is the basketball capital of the world....indiana = basketball, people from indiana live and breathe basketball, dr. james naismith himself said "basketball was born in illinois, but its home remains in indiana" or something like that i dont remember the exact quote....

in 49 states its just basketball......but this is indiana....

It doesn't look to be this recent years.
Forbes says that since 2000, they lost $19M (last three years) but they also earned $27M between 2000 and 2005. 1999 shows a loss of $19M in one year, so it could mainly be in the previous seasons.

And don't forget that the two owners (worth 1.6 and 2.8 billions) bought the Pacers for only $11M in 1983. The team value is now more than $300M.

If it's 200mil over the life of their ownership, that's really not that bad. Indiana is the basketball capital of the world, and it's hard to imagine not having a team here... but still we can't be having all the empty seats we are this year.

We could've paid for most of A-Rods contract with that money!

how have the simons lost 200 million?.. they bought the franchise in 1983 for 11 million, now it is worth 303 million. I think the simons are doing fine

D21 wrote:It doesn't look to be this recent years.
Forbes says that since 2000, they lost $19M (last three years) but they also earned $27M between 2000 and 2005. 1999 shows a loss of $19M in one year, so it could mainly be in the previous seasons.

And don't forget that the two owners (worth 1.6 and 2.8 billions) bought the Pacers for only $11M in 1983. The team value is now more than $300M.

There's really no way to accurately gauge how much a team has made or lost unless you own the team.

You can take the same revenue and costs and show a paper loss of $5M or a $5M profit with perfectly reasonable accounting methods on an NBA franchise.

Forbes is just a rough estimate.

Edit: And since the value of the franchise has grown considerably, they can take out loans against the value of the franchise to pay for losses, so the money isn't all out of pocket.

Its true we have lost alot of money the last couple years (thanks alot Detroit) but I dont think there is any reason to fear relocation. Times are tough now for everyone and as stated above people dont own teams to make money, they do it because they love the sport/city. You add in the fact that we have one of the best sporting arenas in the world and you have no reason to relocate.

+100 Buckeye-NBAFan

A team can show just about anything to prove it is losing money. I bet if a franchise were up for sale, the books would look entirely differently. The numbers they are using I guarantee does not include the bundle the Simons are making by having a mall within walking distance of Conseco.

The Simons have known for quite some time what they are generating in revenue. If they continually overspend, it is not the city of Indianapolis fault. They already have the best arena in basketball despite not being new. Get spending under control.

This is why I was screaming that guys like Jermaine O'Neal should have been traded years ago with long contracts in tow.