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Once last spring and then today journalists made oblique references to the Cs owners' financial problems. The piece today -- I do not have the citation off-hand -- said that was part of Wyc's motivation to fine Big Baby. He needs the $$$.

Who knows how accurate these reports are. They do not seem to be categorically bogus and no one to my knowledge is denying them. We do know that Wyc and the co-owners were private equity hedge fund sort of guys, and that is a sector built on speculation that got clobbered unless they owned the federal government, like Goldman Sachs. I don't think Wyc got a direct bail-out. (Though the massive liquidity pumped into the economy has helped equity prices and that probably has inflated the value of his holdings.)

If true, this is very unfortunate, as the Cs as a team must certainly operate in the black, or darned close to it. If our owners were flush they would be in a position to take steps like buying future no. 1 picks that would be very helpful.

Hope there is no fire connected to this smoke. I wonder if it would kill our crack Boston sportswriters to actually look into this issue.

Marc Spears alluded to it, but the thought doesn't make sense as player fines are given to charity. In a radio interview yesterday Wyc said revenues are holding up really well. Owner Steve obviously isn't hurting as he can throw a fortune away on a senate campaign.

I mean, there could be some truth to it. This is a really rough economy but Spears offhand comment is not a smoking gun.

I thought the same thing when I read that article -on top of being very surprised. I thought, what jack ass is writing this bull heap?... and it was Marc Spears who I always thought was solid. You would think the Celtics would be doing very well with their success. Or maybe it's just a convenient time to convey they aren't doing well financially for the next couple of signings... CONSPIRACY!

These reports are not accurate.

I think maybe Wyc said something tongue-in-cheek about fining Baby because the team needs the money and Spears took it seriously.

There was a similar report by what I remember as a credible journalist in the spring to the effect that the Cs were one of the teams looking for credit from the NBA.

I hope very much this is all BS.

Gant wrote:Marc Spears alluded to it, but the thought doesn't make sense as player fines are given to charity. In a radio interview yesterday Wyc said revenues are holding up really well. Owner Steve obviously isn't hurting as he can throw a fortune away on a senate campaign.

I mean, there could be some truth to it. This is a really rough economy but Spears offhand comment is not a smoking gun.

If by spending a fortune on a senate campaign you mean spending a fortune on his one commercial that is constantly on TV during every commercial break, then yeah, I agree with you

I wish he'd stop spending his money on a campaign that he has no chance of winning and instead spend his money on the Celtics, but that's just my personal preference..

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody really knows how much money these owners have?

canman1971 wrote:Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody really knows how much money these owners have?

Um, because no one does!

I'm sure C's ownership won't be broke anytime soon. C's will continue to do well, have all sell out games and the merchandise will go through the roof. C's are good. Even the most wealthy men and women worry about their fortune. It's normal.

First thing on financial woes. The amount of money that the group has personally -- Wyc and Steve -- has nothing to do with the Celtics' operations.

Sure, they could at any time invest more of their personnel wealth in, but pretty much the Celtics are self suffucient.

They can choose to "invest" more money into the Celtics, but the more likely scenario is to take out a loan from a bank. When the credit crisis hit and the banks stopped lending, Boston had to tap the NBA's line of credit. They aren't in danger of losing money, more likely, to purchase the team they had to become highly leveraged (borrowed money to pay off Gaston). Because of the credit crisis, they probably weren't going to make good on loans they had to pay and needed the credit from the NBA for cash flow purposes.

This is millions upon millions of dollars. It isn't cash and carry.

If the Celts go bankrupt, owners will lose only the money they invested. It has nothing to do with how much they have personally.

On another note, these guys are stock people and they got killed this past spring in the stock market. It's come back, the Celts are sound.

elrod enchilada wrote:There was a similar report by what I remember as a credible journalist in the spring to the effect that the Cs were one of the teams looking for credit from the NBA.

I hope very much this is all BS.

It rubbed people the around the league the wrong way that Boston, whose ownership is a billionaires boys club literally there at least 2 dozen part owners all loaded, have a sold out arena and a huge payroll and were tapping into the leagues equity. I don't think it has anything to do with the franchise financially or Wyc personally, it had to do with the crippled credit markets around the world, teams were having trouble floating paper.

The team isn't about making money but it certainly isn't supposed to operate at a loss. Because of the Arena arrangement there will always be an equity issue.

Other teams are not carrying a 15th guy and other similar decisions to save money that isn't what is happening in Boston we spent all we could in FA.