Ex-Bucks Owner Marc Lasry Predicts NBA Valuation Growth Will Cool Off

[RealGM Wiretap]

Marc Larry believes the valuation of NBA franchises will continue to increase in the future, but the rate of growth will decrease. Lasry and Wes Edens bought a total 50 percent stake in the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014 at a valuation of $550 million. In 2023, Lasry sold his take at a $3.5 billion valuation, which represents a 218 percent increase. 

“I don’t think you’re gonna have the growth that I had, where you paid a dollar and you got paid $8 ten years later,” Lasry told Front Office Sports in the latest episode of Portfolio Players.

Larry admitted that uncertainty around the future of Giannis Antetokounmpo with the Bucks played a role in his decision to sell.

“People always pay a premium for someone who’s a winner,” said Lasry.

Lasry predicts more modest increases in valuations moving forward as the NBA enters its new media rights deals.

“It’s not that it’s just going to stop,” said Lasry. “It can level off, it can go up 5%, it may go up 10%. I don’t think it’ll be going up 20% or 30%.”

Via Ben Horney/FrontOfficeSports

[njknicks]

Growth will flatten domestically - but will grow exponentially once NBA begins international expansion.

Overseas growth is where the future of the league will be, would not be surprised if one day a marquee player decides to join BAL for example with equity stake.

[CaHgO]

Growth will flatten domestically - but will grow exponentially once NBA begins international expansion.

Overseas growth is where the future of the league will be, would not be surprised if one day a marquee player decides to join BAL for example with equity stake.

It can't happen, at least not to the extent you are referring to (i.e. exponentially). In Europe THE sport is and will forever be football (not talking about American football, of course). That's where the interest is and where the huge money are.
In terms of basketball, the national championships vary in popularity depending on the country, but AT BEST are the second most-watched competition (and pretty much non-existent at worst), by a HUMONGOUS margin compared to football.
There is already a long-standing highly competitive continental competition - the EuroLeague. The national championships are not going away. A third basketball product, even if it has the support and/or NBA logo on it, will be too much saturation. Even if we say the EuroLeague will somehow merge with the NBA, the audience will still be the same as it is right now for the EuroLeague. None of the hundreds of millions of football fans are going to all of a sudden start watching basketball, just because it's now labeled NBA.

In South America the situation is the same, or actually even worse in terms of potential for basketball expanding in popularity. In those countries football is literally religion.

Middle-east - they mostly don't care about either of those sports, but still we are seeing huge money splashing and investment in football, especially from the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Asia... China will never care much about basketball, especially the part of the population who can pay for it. Same goes for India. So 2+ billion are left out immediately. The rest of the countries (except for Japan and Australia, and maybe the Philippines) either don't care at all or are too poor (or both).

So, you are only left with Africa. Granted, if I was an investor and I had to bet on it, that is where I would put my money. However, given the huge economical gap, this is a very, very long term investment and long shot.

[wegotthabeet]

Growth will flatten domestically - but will grow exponentially once NBA begins international expansion.

Overseas growth is where the future of the league will be, would not be surprised if one day a marquee player decides to join BAL for example with equity stake.

It can't happen, at least not to the extent you are referring to (i.e. exponentially). In Europe THE sport is and will forever be football (not talking about American football, of course). That's where the interest is and where the huge money are.
In terms of basketball, the national championships vary in popularity depending on the country, but AT BEST are the second most-watched competition (and pretty much non-existent at worst), by a HUMONGOUS margin compared to football.
There is already a long-standing highly competitive continental competition - the EuroLeague. The national championships are not going away. A third basketball product, even if it has the support and/or NBA logo on it, will be too much saturation. Even if we say the EuroLeague will somehow merge with the NBA, the audience will still be the same as it is right now for the EuroLeague. None of the hundreds of millions of football fans are going to all of a sudden start watching basketball, just because it's now labeled NBA.

In South America the situation is the same, or actually even worse in terms of potential for basketball expanding in popularity. In those countries football is literally religion.

Middle-east - they mostly don't care about either of those sports, but still we are seeing huge money splashing and investment in football, especially from the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Asia... China will never care much about basketball, especially the part of the population who can pay for it. Same goes for India. So 2+ billion are left out immediately. The rest of the countries (except for Japan and Australia, and maybe the Philippines) either don't care at all or are too poor (or both).

So, you are only left with Africa. Granted, if I was an investor and I had to bet on it, that is where I would put my money. However, given the huge economical gap, this is a very, very long term investment and long shot.

The whole point of expansion is to grow the popularity of the game in untapped markets, where there’s room for growth.

If your objective is to put teams in markets that have already been maximized then you would put every new NBA teams only major American markets.

They put a team in Toronto 30 years ago where there wasn’t much interest in the game and since it’s popularly has grown exponentially. The Raptors are as big as the Maple Leafs now which would have been inconceivable in 1995.

Also do you even understand how much revenue China generates for the NBA alone? Look into the China TV deal. And the games air at 7am Chinese time.