http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=15022Pistons For Sale? Could the Detroit Pistons be on the way out of the Davidson family? According to Chris McCosky of the Detroit News the answer is yes. Karen Davidson, who inherited the Pistons and Palace Sports Entertainment from her late husband, William, is reportedly thinking about selling them both. The process is in the very early, fact finding stage according to McCosky, with his sources indicating there has been a conversation with NBA commissioner David Stern to see just how one goes about selling the team. Should Davidson decide to sell the Pistons, there may not exactly be a plethora of buyers. Detroit is still trying to recover from the economic downturn and no longer fills The Palace every night, which is quite a trend change from their long string of consecutive sellouts that ended last year.
Should Davidson decide to sell the Pistons, there may not exactly be a plethora of buyers. Detroit is still trying to recover from the economic downturn and no longer fills The Palace every night, which is quite a trend change from their long string of consecutive sellouts that ended last year. Further complicating the issue is the Charlotte Bobcats are also looking for a new owner. Supposedly the bidding came down to groups led by Michael Jordan and George Postolos, but no sale has been announced. The Washington Wizards, after the death of owner Abe Pollin, are expected to be sold to Ted Leonsis. The Golden State Warriors, should they go up for sale, are supposedly being drooled over by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. The New Jersey Nets were just sold to Mikhail Prokhorov (pending league approval, which is expected). Michael Heisley explored selling the Memphis Grizzlies last year but found the market simply didn't exist, and has since committed to a three-year plan to find success in Memphis (and so far, so good). There were rumors the Miami HEAT could be for sale, but owner Mickey Arison wants to turn it over to his kids – it's the minority investors would love to cash out, but in a better market.
The Sacramento Kings look like they have finally gotten over the hump with regards to a new stadium and were never really being rumored as being for sale (more talk of moving if anything), and the New Orleans Hornets are a name that always comes up when selling franchises is discussed. What are we getting at here? The people (or groups of people) that can spend the $350-400 million average price to buy a NBA franchise aren't exactly plentiful, and there seems to be other franchises available at this moment. The Pistons were actually valued by Forbes at $479 million in the most recent set of their annual valuations, the fourth-most expensive franchise in the league.Selling the franchise may be no small feat itself, because finding a buyer with that much to spend who wants to buy a NBA franchise isn't going to be easy.
