Anyone heard of buytheclippers.com?

[PG3]

i saw a poster having it in his signature. I went to the site. go check it out for yourselves, its pretty funny. Theyre trying to get donations and enough money (like 400M) to buy the Clippers franchise and every one of us will have a say in the franchise's decisions. Im not advertising or anything. I didnt even donate. I just thought i shared something in the team page.

[deadstock_bM]

Lol wtf. That's so funny and ridiculous.

[PG3]

Lol wtf. That's so funny and ridiculous.

i know, right?

Odds are STRONGLY against them to get up to that much money. But hey, maybe the team will get better with us making the decisions? lol

[Sofia]

I thought it was a gag, but, unfortunately, apparently not...

So a bunch of randoms will become the new owners IF it as to be successful? Who gets the money when the team turns a profit? Sounds pretty stupid to me, and I would be questioning the legalities of it all too...

I notice it says monies from an unsuccessful purchase will be donated to NBA cares, minus operating expenses. I'd like to know their definition of "operating expenses". I also question why money would be deducted from credit cards for an unsuccessful bid, when the site claims it will not do so unless a contract has been drawn up for the purchase by the group.

[loflin3hree5ive]

According to Bill Simmons, Sterling was offered $1 billion for the Clippers and didn't sell. Not sure $400 mil from fans would do the trick but pretty cool idea nonetheless.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I was thinking about starting a topic like this but I guess someone already did. I do have to question that sites motives. Id they were that serious to buy the team at least put up how much they have gotten in donations so far. I was thinking that it would take AT LEAST $200 million to buy the team, but if Sterling refused for $1 billion there is no shot that that site will make the money to buy the team. I think it's a nice thought. I just won't be contributing.

[cinnamon]

I can't see this working --- even if we win the lottery we won't have enough to sway Sterling --- but it is a benchmark of how desperate some fans feel.

[donemilio21]

I thought about this very often. The idea of team being owned by the fans and not businessman.
The logic is actually pretty simple; however, its very unusual in professional sports in America.

If you are not familiar with how European Sports Clubs work ;
There are three types of clubs;
1- Clubs that owned by nobody, but governing board is elected by the members out of the members. For example, most German clubs and clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid; which are sport clubs that have soccer, basketball, handball and many more teams in different sports. (some clubs compete in 40 different sports like Besiktas of Turkey or Sparta Prague in Czech Republic). FC Barcelona have 110,000 members and elections are very important.
2-Clubs that are partially (no more than 49% ) owned by shareholders and shares are open to exchange by anyone in stock markets. However; the controlling share (51% or more) is not owned by anybody and controlled only by the members of the club.
3- the british soccer clubs and clubs like AC Milan which are owned and ruled by majority owners and the stocks could be bought by anybody; however at the end the majority owner elects the president and the board.


To impose a system like that to any American Sports team would basically take either a very serious fan organization (very unlikely IMO since in America fans are usually people who care about nachos and beer more than the team winning) , or a very rich die-hard fan who would buy the team and sell its share equally to thousands of fans with no re-sell clause. ( I can hear you laughing)


The team would be sold once Sterling dies and even then no fan organization can gather $400million. IMO its impossible.

[ltlpenny]

This is hilarious. Would be great if one day a bunch of fans can get together and buy a team to run it properly. It does say you can pledge money and you won't be charged unless they successfully buy the Clippers, but I wouldn't give money to random people.

[mkwest]

The Packers are a publicly owned team.

It's a nice fantasy, but I wouldn't really consider it. Sterling has a reputation that far precedes him. People make their jokes and cracks, but there are plenty of others who place morals on the lower end of the totem pole as well. Some of them get applauded for it, some don't. So if you want to talk about Karma, there are a lot of places to look than just him.

I'd love to have an owner that you could trust, count on and depend on, but that's not what we have. He has made strides in some areas, but severely lacks in others. The culture of this organization is what needs to be changed. That starts at the top. If you have someone who is cold, shrewd and calculating, those are the type of decisions that you are going to get. I would like to see more class and respect shown. Right now, a person is only seen as a means to an end. Regardless of how they performed their role, they should be shown respect. That hasn't happened in a lot of our recent personnel moves. On the flip side, if a new owner were to take over this team, it would have to be someone that would agree to keep them in Southern California. That is my main concern with having a new owner. I know that Sterling isn't going to move the team anywhere. I wouldn't want to imagine a Clay Bennett type character coming along and moving this franchise. So, even though I'm not that fond of Sterling, I'm not in a huge rush to see ownership change hands.

[Trueblood]

Keeping them in southern California is important as long as they don't stay at Staples where they are almost like a jv team with all the Laker banners hanging around.

A move to the Honda Center is what is needed abut unfortunately, Samueli might not pass the NBA vetting process due to lying to the court awhile back. That being said, someone else could buy them and work out a lease where it's beneficial to the Clips. Back in 2004, the old Honda Center ownership was willing to rent out to the Clips for free but Sterling didn't bite. I'm sure that a new owner would jump all over that deal if it's still on the table and if someone offered Sterling a good amount for the team, he would sell it now or would be wise to since he's so old.