Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Simons Put Out For Sale Sign For Pacers?

From today's New York Post comes this item by Peter Vecsey speculating on the sale of the Pacers:

Pacers' CEO Donny Walsh isn't planning to retire after all. "I decided to stay home for a weekend to see if I could take doing nothing. I went stir crazy."

Melvin and Herb Simon, who are trying to sell the team, would love to see Walsh stay put. I don't see that happening. Larry Bird has been calling the shots for two seasons. It's hard enough to turn around a team without trying to do it by committee. Ask the Clippers and Bucks.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peter Vecsey is notoriously inaccurate. The Pacers are not for sale.

Anonymous said...

fire sale on an nba team at conseco. shocker that none of the local msm picked up this one.

good riddance. think of the savings it will mean for impd.

do you know anyone anymore who is a true pacers fan? i can't recall how many times this season i've heard of people trying to give away tickets with no takers.

Anonymous said...

The Pacers lose money. They've always lost money. However, given the financial markets as they are this is one asset the Simons don't needs any longer.
What was once a bright shiny toy is now worthless and broken.
Simon's are getting older and I look for this team to be sold before mid summer.
Franchise will remain here but the Simons are bailing. It's a smart business move.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the taxpayers can buy them, then Mitch can lease them out to a foreign investor, use the money to pay for Oil Can Stadium.

Anonymous said...

The Pacers "lose" money only in the whacked-out world of professional sports accounting.

The Simons paid about $20 mil for the team over 20 years ago. By many reasoned accounts, it's worth $320-400 mil now. Put that through your present-value function, and the Simons come out smelling like a rose.

Like they do on every one of their long-term investments.

Real Estate/Finance Basics: don't sell low. Sell high. The Pacers are worth less today becuase of their current problems. The Simons won't sell now.

More than anything else, it'd hurt their pride. And ego. Both of which are h-u-g-e.

Anonymous said...

Come on people they are not losing money due to the TV contract. They are just not making as much as they used to.

Anonymous said...

Pacer's worth over $300 million??!!
Rolling in the floor laughing my f.....g a.. off!
Get a clue. 90% of professional sports franchises are losers. They are nothing but trophys for wealthy owners who, like the Simons, invest in trophy mansions as well. It's an ego trip not a sound business decision.
The franchise is on th block for what they can get for it. If the Simons see a profit off their initial investment it's better than running heavily in the red for another 20 years, not in this economy.
If the Pacers were such a deal 20 years ago then there would have been buyers waiting in line when the franchise was going belly up. The Simons grabbed it because no one else was stupid enough to buy it.