As some of you may know, Forbes releases an annual report regarding the financial state of NBA teams. The 2011 figures have been released, and the Nets don’t look too bad. The franchise value is listed at $312 million, which is only 21st in the NBA, but their value has increased by 16% in just one year. The only team with a better percentage increase? The Miami Heat, at 17%. It looks like adding two superstars just barely exceeds adding one Prokhorov.
(Side note: Imagine if the Nets had signed those three players and added Prokhorov. The franchise might be worth $1 billion already.)
These cool charts by Dan Feldman over at Piston Powered illustrates the economic difference in visual form.
Some other figures of note: The Nets, who have had a negative operating income (defined as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) since 2002, cut that deficit from $14 million to $10 million in the past year. The Nets have cut their player costs but also lost revenue, and are actually last in the NBA in generated revenue and first in debt/value (which isn’t good). Still, most of the debt is attributable to both the post-Ratner era and the Barclays Center, and as Prokhorov eats through that debt I think those numbers will be trending upwards over the next few years.
