A few months back, the owners of the Boston Celtics put the NBA team on the market. The reason given was due to estate issues, which I interpret to mean family members want their money out.
So, what is the team worth? A lot of pundits place the value at between $5 and $6 billion. To me, that sounds light, any buyer interested in the team should come up with $8 billion. My thinking is pretty simple, the price paid must blow competing bids out of the way.
Then, the highest price paid for an NBA team thus far is $4 billion paid for the Phoenix Suns. Think about this, the Suns have never won a championship, while the Celtics have won more than anyone else. The Celtics must be worth double the Suns.
The Boston Celtics are an iconic brand worldwide, known by everyone and are instantly recognisable.
Reading the linked article: https://www.sportico.com/leagues/basketball/2024/boston-celtics-sale-document-basketball-business-1234821085/ I find they do not own their stadium. Any future owner should calculate the cost of building a new stadium, and thus control the revenue stream that stadium would bring in. EBITDA is quite low at 6% of total revenue, and ticket sales are the biggest single source of revenue. This is consistent with the very traditional form of professional sports teams, and that is ticket sales pay player salaries. Profit is derived from all other sources of income, but that's just the traditional old-school model. Just looking at this alone, it appears the Celtics are run in quite an old fashioned way.
At $8 billion, the Boston Celtics are a good buy.
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