Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Buying a baseball team like buying a house. A $650 million house. Where the residents complain in blogs. All the time.

Building on yesterday's Forbes report that the Astros aren't going to go for $650 million, Bernardo Fallas writes more words:


Scott Rosner, associate director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania:
“They don't go by the same metrics or many of the same methods. Really, the best way to think about how one would value a professional sports franchise is to compare it to a piece of art in the sense that ultimately it is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. There are ways to think about this, and one is to think about it in terms of real estate, where when we think of valuation of a piece of property, it is helpful to know what has been sold in that marketplace.”

The last teams to be sold, with their price:
Rangers: $500m+
Padres: Don't know for sure, but probably $500m+
Braves: $450m

Rosner:
Ultimately, (the team) is going to be worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.”

Yep. Drayton doesn't need the world to think the Astros are worth $650m. He needs one guy to think the Astros are worth $650m. (And then it would help if that one guy had $650m of disposable income.)