2016-17 Running NBA Thread

On the plus side, it successfully distracted people from the fact that they finally earned a win after losing two straight regular season games for the first time in three years

 

I've covered several high school games where I wish they had done this.

 

I don't think Charles Dolan agrees with not leaving a franchise to children.

 

Tonight finally may be the night that the Pelicans win a game with Boogie.

 

If it really gets to him that much, other teams should maybe do it. Is it really that much of a problem. Like Starman said to Dumpf, "Suck it up buttercup." No problem intentionally kneeing/hitting guys in the groin, but not playing music is a big no no.

 

Why did the Knicks turn off the music, though? Did their whole A/V team moon Dolan and quit right before tipoff?

 

Read the message on the jumbotron.

 

I did. It sounds like bullshit.

 

What's the reason? To make D Green angry?

 

I don't know. That's what I'm asking. With the Knicks, there's always a reason other than the reason.

 

Veeck actually wrote (well, co-wrote with Ed Linn) three books, "VAIW" and "The Hustler's Handbook," a nearly direct sequel (and sometimes rehash) to "Wreck," and "Thirty Tons A Day," primarily concerning his tenure operating Suffolk Downs racetrack (the title having to do with the volume of horse shit produced each day at the track).

Both in "Wreck" and "Hustler's Handbook," Veeck detailed his bids to purchase various franchises, including the Indians, St. Louis Browns, and both stints with the White Sox. Also included were his aborted bids to buy the Phillies in the early 40s and the Detroit Tigers in the 50s. Almost all these transactions were related to some kind of death/inheritance situation concerning the franchise in which the heirs of the previous owner were forced to sell. Veeck's own sale of the Indians in 1949, a year after one of the greatest box-office successes ever, in fact, was forced by his then-impending divorce.

"Handbook" goes into great detail on the 1964 sale of the Yankees to CBS, while Veeck was not in on that deal as an active bidder, he was certainly kept up on all the details, which was one of the first purchases of an MLB franchise by a mega-corporation.

The first, in fact, had been the purchase of the Cardinals by Anheuser-Busch in 1952, a move that doomed Veeck's operation of the St. Louis Browns. This whole sequence was detailed in "Wreck."

Essentially Veeck had bought the Browns by assembling a syndicate of investors, which was previously the usual method of buying sports franchises, with he himself controlling a plurality of the shares. The syndicates were limited to the money the investors could raise as individuals and the assets of the franchise itself. Veeck's syndicate which bought the Browns was operating pretty close to the bone and the franchise itself wasn't rolling in dough (in fact, it was in debt up to its eyeballs).

When Cardinals owner Sam Breadon sold out to Gussie Busch as primary stockholder in Anheuser-Busch and its multi-hundred million bankroll, Veeck's chances to out-operate and starve out the Cardinals ( quite a long-shot in the first place) went right out the window. Within minutes of the news of the Cardinals sale Veeck was on the phone trying to maneuver the Browns' move to Milwaukee, their eventual destination Baltimore, or (briefly) Los Angeles.

Both "Wreck" and "Hustler's Handbook," originally published in 1961 and 1965, were later reissued in the late Seventies/early Eighties when Veeck's re-purchase of the White Sox pushed him back in the public eye, both with updated epilogue chapters that made them effectively new books. The reissue of "Wreck" went into the Messersmith decision that created modern free agency and effectively priced the operation of MLB franchises out of the range of investor syndicates such as Veeck had usually operated with, and exclusively into the realm of corporations.

And the bottom line, indeed, is that leaving sports franchises as inheritances more often than not completely blows up on the heirs.

 

The other reason Veeck sold so quickly was that the big tax benefits of owning a franchise stop after five years. Let's say I buy a baseball team for 600 million. I can assign a value of 300 million to the players contracts and amortize the the 300 million over five years. So if my franchise has an income of 60 million a year pre-tax the first five years which I can write the amortization off against the profits. In year six that benefit expires and I have to pay taxes on that profit. Veeck said in one of his books that he played the Star-Spangled banner before games so he so no need to pay taxes.

When Veeck bought the Indians he played a few games a year at the predecessor to Municipal Stadium, which in the 40's was a crown jewel of stadiums, as leverage in lease negotiations with the county. So the city put in a clause requiring the Indians to play all their games in Municipal Stadium. That clause made its way into the Browns lease and is the reason the NFL had to give Cleveland a new franchise. The lease had a couple more years to run and the county was quite prepared to make Modell stay and play his games in front of sparse crowds.