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Franchises

Devils' Blitzer Talks Franchise Values In Wake Of Clippers Sale, Addresses Team's Debt

Devils co-Owner David Blitzer called Steve Ballmer's reported $2B purchase price for the Clippers "a bit of an outlier, but not so much so," according to John Brennan of the Bergen RECORD. Blitzer: "If you had asked me four months ago ... what I thought the Clippers were worth, I probably would have told you, ‘a billion 2 or a billion 3′. And people would have thought I was crazy for saying that. Then given the dynamics that played out, I felt like it would go for a billion 5. I thought there would be a little bit of a premium for someone coming in and ‘saving the team’ in their own way. So by definition, 2 billion is more than I thought they’d got for but not shockingly so. Part of that is that market." He said of Ballmer's bid, "So you do something you’re super-excited about on a personal basis, you’re sort of saving the team in the 2nd-largest market in the country in a sense, and you have a passion behind it. And this is a small part of his net worth, and it’s actually going to be quite a cash-generative business. It’s not crazy." Blitzer added, "Do I think a hockey team will ever trade for $2 billion? Sure I do. But you can name the teams that will be at $2 billion at some point in time." Meanwhile, Blitzer said that he "may see the NFL as in the fully-grown phase." He said, "I’m not looking to make a pro football investment. It’s massively expensive, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a great investment." Blitzer also said that the Devils' well-publicized debt "has been restructured." Blitzer: "We’re not going to make money this year, let’s be clear. Our view is to get it to the right place, and we do believe we can get to the profitable side of the equation" (NORTHJERSEY.com, 8/18).

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