Devin Booker, No. 1 of the Phoenix Suns, shoots the ball against Dwight Powell, No. 7 of the Dallas Mavericks, in the second quarter of Game Six of the 2022 NBA Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals at American Airlines Center on May 12, 2022.
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Robert Sarver, who announced yesterday that he’s selling the Phoenix Suns, is telling those inquiring about buying the NBA team that he wants $4 billion (enterprise value), according to sources.
The sale price of one team does not necessarily reverberate across an entire league. But while the overall stock market fell 1.7% Wednesday—as did the prices of sports stocks such as English soccer team Manchester United (down 3.1%) and Atlanta Braves owner Liberty Media (down 1.9%)—shares of MSG Sports, which owns the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers, were up 0.6%. (Both the market and MSG Sports were down in early trading this morning.)
MSG Sports has an enterprise value of $3.8 billion ($3.6 billion equity plus net debt of $160 million). A year ago, Forbes valued the Knicks at $5.8 billion and the Rangers at $2 billion. Part of the discrepancy is due to who owns the teams. Under James Dolan and the Dolan family, the Knicks have one playoff appearance in the past nine seasons, and they last won an NBA championship when gasoline sold for 39 cents a gallon. That’s despite a loyal fan base and the advantages of playing in midtown Manhattan, adjacent to Madison Avenue and Wall Street. When bankers are asked about the spread between the value of the teams and the stock price, a gap that’s existed for years, they call it “the Jimmy Dolan 20% discount.”
Maybe Sarver gets his price, maybe he doesn’t—a year ago, Forbes valued the Suns at $1.8 billion. But investors seem to be saying that $4 billion, or ten times what Sarver paid for the Suns in 2004, is not out of the realm of possibility.
Christopher Marangi, co-chief investment officer at Gamco Investors, which owns some 635,000 shares of MSG Sports, reckons that a $4 billion sale price for the Suns implies a valuation for the Knicks of more than $6 billion. Markets like New York, of course, likely command a higher multiple than Phoenix. So it’s safe to say that should Dolan ever decide to part with the Knicks, given the Suns’ $4 billion scenario, he could get much more than $6 billion.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/09/22/how-robert-sarvers-asking-price-for-the-suns-likely-makes-the-knicks-jim-dolan-a-richer-man/