Robert Sarver is about to make a killing on the Phoenix Suns.
Last week, the NBA suspended Sarver for a year and fined him $10 million as a result of a league investigation that found he had committed racist and misogynist conduct that violated workplace standards.
Sarver, who owns about 35% of the Suns, announced today that he plans to sell the team, which he purchased in 2004 for $401 million. The Suns will likely fetch at least $2.5 billion, according to sports bankers contacted by Forbes. A year ago, Forbes valued the Suns at $1.8 billion, 18th out of the league’s 30 teams.
At roughly eight times 2021-22 revenue, a price of $2.5 billion might seem too rich. It would give the Suns the second-highest sale price in NBA history, behind the $3.2 billion Joe Tsai paid for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019. But think about this: Last month, the Utah Jazz were valued at $2.4 billion in a minority-interest sale—nine times revenue.
True, the Jazz own Vivint Arena while the city of Phoenix owns the Suns’ Footprint Center. But the Suns control the master lease to their recently renovated arena, which means they control the economics. In addition, the Phoenix metro market has 5 million people; Salt Lake City has just 1.2 million.
Another winner in the sale will be private-equity firm Dyal HomeCourt Partners, which acquired a less-than-5% stake in the Suns in July 2021. The deal placed a minority-discount valuation of $1.55 billion on the team and a controlling-interest valuation of about $1.8 billion. The $1.55 billion minority-interest deal with Dyal and the Suns was priced back before the end of 2020 even though it was announced in July 2021.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/09/21/sarvers-phoenix-suns—-will-be-sold-for-at-least-25-billion-bankers-say/