Posted by Mike Florio on May 29, 2014, 8:10 PM EDT
NFL owners have more reasons to smile tonight. Hundreds of million more reasons. If not billions.
Per multiple reports, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will buy the L.A. Clippers from Donald Sterling for $2 billion.
That’s Steve Ballmer. As in this Steve Ballmer. Paying $2 billion.
That’s not a bad return for Sterling, who bought the team in 1981 for $12.5 million.
It’s also nearly four times more than the previous record haul of $550 million for the Milwaukee Bucks, which were sold for $550 million. It’s also second only in all sports to the L.A. Dodgers, which were purchased most recently from Frank McCourt for $2.1 billion.
So what does that mean for NFL franchises? The estate of Ralph Wilson is about to find out.
Two years ago, Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns reportedly for $1.05 billion. Before that, Shad Khan purchased the Jaguars for $760 million.
If an NBA franchise can be worth $2 billion, what could an NFL team go for?
Surely, the Los Angeles location factored into the price. And that could prompt someone who owns or who wants to buy an NFL team to suddenly get serious about moving to L.A. If baseball and basketball teams playing there are worth more than $2 billion, what would an NFL team in L.A. be worth?
Three billion? Four billion? More?
Buffalo fans hopes that the estate of Ralph Wilson doesn’t find out.
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