Shelly Sterling: I'm Accepting Offers this Week To Sell the Clippers

TMZ ^ | 5/27/2014

[iowamark]

Shelly Sterling will accept offers this week to buy the Los Angeles Clippers ... and a frontrunner is a group led by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ... TMZ Sports has learned.

We broke the story ... Shelly met with Ballmer Sunday at her Malibu home, and our sources say his group made "a very competitive offer."

Sources tell us .. Shelly and her lawyer Pierce O'Donnell have put the word out ... they'd like to make a deal THIS WEEK. We're also told NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is aware of what she's doing. O'Donnell would not comment but we're told Shelly and Silver have an open line of communication.

We're told there are several other potential buyers in which Shelly is interested, including:

-- Grant Hill Group (Hill is a former NBA star who teamed up with investment partners) -- Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners (a financial company based in Chicago) -- Patrick Soon-Shiong (surgeon turned multi-billionaire businessman) -- David Geffen and Larry Ellison

Our sources say Oprah Winfrey is no longer in the running.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Donald has turned full control of the team over to Shelly and she is privately negotiating with Silver to allow her to sell the team on her terms. The team could be worth upwards of $1.5 billion.

[DoodleDawg]

I wish he would have closed down the team and walk away from the entire group of morons.

Which would be the same as if he had piled well over half a billion dollars in a field and set fire to it. Where is the sense in that? At least he walks away with hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from his original investment.

[TexasCajun]

My bet is it won’t be a White owner, the NBA will press for a minority owner. ...just ‘cause.

[Ingtar]

He should have made them vote. It is my understanding that the involuntary sale voids much of the taxes.

[Seattle Conservative]

Interesting to me that Steve Ballmer was there. He and Chris Hansen were trying to buy the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle where they were going to build a new arena. My 1st thought was that he was going to try to move the Clippers to Seattle.

However, this story says that he wouldn’t move them:
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24572642/reports-shelly-sterling-met-with-steve-ballmer

And this story says that it would hurt Hansen’s chance of getting a team in Seattle:
http://seattletimes.com/html/nba/2023698382_ballmerandclippers26xml.html

[Resolute Conservative]

I have aaid that if I was 81 and had billions I would shut it down out of spite and pay out the contracts and smile into obscurity.

[grania]

I hope she makes as much money as is possible to make on the team

I also hope that she does so by not selling the team to anyone involved with manipulating for the forced sale.

[Fiji Hill]

Maybe Rush Limbaugh should offer to buy the team, but he’s a football guy.

[DoodleDawg]

I have aaid that if I was 81 and had billions I would shut it down out of spite and pay out the contracts and smile into obscurity.

That would work for maybe a game or two. The other owners immediately vote to terminate the ownership, the league takes control of the team, the season goes on, and when the team is sold then Sterling may or may not get the proceeds.

[DoodleDawg]

Only a fool (or politicians) is going to spend a billion dollars on something which is losing money.

Bad as they are the Clippers have never lost money. Sterling has generally had a rock-bottom payroll, he gets the Staples Center for next to nothing, he gets a cut of all the NBA revenue from TV and the like. He clears in excess of $10 million a year from the team.

[DoodleDawg]

He could do that. I don’t think the NBA could stop an owner from just shutting down the team.

Yeah they can. From the NBA Constitution: "The Membership of a Member or the interest of any Owner may be terminated by a vote of three fourths (3/4) of the Board of Governors if the Member or Owner shall do or suffer any of the following:(h) Disband its Team during the Season, dissolve its business, or cease its operation."

[driftdiver]

Only a fool would invest 1.5 billion to make 10 mil/yr.

[DoodleDawg]

Only a fool would invest 1.5 billion to make 10 mil/yr.

You ignore the appreciation in the team value. Sterling bought the Clippers for $12.5 million. Assuming for the sake of argument your $1.5 billion figure is accurate then he stands to make quite a profit from that investment. As will anyone who buys the team from him.

Besides, it isn't the money it's the status of being a pro sports team owner that is the real attraction. With the Clippers Sterling is a sports mogul. Without them he's a slumlord.