Chinese Group Buys Stake In NBA Team

wsj.com:

ORLANDO -- The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed an agreement with an investment group from China to become minority owners of the NBA franchise and its arena, a partnership that could affect superstar LeBron James' future with the team.

The Asian conglomerate, which includes JianHua Huang, a Chinese businessman who has brokered sponsorship deals with the New York Yankees and other sports franchises in the U.S., could acquire up to 15% of Cavaliers Operating Company, the entity that owns the team and operates Quicken Loans Arena.

Read the whole story: wsj.com

Comments

[lvdragonlady]

So now anyone that goes to one of their games is actually give money to China. hmmmmm so instead of supporting an America icon(NBA) we are support China.....­.........g­ee what a great idea(not).

[christimarie]

I suggest they hold their games in China. I will always root for the other team as long as they play in the USA. I hope they come in last, last, last. This is truly disgusting.

[inorbit]

This will give the franchise the dough it needs to get some better players for Lebron to work with. His current team mates are not pulling their weight in the Orlando series.

[lvdragonlady]

WHY are we allowing foreign countries to buy into America?
The NBA is OURS and it should be supported here in America and NOT by foreign countries.

[HarryParatestis]

when we were kids, we used to joke about a Chinese fire drill....b­ut it looks like we are about to have a Chinese fire sale!!!

[ams23]

I guess everything is for sale even us

[GerryS]

BOHICA-

[Phillup Textfield]

does anyone get the feeling that all professional sports are every bit as rigged and contrived as pro-wrestling?

for the last 3 years, nike has been pushing LeBon mania on the pacific rim, and they are finally getting some major dollar commitments, the very same playoff year which is building a LeBron vs. Kobe championship (allegorically, the struggling old-steel old-indust­rial/manuf­acturing Midwest vs. the gaudy, debauched dream-machine of hollywood).

pro-sports has been imanently political ever since Ali, and the muzzling of Vietnam War dissent from baseball stars after the strike.

now the entire arch of a team's success has more to do with the motions of global finance, then any actual athleticism taking place on the court/field.

working class america really does have nothing.

[EminemsRevenge]

We can use this interdependency to put North Korea in check and wipe out the Iran/Afghanistan "threat"..­.Orwell GAVE us the blueprint to run the world...mi­ght as well run with it!

[master09]

Within 10 years we went from the richest most powerful country in the world to now we have to sell off pass time, does this mean we have nothing left ? yes, and it aint over yet because all the millionaires are moving to china , see ya america

[corezz]

Is anyone really surprised by this move? I mean America has been selling out to anything..­.just look at their rediculously named stadiums like the Quicken Loans Center (wtf? does Loans have anything to do with my team being down 2 with 10 secs to go). America the brave and the souless. It's business as usual and i am a dinosaur in a flash-bang laser show park.

Kelly - http://www.stockcoupons.com/

[LiberalBuzz]

OH wow,can you see the Shanghai Cavs?

The Beijing Dodgers?

The Nanking Lakers?

Give 'em enough money and owners will sell their own mothers. Selling NBA teams to China? No prob.

[MuchMadness]

The NBA has been in steep decline for nearly ten years. The league has very few stars that it can use to market its product to casual fans. TV ratings are down. The quality of play is not as good as it was twenty or thirty years ago.

Sounds like the Chinese investors made a poor decision.

[larry278]

On the other hand, the Chinese investors may have opened a wedge which could be used to move the Cavs to a Chinese city. Cleveland, the mistake on a lake, is in the rust belt, a city of deserted houses & going nowhere fast. The NBA could allow the Cavs to move to China.
MLB could be watching this. If MLB allowed foreign investors to buy into a failing franchise, say in a smaller city, they could allow the foreign investors to move the clubs to a more solvent location in a foreign land. Ah, Baseball comes to the Orient, would be the Sporting News headline.
Senor Slim buys into a troubled MLB franchise & Mexico City get the team.
The Lords of MLB would like that.

[Grannysue]

Oh hell why not, they own everything else!

[MuchMadness]

Not really. They are just really good at using forced labor and peasant labor to produce low quality goods at a much cheaper price than nations with respectable political systems can achieve.
Japan and South Korea, both democracies, manufacture good automobile and high tech consumer electronics. China, by contrast, specializes in waffle irons and socks.

[Abdiel Lawrence]

LOL, you see, I knew taking Chinese my senior year of college was going to pay-off sooner rather than later. For all of you stupid Repubs who chant that "county first" bullsh*t..­....where was country first when Bush went to the Chinese like a crackhead looking for fix so that he could borrown billions upon billions for the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan? Jim Rogers is right....Y­OU BETTER TELL YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS TO LEARN CHINESE!!!!!!!

[w8aminute]

Funny how everyone is up in arms over the Cavs/China venture, but no one cares about I.B.M. and their Chinese deals. Try commenting under the "Smarter Planet" essay (also in the business section) from it's CEO. After all, how many people in Cleveland will lose their jobs? Not 10,000 that were lost from i.b.m. this year. Are the Cavs seeking any stimulus funds? Such a double standard.