Private equity just bought the Lakers

Last month, the NBA basketball team, Los Angeles Lakers, were sold for twelve point five billion dollars to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and a venture capital/private equity group called Thrive Capital, led by Josh Kushner. Yeah, Jared Kushner's brother. And they're pitching investors by telling them they'll triple the Lakers valuation within ten years and double annual revenue. How, you might ask?

Come on, you know the private equity playbook. They'll do it by almost doubling ticket prices and through operating cost efficiencies.

In order to allow the sale, the NBA actually changed the rules around allowing private equity firms and their executives to both own stakes in the team.

And here's the crazy part. Ten years ago, zero teams were owned by private equity. Today, twenty are. And in those past ten seasons, NBA ticket prices have risen by fifty percent, and that's because private equity was banned from buying teams back then.

But now, tickets continue to become more expensive. Local TV deals and streaming packages do too. The sports we love are changing before our eyes, and they're changing the rules to make it possible.