Goodbye

[BN 44]

Way to go and forever ruin the Fan Corrections segment!

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

Truth is no one really knows without getting the Teams audited financial Statements but they can easily spin either way in the media.

 

I think it is safe to say that the appreciation in the value of the franchise easily offsets any losses they have suffered.

Except the appreciation in the value of the franchise isn't realized until the team is sold, and the operating profits and losses occur annually.

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

No, it means that since the Magic refuse to make their books public, and their claims regarding the franchise's profitability are suspect at best, the smartest thing to do is to look for analogues. In this case, the simplest method is to look at other teams who have made comparable claims before their information was made public and to see how those claims held up to scrutiny.

 

And in most cases, the answer was "They didn't."

 

I'm happy to concede the point that I haven't actually seen the Magic's books, and that it's entirely possible that Alex Martins was being completely honest when he said that the team had an operating loss every year for a decade, including the Finals year I guess.

 

Of course, you would have to then concede that you haven't seen the Magic's books either, and that multiple other teams' who've claimed to have huge operating losses were later revealed to have varying profits.

 

So you know: Meh.

Was that an Uncle Bully coming from your keyboard?

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

Was that an Uncle Bully coming from your keyboard?

 

Huh?

[Emory889 353]

Huh?

 

I think he reached back into the 60s and is asking you if you said "uncle". He's got a lot of internet credibility tied up in this argument.

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

I think he reached back into the 60s and is asking you if you said "uncle". He's got a lot of internet credibility tied up in this argument.

 

Let's hope that was the case as the alternative is a little frightening.

[Franchise408 116]

I like this team.

 

Otis?

 

Problem here is that is doesn't matter what the few die-hard fans who frequent this board think. Sure, blast the OP for not being enough of a fan. But when you've lost 20% of your season ticket holders and 60% of your TV audience in just two years, the OP has a lot of company. I posted multiple times last summer, and got blasted for it on this board, that allowing ourselves to become this bad for a prolonged period of time is a risky strategy, and that as far as I was concerned, neither our coach nor our GM had yet earned the kind of credit they are being given here. I can only hope we get better soon, but I don't have any confidence that we will.

 

Same here, I don't have the confidence in this team being good anytime soon either.

 

so then what is keeping you guys from cheering for another team. I live in Orlando and will always be behind this team. You have no confidence that we will get better? This team has always been competitive . Always in the playoffs. We lose a dominant player and have to rebuild and now all of a sudden we have a few drafts and you want to jump ship. All because we did not draft a player with no heart (Wiggins) nor a player that was great against high school players. Get a grip on reality. The only players in this draft that were a sure thing are Parker and Embiid. They were both gone when it was our turn. Payton is 100 times the player that Exum will be on defense. It was going to be either Vonleh or Gordon and just a few months ago all the talk was of Wiggins, Parker, Randle and Gordon. Payton was the player that both Ford and Simmons considered the best player they had seen in all of the pre draft workouts for all of the teams. Everyone raved about him. Good riddance to you band wagoners. Love my Magic no matter what.

 

Why, in the minds of people like you, does frustration have to equate with wanting to root for a new team?

 

I don't want to root for a new team. I want to, and will continue to, root for the Orlando Magic. I've done so all my life, and I've been through a lot worse with this team than whatever is happening right now.

 

But I DON'T have the confidence that this team is moving in the right direction at present, and I don't have the confidence that we'll be good any time soon.

[nCoolness 79]

Santa Claus isn't real? Thanks for ruining Christmas, Mr. Scrooge.

 

You're welcome. Now to ruin you even more. The Easter bunny doesn't exist and Rudolph the red nose reindeer is a female (male reindeers lose their antler during the winter).

[JJZFL 619]

So?

 

I mean, seriously, so? The whole point of the last CBA go-round was to protect the owners from themselves, and they succeeded beyond what anyone thought they could. Nearly every team turned a profit, usually by at least 10m. Even the Magic made 12 million in profit in 2013, and that was a full year of being awful.

 

Temporarily losing fans for 2-4 years is meaningless.

 

Leaving aside the discussion about whether the team is profitable or not, I think the assumption that the fan loss is temporary is questionable, at best. As I've said before, this is not NY or LA or Boston, where support of their professional franchises is a given, no matter how bad they get. The rapid loss of TV audience and season ticket holders I mentioned in my earlier post emphasizes that point. Getting those casual fans back once they "tune out" the Magic won't be so easy, and will be more difficult the longer the Magic stay bad. In the meantime, sooner or later low levels of fan support have to impact on profitability.

[Catman 380]

Casual fans come flocking back when you win. It's a pattern that stands the test of time.

 

I had guys who hated basketball calling me up rabidly about how they dropped hundreds of $$s for Finals seats and could not wait to go.

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

Leaving aside the discussion about whether the team is profitable or not, I think the assumption that the fan loss is temporary is questionable, at best. As I've said before, this is not NY or LA or Boston, where support of their professional franchises is a given, no matter how bad they get. The rapid loss of TV audience and season ticket holders I mentioned in my earlier post emphasizes that point. Getting those casual fans back once they "tune out" the Magic won't be so easy, and will be more difficult the longer the Magic stay bad. In the meantime, sooner or later low levels of fan support have to impact on profitability.

 

 

You don't think the same thing happened in early 2000's as well? Fans are fickle and tv/ticket holder audience absolutely ebbs and flows with team success. Attendance as a percentage of capacity for 2014 was higher than 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005. In terms of average attendance it was also higher than 2002 and 2006 as well.

[Murphy13 185]

You don't think the same thing happened in early 2000's as well? Fans are fickle and tv/ticket holder audience absolutely ebbs and flows with team success. Attendance as a percentage of capacity for 2014 was higher than 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005. In terms of average attendance it was also higher than 2002 and 2006 as well.

 

The worst we did in the early 2000's was two years where we finished in fourth place, but were quite competitive and finished at or above .500 and had players people related to well. Attendance was low largely due to the small arena in place at the time mixed with non-contender status. We are in a completely different situation that can only be compared to the expansion years' era of futility-minus the draw of being a new franchise.