Raptors aren't losing money, according to report – Raptors Rapture

There appear to be a considerable number of NBA teams with serious financial issues plaguing them. The Raptors aren’t one of them.

If I were young, and a math nerd (for the record, I’m neither), I’d want to work for an NBA team. That way I could enjoy daily deep dives into some of the most complex calculations known to man. For example, I might get asked to calculate my team’s revenue-sharing contribution.

Consider the data from a recent report on this topic, as revealed by ESPN. The network received a confidential copy almost certainly sub rosa, and offers the highlights here.

Revenue-sharing, in principle, is a noble attempt by the NBA to keep everyone in business. Small-market franchises may do their best to remain competitive yet still lose money. They may suffer from a weak bums-in-seats base (Pistons were at 72.4% capacity last season), lousy local media revenue (the Lakers were paid $149 million; the Grizzlies $9.4M, for broadcasting rights), or both.

After all the numbers are crunched, some teams have to pony up, and the bottom-feeders are saved from financial ruin as a result.

There were many compelling points raised by ESPN’s review, but for me, the fact that five teams (including the Toronto Raptors) neither paid nor received any money boggles the mind. Clearly there must be a revenue-sharing threshold of plus or minus a couple of million into which the zero-sum teams finessed their numbers. I can’t imagine auditing these algorithms, or the raw data.

Raptors are well-off

Anyway, the Raptors aren’t in the slightest trouble financially. Many of you may not remember this, but it was only a few years ago that NBA contraction was a thing. Toronto was on many lists as a contraction candidate, and in the bleak post-Vince years there was a lot of despair surrounding our team. Vancouver lost its team prior to the 2001-02 season – would the NBA bail on Canada entirely? Many of us were nervous, but not anymore.

The Raptors aren’t yet a model franchise, but they are certainly light-years ahead of where they were 10 or even 5 seasons ago. Team leadership hasn’t bothered lately to trot out the woe-is-us argument about generating revenue in Canadian dollars and paying it out in American.

Financial issues may be affecting the thought processes of decision-makers in cities like Sacramento and Orlando. However our brains trust need worry solely about making sound basketball decisions.