🤑 How To Make $800 Million on Basketball Team Which Played 0 Matches in NBA?

💸One of The Most Successful And Strange Deals in the Sports Industry History

🏀 When the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged with the NBA in 1976, four teams joined the NBA: the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. Kentucky Colonels did not enter the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, their owners received a settlement of $3 million from the NBA.

🤝 However, the Spirits of St. Louis, another ABA team, was left out.
Instead of accepting a one-time payout, the team's owners, Ozzie and Daniel Silna, negotiated a remarkable deal.

📺 The Silna brothers secured a percentage of the NBA's television revenue—specifically, 1/7 of what the four ABA teams joining the NBA would receive. At the time, NBA TV contracts were relatively small, making the deal seem minor. However, as the NBA's popularity soared, the value of its TV contracts exploded, turning the Silnas' agreement into a financial windfall.

💰 Between 1976 and 2014, the Silnas reportedly earned around $300 million without having a team in the NBA. Finally, in 2014, the NBA bought out the Silnas' TV revenue rights for $500 million, ending one of the most extraordinary deals in sports history.

📸: Getty Images

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