Old media expects Thunder management to sell teams

According to the veteran American media "Le Monde", the Thunder may be sold in the near future against the backdrop of rising NBA valuations. The specific schedule is unclear, as Thunders ownership may wait until their new $1 billion arena is built in 2028. The Thunder's current ownership group (led by Clay Bennett, all of which are local wealthy Oklahoma businessmen) has signed a strictly binding new arena agreement with Oklahoma City. The agreement contains extremely punitive exit clauses, with liquidated damages of $1 billion in the first five years and $850 million in the last five years, which is almost the most powerful guarantee to ensure that the team does not leave Oklahoma City for at least a decade.

Earlier this year, several institutions evaluated the value of the Thunder, and the results were that the Thunder could be sold for more than $3.5 billion. Given recent record deals by NBA teams, the Thunder are currently expected to value about $4 billion. This reflects the overall soaring value of NBA franchise.

After the Thunder won the championship, the management started a contract renewal campaign drastically. They invested huge sums of money to lock in the current lineup. The contracts of the three core players have exceeded 822 million, including Alexander for 4 years 285 million, Homgren for 5 years 250 million, and Jaylen Williams for 5 years 287 million.

After the contract renewal was completed, news came out in the league, and the Thunder were about to be sold next. Because of such a high contract renewal, no team could finally afford it. The NBA championships in the past seven years were won by seven teams, which also shows in one aspect that the current league operation is not going smoothly.

Compared with the Celtics' 6.1 billion, especially the Lakers' 10 billion sales value, the Thunder's 4 billion can better illustrate the helplessness of the small ball market!