Duck Tape- Thoughts That Stick in My Empty Head

I saw an article late last week that was centered around a deal that the NBA made with the owners of the St. Louis Spirits of the old ABA. The deal was struck in 1976 when the NBA refused to allow the Spirits to enter the league, instead opting for the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers, and Spurs. As part of the deal the Silna brothers, owners of the Spirits, would receive 1/7 of the four teams TV revenue... forever!

Of course this was before the Bird/Johnson rivalry of the '80s, which caused the TV revenues to explode. Although the Silnas haven't sold a ticket in over 35 years, they have received approximately $255 million from the NBA since the deal was made. Not a bad payoff for not being invited to the party!

The play by play man for the Spirits?

A young Bob Costas

From Wikipedia;

 The Spirits were not included in the merger, but the Silna brothers nonetheless managed to turn it into one of the greatest deals in the history of professional sports. In June 1976 the remaining ABA owners agreed, in return for the Spirits folding, to pay the St. Louis owners $2.2 million in cash up front in addition to a 1/7 share of the four remaining teams' television revenues in perpetuity. As the NBA's popularity exploded in 1980s and 1990s, the league's television rights were sold to CBS and then NBC and additional deals were struck with the TNT and TBS cable networks; league television revenue soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Over the past 30-plus years, the Silnas have collected over $200 million from the NBA, despite the fact that the Spirits never played an NBA game.

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