As the awesome Lakers celebrate another NBA championship, it makes me wonder why the Clippers stay in L.A., where they are completely overshadowed to the point where they are practically considered a junior varsity team. I realize Los Angeles is a huge market, but how can they stay profitable with such a limited fan base?
How is their fan base limited? The Los Angeles area has approximately 412 billion people (an estimate, I would need to do some research to confirm). Even if the Lakers get first dibs on everything, there’s still more than enough leftovers to line Donald Sterling’s pockets.
They basically stick in the LA area because their quirky owner Donald Sterling likes it there. This article points out Sterling has been offered big money to move the franchise out of the area but refuses to sell.
The Lakers aren’t limiting their fan base. Sucking is limiting their fan base.
They have no fan base at all. When my family and I went to LA on vacation a few years back, we got Clippers tickets because Laker tickets were unaffordable (and neither the Kings or Ducks were playing at home during our time there). The place was quiet like a tomb.
I can only guess that being a member of the NBA is a decent stream of steady league-wide revenue and being not cared about locally means spending less due to not having to impress home town fans. Much of the overhead of maintaining the L.A. basketball venue is probably handled by the Lakers, though no doubt the Clippers have to kick in something. Sterling can sit back and watch the checks roll in, and the rest of the league is probably happy enough to have a doormat team that their fans can watch getting beaten. Win-win situation.
The Clippers weren’t a lot better when they were in San Diego (or Buffalo), and were drawing fewer than 5,000 fans per game during their later seasons there, so it’s not like having a market all to yourself gurantees success. By contrast, they’ve never averaged fewer than 16,000 per game during the last decade in L.A. Plus, I’m guessing that even a mediocre broadcast deal in L.A. is probably better than they could get in another city.
I’ve been listening to LA sports radio for years and this question constantly pops up. The reason that’s given constantly is that the owner, Donald Sterling, is not a basketball guy. He couldn’t care less whether he wins or loses, but he makes money off the Clippers. He’s cheap, he doesn’t spend on big-money free agents, but because there’s a lot of people who either hate the Lakers or can’t afford them, they buy Clipper tickets.
Since the team makes money for Sterling, it wouldn’t make sense for him to sell it. He’s like an evil genie; he deals and spends in dreams and promises, but the actual product is nothing like what you imagined it would be. Sure, the team has been cursed a lot. Injuries have devastated seasons and players and their reputation is a joke, but the bottom line is that it makes money for Sterling, that’s why he doesn’t move it or sell it.
For comparison, this is a table of ticket prices for all the times for 2007. Clippers are $32 less than the most expensive team, the Lakers, but still above the league average. This is why Sterling refuses to move or sell
Until Clipper fans force some accountability into Sterling, I feel they’ll forever be shafted in this city
Here’s a great piece about the history of the Clippers from a year ago.
The Buffalo Braves were title contenders in the 70’s, with Bob McAdoo, Adrian Dantley, and Ernie DiGregorio. But nobody cares and few remember.
Because that’s where all their stuff is.
Are there any actual Clippers fans? Or do they just sell tickets to (1) fans of the visiting team and (2) people who want to see NBA games but can’t afford Lakers tickets?
(Slightly more seriously, is there some geographical or social division that a Clippers owner who was serious about the team could exploit to create a fan-base for the Clippers, a la the north side/south side thing with the Chicago Cubs & White Sox?)
Not really. They play in the same freaking stadium, fer chrissakes!
Their existence is really a mystery to me. The team is dreadful. The attendance is dreadful. I am not even sure how the owner makes money with these mutts.
I was in LA back in April and we decided to watch the Clippers since there is little else to do on Easter Sunday. Called before the game and the guy said they had plenty of tickets.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up and there was a line halfway around the Staples Center to buy tickets. I thought that maybe the Clippers have finally started picking up some Lakers overflow. But no, the team had sent out Buy One Get One coupons. Ended up buying an $18 ticket and sat in a completely empty section. In fact, there wasn’t really anyone in the upper level at all.
I thought the Clippers might actually win since they were playing the Knicks. Nope.
The only answer I have as to why they don’t move is that no one else wants the shame of taking them.
My 3 point plan for turning the Clippers into an actual, honest-to-goodness NBA franchise.
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Force out Donald Sterling as owner. Nothing else matters until this happens.
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Move the team to Anaheim. The Angels and Dodgers and Ducks and Kings have the kind of Cubs/White Sox rivalry you’re talking about. It’s not an LA/LA thing though, it’s LA/Orange County. The Pond would love to have an NBA team, and OC fans would love to have another local team with which to root against LA, ala the Angels and Ducks.
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Change the team name, logos, colors and uniforms, and renounce the Clippers history in the same way the Browns did when they became the Baltimore Ravens.
A ton of OC people will still be Lakers fans, but the Clippers in Anaheim would immediately shake their well-deserved reputation as “that other team.” But none of this will happen until Sterling dies or is forced out. He simply doesn’t care about what’s right for the team, he just wants the money.
I wish I had the money to make this happen! I’d end up with a lot more money.
I’m with you on the need for the Clippers to move and have a name change, but the Browns to Ravens thing was a little more nuanced than that. As part of the lawsuit settlement over the Browns’ move, then owner Modell agreed to leave the name, records and colors in Cleveland. He agreed to do it because it didn’t really cost him any money to do so. The Browns’ history is a lot better than the Clippers’ and the Ravens didn’t really renounce it. I think the Ravens would’ve kept the Browns history if they could’ve.
If you’d have said the way the St. Louis Browns renounced the Browns’ name and history when they moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles you’d have been right on the money.
Well, that’s certainly more accurate but also seemed a lot more obscure; I just went with the most recent example.
It simply is not. Their attendance is fine. Since moving into the Staples Center their attendance has consistently been far more than enough to support an NBA team.
You can always get tickets, but that’s because the stadium holds 20,000 fans and they’ve usually only sold 17,000 of them. Unless you’re bringing 3000 of your best friends, there’s nothing unusual about the team having both acceptable attendance and available tickets.
That’s why they stay there. They sell lots of tickets and make lots of money. Why would Sterling move the team? What possible reason would he have to do such a thing?
My suggestions are Hollywood Stars/Knights/Blockbusters.
Bill simmons has talked about this a lot and it really boils down to two facts. The cl
Clippers are quite profitable the way things are currently arranged due to a sweethart deal in the Staples center ( they practically use it rent free ) and solid tickets sales boosted by high LA prices. Between some NBA junkie season ticket holders and LA transplants from other cities buying tickets they do pretty well, better than most small market teams. I believe the Clippers were one of the few teams that were profitable over the last couple of recession pinched seasons.
The second and probably more pertinent fact is that Donald Sterling loves being a big fish and being a celebrity. He’ll never leave LA because he is a pure LA guy in all it’s absurdity and his real estate business is there. And owning a NBA team is his entry into LA celebrity. Selling the team or moving the team would ruin everything he seems to hold dear. In say Seattle with the team he’d just be another rich guy. In LA without a NBA team he’d just be another rich guy. He wants people to know his name and come to his parties. The Clippers make money and more importantly they make him famous. He’ll never sell.