Who wants to buy an NBA team? The Atlanta Hawks are now officially up for sale.
Agreements between all three of the Hawks ownership groups have been reached to sell all of their stakes in the team. The NBA has approved thos agreements. Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and Inner Circle Sports will handle the sale of the team. It is estimated that the Hawks could sell for more than $600 million, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Hawks will officially be on the market next week.
“At this time, the team is not commenting of the report of the sale of the franchise,” Hawks vice president of public relations Garin Narain said.
In September Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson announced that he was selling his stake in the team after the discovery of a racial email that he sent to Hawks executives. In the email Levenson said that fans at Hawks games were too black and that African-Americans made up the majority of fans at the games.
“My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant (sic) season ticket base,” Levenson wrote in the email.
Levenson didn’t have a problem with black players in the league and said that he wanted a more diverse fan base. He apologized to fans in a letter.
"I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans)," Levenson said in the letter, according to Sporting News. "By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans. I have said repeatedly that the NBA should have zero tolerance for racism, and I strongly believe that to be true. That is why I voluntarily reported my inappropriate e-mail to the NBA. After much long and difficult contemplation, I have decided that it is in the best interests of the team, the Atlanta community, and the NBA to sell my controlling interest in the Hawks franchise."
There are several people who have expressed interest in buying the team. Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins and a group of former NBA players, including Chris Webber, have reported interest in the Hawks, Sports Illustrated notes.