Gone Fishin’

While the House of Klynveld is enjoying their town hall circa now, we’ll share you the latest scoop from Deadspin, who has published the audited (courtesy of KPMG) financial statements of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets.

We’ve skimmed the financials, noting some interesting items here:

• In 2009, the franchise paid $115,000 for their audit, an additional $10,000 for “accounting issues” and $35,000 for tax compliance services.

• The team has a partners’ deficit of over $80 million thanks, in part to $111.5 million in long-term debt at June 30, 2009.

• The team did have operating income of over $5.8 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009, however, paying nearly $9 million in interest (among other things) swung them to a much narrower net income of $1.8 million.

• Net cash from operating activities were a negative $7.4 million for the FYE June 30, 2008 but improved to a negative $1.5 million for FYE June 30, 2009. The team’s cash balance at June 30, 2009 was a mere $650k.

• George Shinn, the team’s owner, owes the franchise approximately $5 million from “various advances” but has also loaned the team over $8.3 million.

• The franchise has various investment associated with the NBA that have negative equity including: NBA Joint Venture; WNBA Holdings, LLC; NBDL Holdings, LLC

• The team has principal payments of approximately $115 million coming due through 2014.

• Guaranteed contracts to players through the 2013-2014 season amount to $247.5 million.

• “Revenue assistance” from the NBA (team is eligible if it has both an actual loss and a pro forma loss) for the FYE June 30, 2009 was $3.4 million.

Whew! So as you can see, the franchise isn’t in the best of shape. Our analysis is just a scratch on the surface so if you’ve got some time, crunch some numbers and share your findings with the group below.

Earlier:
Who Leaked the MLB Financial Statements?