Do The Owners Of The Philadelphia 76ers Want To Flip The Franchise?

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Should the following report come to fruition, it would appear even the owners of the Philadelphia 76ers don’t “trust the process.”

Forbes.com is reporting team co-owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer are looking to flip their franchise with the hopes of landing the first London-based NFL team—if/when that happens. As the Forbes report states, “the two just became major investors in the Crystal Palace Football Club in London and their strategy is simple: According to a business associate of Blitzer, it’s to ‘get to know the market,’  as they get a footing in London and see how things operate there for their bid to land an NFL expansion team in London.”

An anonymous source told Forbes that Harris and Blitzer, who also own the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, are “more interested in getting the NFL in London than they are in the NBA. Their No. 1 goal is to get the NFL team in London. They want to flip the Sixers anyway.’’ The belief is if Harris-Blitzer do sell the Sixers, they could get upwards of $900 million. The timing of the sale could be tricky, seeing as the Sixers, a terribly young team, are years away from being any good.

The longstanding thought has been that the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the NFL’s first team to relocate overseas. Whether Harris and Blitzer would try to hop on that specific franchise or not isn’t clear. But it is worth pointing out that Harris’ official stance has been one of commitment to the Sixers:

Publicly, however, Harris has been very strong in his commitment to seeing things through with the Sixers, one of the worst teams in the NBA. He told the Philadelphia Daily News only two months ago: “I expect to be, and the ownership group expects to be, happily involved with the Philadelphia 76ers for many, many years to come. There’s not plans to sell it.’’

Whether you believe that is up to you.

(Via Forbes)

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