Miami Heat Nearing TV Deal Worth $80 to $100 Million a Year

According to Forbes, the Miami Heat are about to become considerably richer, thanks to a new local television deal: “Sources familiar with the negotiations, but who do not have permission to speak about them publicly, peg the value of the long-term deal between $80 million to $100 a a year with Fox Sports Florida. Although the Heat’s new deal will only be about half the amount the Los Angeles Lakers are going to get from Time Warner Cable, it will still generate at least over four times the revenue the team currently rakes in. […] In February, SportsBusiness Journal reported that the Heat were averaging a 6.49 rating, second in the NBA behind the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers, however, whose television market is 3.5 times bigger than Miami’s, were averaging 258,000 households per game, tops in the league and more than double the Heat’s household average. […] The television windfall would pad the net worth of the Heat’s billionaire owner, Micky Arison, who paid $32 million for the team in 1988. In January we valued the Heat at $457 million, sixth-most in the NBA and $443 million less than the league-leading Lakers. The Heat’s new television deal would close about one-quarter of that gap.”