Even in the hey days of "Boom Baby!" and the rise from mediocrity of "your" Pacers, the Simon family, who own the franchise, claimed never to show a profit on operations of the team. When the team joined the NBA from the old American Basketball Association, there was a price to be paid. Specifically $3.2 million---by today's standards, a relatively modest sum, even for non-billionaire sports franchise owners (if there are any)---and denial, for several years, of a share of the NBA's TV package. Still, once Reggie had the team rolling, the stands in MSA and the later fieldhouse (whatever its name this particular year) were full for many games. With the fieldhouse, the Pacers saw the need for rent fall by the wayside---and they receive virtually all the income from basketball and non-basketball events in their new home.

   In this set of circumstances, even a George W. Bush (who lost money in Texas with the Major League Rangers) could turn a profit. The Simons still have claimed they show no profit.

   Recently, there have been reports that part of the TV income of the Pacers (and San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey Nets/now Brooklyn) was paid, all those years, to the former owners of the St. Louis Spirits of the ABA. Remember them? Ozzie and Danny Silna have received one-seventh of the TV income for each year the former ABA teams have been with the NBA. That goes back to 1976. They had to be "bought out" with what tuned out to be a contract with a provision for payment to them "in perpetuity" of a percentage of any proceeds from "visual Media" of the NBA. The payment has fallen largely on the former ABA teams. Back then the NBA was not a "big" thing. The NBA finals were shown often on tape-delay. The operation was so cheap an average taxpayer could afford a ticket to a Pacers game, buy a couple of beers, and not have to take out a second mortgage on the person's home.

   In fairness to the Silnas---whose team played in three different cities in nine years and managed only two winning seasons---tried to get the NBA to buy them out for $8 million in 1982. The NBA would have none of that. Now the NBA broadcasts on network TV, cable and internationally. The Silnas have made hundreds of millions of dollars. So the extremely business-savvy NBA---man, what brilliant guys they are!---wants to buy the Silnas out for $500 million. Word has it, the NBA wants those former ABA teams---and that would include "your" Indiana Pacers---to pay the lion's share.

   Unforeseeable events sometimes cause businesses to lose money. The Studebaker family tried to transition from wagons to motor vehicles. Some factories that produced kerosene lamps were caught off-guard by the electric light bulb. And here we have two guys who wanted $8 million 30 years ago demanding $500 million for the same thing.

   This probably has been the hole in the metaphorical pocket from which the Simons' profits from the operations of the Pacers dropped. The "buyout" will further impact the fragile operations of a business model based on monopoly and heavily-subsidized by taxpayers. Please do not be surprised if the CIB demands more money from the Simon family. After all, what did you think taxes were for? Taxes are for billionaire sports franchise owners, not for streets, police, schools and other frivolous matters.