A massively lucrative deal was cut to fold that team during the ABA and NBA merger. However, the Silnas were more visionary than their partners in the deal. But they were also about to start talks with their network partners on the next round of rights fees, which would be their biggest bonanza yet. In 1974, Ozzie Silna and his younger brother, Daniel, bought the failing Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association for about $1 million, and moved the team to St. Louis. The Ozzie Silna page is structured better and is easier to read. On the other hand, the Silnas collected $800 million for doing literally nothing. From 1977 to 2014, the NBA took in about $15 billion in national TV money from increasingly lucrative contracts with the networks. "Logic was that you take six of the seven A.B.A. At the time, it seemed like an irrelevant concession by the league. Brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna were already successful businessmen who made their fortune with polyester products before moving the ABA’s Carolina Cougars franchise to St. Louis and building their unusual partnership with the NBA. Ozzie Silna began his professional career in the textile industry, and built a polyester empire in the 60s and early 70s. The total intake of Ozzie and Daniel Silna from the deal was $300 million. With the NBA growing to 30 teams, the 4/7 formula resulted in payments equivalent to … Even if they operated an NBA team and it appreciated in value, they wouldn’t have been able to leverage the full value without selling the franchise. The ABA had sprung up in 1967 as a scrappy challenger to the National Basketball Association (NBA). After making a fortune in the textile business, in the early 1970s Ozzie and Daniel Silna attempted to purchase the Detroit Pistons for $5 million, but their offer was rejected. Brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna made a fortune as pioneers in […] The 1980s Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” was about a couple of working stiffs commenting on the music industry. Ozzie and Daniel Silna owned a basketball team called the St. Louis Spirits, in the old American Basketball Association (ABA). The NBA is currently engaged in settlement talks with Ozzie and Daniel Silna to end a contract that has long been described as "the greatest sports … With the help of lawyer Donald Schupak, the Silna brothers hammered out a two-part deal with NBA owners. Ozzie Silna, who devised a plan that brought him and his brother more than $750 million in television money from the National Basketball Association without owning a … Opinion for Harry Weltman v. Ozzie Silna, Daniel Silna, Donald Schupak, Spirits of St. Louis Basketball Club,..., 879 F.2d 425 — Brought to you by Free Law Project, a non-profit dedicated to creating high quality open legal information. The Silna brothers made $800 million from the NBA by agreeing to make the Spirits of St. Louis of the ABA disappear. This year, the Pacers will send Ozzie and Daniel Silna almost $5 million. Per their agreement with the NBA, that earned $300 million for the Silnas. While he didn't believe he pulled off the greatest deal in the history of American sports, Ozzie Silna did concede in 2006 to knowing that back in the '70s, the NBA's TV deal was vastly undervalued. First, some context is important. Multimillionaire Ozzie Silna, one of the architects of arguably the best sports deal ever negotiated 40 years ago this summer during his co-ownership of a … The NBA in 1976 was a far cry from the behemoth it is today. Sign in to disable ALL ads. ". The Times calculates that the brothers collected about $750 million since the merger, an amount that has consistently grown mightily through investments. At the time the deal was made, national TV was an afterthought for the NBA. By taking the merger deal, they faced none of the headaches of operating a pro franchise, including player contract negotiations and building new arenas. "We saw some room for growth there," he said. "Ozzie and his brother Dan owned the St. Louis Spirits at a time when the ABA's future was uncertain, but he loved the game and was determined to be part of professional basketball. RELATED: Why Was the 3-Point Line Created in the NBA? Information from ESPN's Darren Rovell, Chris Broussard and The Associated Press was used in this report. The agreement resulted in the Silnas dropping a lawsuit they filed in federal district court against the league and the teams in hopes of collecting on new revenue streams, like NBA League Pass and foreign TV deals, which obviously were not envisioned in the original agreement. Although $800 million is a lofty amount, it’s not close to the $2 billion that Steve Ballmer paid Donald Sterling for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 or the value of other NBA franchises. In addition, they insisted on a share of the money from the NBA’s national TV rights, taking one-seventh of each of the four ex-ABA teams’ shares. The N.B.A. Silna's younger brother and Spirits of St. Louis co-owner Daniel Silna told The Associated Press that his brother's funeral was held Thursday. That foresight proved to be brilliant. All in all, they reaped a great return on their original $1 million investment in the Carolina Cougars. In 1974, brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna, Latvian immigrants who were the owners of a thriving New Jersey textile company, purchased the Carolina Cougars, a team in the American Basketball Association (ABA), for $1 million. His family said he died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. This includes $500 million the brothers received in 2014 as part of a deal the NBA and the four teams reached to minimize future financial exposure ahead of the nine-year, $24 billion TV deal announced later that year by investing in the Spirits' entity in exchange for an accelerated up-front payment. Both of these men are only notable for their ownership of the Spirits of St. Louis basketball team, and there is duplicate information on these two pages. When the ABA merged with the NBA after the 1975-76 season, the Silnas agreed to dissolve their team in exchange for a small percentage of the NBA's future broadcast revenue. The NBA and ABA agreed to a merger in 1970, only to be derailed by an antitrust challenge from players, whose salaries were being boosted by the competition between the leagues. 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