Although the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers may have ended last season on a sour note, and the team's prospects for the coming one may be mixed, the team stands to be a financial winner for Philadelphia-based media giant Comcast. While the nation's largest cable TV company may have not officially put the team on the auction block, it already has as many as eight potential buyers, including three with local ties, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The team is expected to set a new high mark for NBA franchises even though Comcast probably won't include the team's home arena, the Wachovia Center, in the sale — evidently Comcast intends to hold on to the Flyers, who also call the stadium home. The Inquirer pegs the price around $450 million, which is $50 million more than the 2004 sale of the Phoenix Sun. However, the Phoenix deal not only involved the NBA franchise, but also the WNBA's Mercury and the Arena Football League's Arizona Rattlers. At any rate, the sale of the 76ers could be a win-win situation for Comcast because it stands to gain both in the short term and long run. In the short term, Comcast stands to make $450 million, but in the long run it gets a chance to unload the team during an expensive "rebuilding" period. The new owner will absorb the costs of signing new talent and dealing with the short-term financial pains of rebuilding the team. In the long run, a reinvigorated team means more interest from fans, and more interest in fans mean more viewers for Comcast's SportsNet Philadelphia, which has a long-term contract to air Sixers games.—Matthew Wurtzel
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