How much is the Detroit Pistons’ franchise worth?

Tom Gores bought the Detroit Pistons in 2011 for $325 million, a relative bargain by today’s standards.

Buying an NBA team is fashionable for billionaires, many of whom like rubbing elbows with famous people, but it also happens to be a great investment, as increased TV revenue and popularity overseas has caused NBA franchise values to skyrocket in recent years.

So if you are looking for a safe investment that will allow you to watch loads of free basketball from courtside seats, occasionally throw out a T-shirt to the peasants and get to meet lots of famous ex-basketball players, might I suggest buying an NBA team?

The best part of owning an NBA team is that the value is likely to go up whether you win or not, just ask Tom Gores, who has watched his investment increase without winning a single playoff game.

How much are the Detroit Pistons worth?

The Detroit Pistons have been the worst (or close) team in the NBA since Tom Gores took over more than a decade ago.

But it hasn’t affected his bank account, as the team is worth an estimated $1.82 billion according to Sportico.

So all of this losing didn’t matter, as the Pistons are more than five times as valuable as they were when Gores took over. It’s hard to imagine a job where a person could have less success and still get filthy rich from it, so like I said, owning an NBA team is a great gig if you can get it.

The Detroit Pistons are just the 25th most-valuable franchise even though they have won three titles, behind other mid-market teams like the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks, franchises that have not had as much success historically.

The top spots are held by the Golden State Warriors ($7.56 billion), New York Knicks ($6.58 billion), Los Angeles Lakers ($6.44 billion) and Chicago Bulls ($4.09 billion), which has to make Jerry Reinsdorf smile, as the Bulls have been about as bad as the Pistons in recent years.

The Knicks and Lakers will always be at or near the top, but it will be interesting to see what happens with Golden State once the Stephen Curry era is over, as they were one of the bottom feeders value-wise before he showed up.

For a team that has had the kind of success Detroit has had over the years and has diehard fans, they should really be higher on this list, but that will only happen when they start hanging banners in the rafters again.