<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Five finalists vying to buy the 76ers from Comcast Spectacor, including two with local ties, have been selected, according to sources. The number likely will be reduced to two within the next month, with a winner possibly emerging by the end of the calendar year, pending NBA approval, the sources said. A source said that a group including Julius Erving, the Hall of Fame forward and former 76er, had put in a bid, and that Erving's group was a finalist. That group, according to a second source, includes Will Smith, the entertainer and native Philadelphian. Another source indicated that Ian Berg and Wayne Kimmel, two of the managing directors of ETF Venture Funds, a King of Prussia-based venture capital fund that specializes in funding technology and health-care companies, remained in the bidding. Kimmel declined to comment yesterday. The remaining finalists were not revealed. It was not known whether a group headed by Mitchell Morgan, head of Morgan Properties, a King of Prussia-based apartment ownership and management company, was still among those bidding for the team. A source indicated yesterday that the winning bid for the team likely would exceed the NBA record of $401 million paid by businessman Robert Sarver to buy the Phoenix Suns, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, and the Arena Football League's Arizona Rattlers from Jerry Colangelo in 2004. The NBA has expressed confidence that the final price for the 76ers will be as high as $450 million. Neither the Wachovia Center, where the 76ers play, nor the Flyers, the building's NHL tenants, are part of the proposed sale. The majority of the Sixers' games would continue to be televised on Comcast SportsNet. Eight groups initially submitted bids to Galatioto Sports Partners, the sports investment firm handling the proposed sale for Comcast. Over the last six weeks, those groups submitted financial information and met with Comcast officials, who have repeatedly declined to comment on the proposed sale other than to issue a news release from Comcast Spectacor chairman Ed Snider in August. Each of the five remaining groups, according to a source, is capable of closing the sale on its own. The sale almost certainly will include a revised lease with Comcast that would give the buyer a better share of the revenue generated by ticket and suite sales, concessions and parking. </div> Link
I'm liking this Will Smith/Julius Erving ownership group. Two people who are respected figures in Philadelphia. They would be committed tobuild a winner...
<div class="quote_poster">Best Kept Secret Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I'm liking this Will Smith/Julius Erving ownership group. Two people who are respected figures in Philadelphia. They would be committed tobuild a winner...</div> Agreed. Like you said, two respected figures in Philadelphia, who'd be committed to building a winner.
