Owners of professional sports teams could see the value of their franchises increase due to a single sentence in a wide-ranging piece of export-tax legislation that is now before Congress, according to The New York Times.
According to The Times, the benefit to pro sports franchises is contained in a very small part of a huge bill that was originally introduced to help settle a trade dispute with the European Union. However, the legislation has become filled with add-ons that include the likes of tobacco farmers and Oldsmobile dealers.
The proposed new legislation will essentially allow the owners of pro sports teams to write off the value of their franchises over 15 years. Existing law limits teams to writing off only the value of player contracts over three to five years. Television and radio contracts would become the biggest items subject to the expanded write-offs.
The benefits would reportedly apply to newly acquired assets. So, owners could make more money, and command higher prices when they sell too.
The New York Jets, for example, were worth an estimated $635 million when they were sold in 2000. And the newspaper says the team could be worth an additional $55 million under the new proposal.
It should be noted the bill has been approved by both houses and is expected to go before a conference committee to resolve the differences. The final version could go before both houses when Congress returns from vacation in September.
