Elon Musk faces a major problem if he wants to buy a sports team

Syndication: USA TODAYElon Musk has more money than just about anyone on the planet. He’s poured it into rockets, electric cars, social media, and politics. One thing he hasn’t bought is a sports team. And according to two people who know how those deals actually get done, there’s a good reason for that.While Musk might have a lot of money, the unfortunate truth for him is that money alone is not good enough to buy a sports team. He would also need approval from the other owners in the league.‘He wouldn’t do well in an owner’s room’The topic came up on the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, featuring former Marlins president David Samson and former ESPN president John Skipper. Torre said Skipper had raised the possibility that Musk could one day become a sports owner. Samson didn’t think Musk would stop at one team.“I don’t think he’d buy a team. I think he would just buy every team, just buy the league,” Samson said. “He wouldn’t do well in an owner’s room. Frankly, I don’t think he’d get 23 votes to buy a team. But if he went in, you know, at a couple hundred billion for the entire league, I think people would have to think about it.”That 23-vote threshold is a reference to MLB, where a new owner needs approval from 75 percent of the league’s 30 owners. The NFL and NBA have similar three-quarters requirements.Skipper, however, pitched a different approach, given Musk’s vast wealth.“Given the amount of money he has, he could do all kinds of punk tricks with that,” Skipper said. “‘I’m offering $25 billion. Baseball teams line up, basketball teams line up, and tell me why I should spend that on your club.’ It’s the Elon Musk club.”However, that doesn’t exactly solve the original problem of his lack of popularity.“No, it wouldn’t work because again, he wouldn’t get the votes,” Samson said. “I think it’s a different conversation, which is I’m giving everybody 4x what anyone will give and I just feel like taking the league private, if you will, and owning every team. But there’s a bunch of people in position to do that. It’s not surprising to me that Bezos hasn’t bought a team yet. Why would you be bothered? Think about why Michael Rubin divested himself of the Sixers. It’s way easier to do business not owning a team than it is to do business owning a team.”‘More important to keep Ken Paxton in office’Torre wondered why Musk wouldn’t want to own something that’s actually popular with the public. Skipper had a theory about where Musk’s priorities are.“More important to keep Ken Paxton in office than to own a basketball team,” Skipper said.Skipper’s jab references Musk’s massive spending in the Texas Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico, which will be decided on Tuesday. According to The Texas Tribune, Musk gave $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s main super PAC, which used the money to fund pro-Paxton ads.When Torre asked if the country needs Musk to get into sports, Skipper shut that down quickly.“I don’t think that the words Elon and save the country should be in the same sentence,” Skipper said.Samson did give Musk credit for Starlink, but Skipper followed that up with a dig at Musk’s history with Ukraine.“Just make sure that you’re not using it with any Ukrainians because it would turn out to be bad service,” Skipper said.The post Elon Musk faces a major problem if he wants to buy a sports team appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.