I didn't deny that the Warriors could make more revenue.  It was the impact of this that I doubted.  It was the wisdom of thinking that a Chinese player, simply because he was Chinese, could have a significant impact, by himself, on team revenues such that it made it worthwhile.  

What I said (my actual words) merchandise revenue is controlled by the league profit sharing agreement.  This is true because any NBA licensed apparel has a licensing fee that goes to the NBA. I said (my actual words) "They might sell plenty of Yi jerseys, but that money gets distributed around to all the other teams as well."  Please note that I didn't deny that they'd make money off of it.  I doubted that it would be a substantial impact that would make investing in Yi worthwhile.  

The home team keep local concessions and most of the local gate revenue (>90% save the playoffs, which is pooled) and the local TV revenue.   The concessions, though not pooled, aren't a huge income generator because of licensing fees.  Anything with an NBA logo is shared revenue by virtue of the concession sales buying wholesale through the NBA's merchandising franchise.  Yes, you sell more jerseys, you can make more money, but that's just not a straight profit.

The financial analysis of Yao shows that he's a money maker, but much of that money is not made by the Rockets, but the NBA gets a huge chunk of that.  The Rockets have substantially increased revenue since his arrival, but it wasn't immediate by any stretch.  Their revenue in 01-02 (pre Yao) and 02-03 (with Yao) was an identical $82 million.  It's up since then, substantially so and I don't doubt that he had something to do with it, but separating out that from the fact that they went from a team that was bad enough to secure the #1 overall to a team that was a playoff contender factors in as well.  Separating out that he also became an elite player is further difficult.

It is possible that there would be greater ticket sales, though I doubt this since there's good published analysis indicating that wins are the only thing that sustain this.   You do raise a very interesting point about the cost of the tickets and the possibility of selling the exclusive boxes to a high dollar Asian business community.  I'm not sure if this has happened in Houston or not.  If it has, I could well be wrong about the potential marketing affects, but I don't think coma's "Yi=$$$" was thinking critically about this nor do I believe he's got any particular insight into this possibility.

The question remains how much of their operating income, realistically, can one player change independent of the team's record?  Approximately 30-40% of the "BRI" is shared income.  That's the shared gate receipts (very small but some is shared), the shared playoff revenue, the shared merchandising, and national TV, NBA licensing agreements, etc. If the presence of Yi meant more national games (which I've heard as a reason to get him--not necessarily here, but it's been put out there) it wouldn't bring in more money.  If it means more Jerseys sold, the revenue will increase, but I do not suspect it's going to offset anything that a change in wins wouldn't dwarf.  

Again, though it's easier to argue against what someone thinks I've said that what I actually said, I never said that Yi couldn't bring in more money.  It's the magnitude of this revenue that I question.  Yao was a novelty of a magnitude greater than Yi, so I would never bank on Yi being as big an earner unless he turns out to be an MVP level player.  I'd say that the Warriors would have done their homework about this, but since they may well have hired Montgomery hoping that the "popular local coach" would boost revenue, I'm not so sure that they actually think things through.