http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6630030/
NBA headed towards lockout of its own?
Like the NHL, owners looking to reduce player salaries
COMMENTARY
By Evan Weiner
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 2:59 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2004
National Basketball Association fans across the country, in Canada and around the world should take a long look at what is going on in the National Hockey League lockout because the odds are pretty good that basketball fans will be witnessing an NBA work stoppage at this time next year. And it has nothing to do with the Pistons-Pacers brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich.
It's all about money.
Like NHL owners, NBA owners want to change their business model and get even more cost certainty and tighten budgets. They want their teams to be more profitable and they are going to ask the players to agree to what they want and if the players don’t, it's too bad.
The gates will be locked and the workers outside. The players will be punished — unless they agree to a new collective bargaining agreement — for owners' mismanagement and financial mistakes.
The player’s salaries, which were approved by owners, have to come down.
It’s that simple. If there are no games, too bad for the owners, too bad for the fans. The fans always come back anyway besides that’s what they live for — games. They won’t find other things to do. Just look at the 1994-95 baseball strike and how many fans said they would never come back. Or the 1992 NHL strike or the 1994-95 NHL lockout or the 1998-99 NBA lockout.
The fans came back.
The NBA could have locked out its players this season, but decided to play through. Both NHL and the NBA owners have run out of places to find new money.
The NHL, according to one-time San Jose Sharks owner George Gund, got enough network TV money to buy only a third line left wing. But the new NHL-NBC television deal won't even bring in that money. (NBC is a partner in the joint venture that runs NBCSports.com)
The NBA took a hit when NBC decided it could not afford paying the kind of money the NBA sought. The NBA did in the end get a nice deal with Turner Sports and Disney, but for the most part, the league has disappeared from network television.
That is spelling trouble for David Stern and his 30 owners. Sports are at the crossroads. The NFL continues to run as a well-oiled machine with new TV contracts already signed for 2006 and beyond.
But the other Big 3, the NHL, the NBA and Major League Baseball are in trouble because they are tapped out when it comes to new revenue streams.
Ticket prices are very high, too high for the average person to attend more than a handful of games. All the satellite TV technologies are in place; no one is inventing cable TV or satellite TV type products that will bring additional money into owner's pockets.
The owners are looking to fix what they perceive is a cash flow problem in the NHL. The league contends too many teams are bringing in too few dollars to meet costs. Although in some instances its hard to tell just what is real and what isn't because teams are part of cable companies and those companies may not be paying fair market price for cable TV rights, thus depressing the bottom line.
The NBA has better TV contracts than the NHL, but the owners want to tighten the salary cap by shortening guaranteed contracts and raising the luxury tax to make it harder for free agents to change teams. The NBA Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter will never go for that, which could mean that the NBA will join the NHL in preventing their players from performing in 2005. The NHL owners seem willing to stay out for as long as they could to gain what they want from the players and if that takes until 2006, they don’t seem to mind.
NHL owners would rather sit out than sign a bad collective bargaining agreement.
Major League Baseball owners are watching the hockey lockout and will more than likely study the NBA talks waiting for their turn at the negotiating table. They, like their comrades in the NHL and the NBA, would like to bring down salaries.
These are troubling times for sports fans. The owners are determined to regain control of players salaries. In doing so, they may burn down the village and scorch the earth to get their way.
The question after they do all of that is whether or not people will care enough to watch them rebuild their sports league or if the fans found something else to do with their time. The owners are betting they will come back.
Evan Weiner is a radio commentator on The Business of Sports and a contributor to NBCSports.com.
NBA headed towards lockout of its own?
Like the NHL, owners looking to reduce player salaries
COMMENTARY
By Evan Weiner
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 2:59 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2004
National Basketball Association fans across the country, in Canada and around the world should take a long look at what is going on in the National Hockey League lockout because the odds are pretty good that basketball fans will be witnessing an NBA work stoppage at this time next year. And it has nothing to do with the Pistons-Pacers brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich.
It's all about money.
Like NHL owners, NBA owners want to change their business model and get even more cost certainty and tighten budgets. They want their teams to be more profitable and they are going to ask the players to agree to what they want and if the players don’t, it's too bad.
The gates will be locked and the workers outside. The players will be punished — unless they agree to a new collective bargaining agreement — for owners' mismanagement and financial mistakes.
The player’s salaries, which were approved by owners, have to come down.
It’s that simple. If there are no games, too bad for the owners, too bad for the fans. The fans always come back anyway besides that’s what they live for — games. They won’t find other things to do. Just look at the 1994-95 baseball strike and how many fans said they would never come back. Or the 1992 NHL strike or the 1994-95 NHL lockout or the 1998-99 NBA lockout.
The fans came back.
The NBA could have locked out its players this season, but decided to play through. Both NHL and the NBA owners have run out of places to find new money.
The NHL, according to one-time San Jose Sharks owner George Gund, got enough network TV money to buy only a third line left wing. But the new NHL-NBC television deal won't even bring in that money. (NBC is a partner in the joint venture that runs NBCSports.com)
The NBA took a hit when NBC decided it could not afford paying the kind of money the NBA sought. The NBA did in the end get a nice deal with Turner Sports and Disney, but for the most part, the league has disappeared from network television.
That is spelling trouble for David Stern and his 30 owners. Sports are at the crossroads. The NFL continues to run as a well-oiled machine with new TV contracts already signed for 2006 and beyond.
But the other Big 3, the NHL, the NBA and Major League Baseball are in trouble because they are tapped out when it comes to new revenue streams.
Ticket prices are very high, too high for the average person to attend more than a handful of games. All the satellite TV technologies are in place; no one is inventing cable TV or satellite TV type products that will bring additional money into owner's pockets.
The owners are looking to fix what they perceive is a cash flow problem in the NHL. The league contends too many teams are bringing in too few dollars to meet costs. Although in some instances its hard to tell just what is real and what isn't because teams are part of cable companies and those companies may not be paying fair market price for cable TV rights, thus depressing the bottom line.
The NBA has better TV contracts than the NHL, but the owners want to tighten the salary cap by shortening guaranteed contracts and raising the luxury tax to make it harder for free agents to change teams. The NBA Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter will never go for that, which could mean that the NBA will join the NHL in preventing their players from performing in 2005. The NHL owners seem willing to stay out for as long as they could to gain what they want from the players and if that takes until 2006, they don’t seem to mind.
NHL owners would rather sit out than sign a bad collective bargaining agreement.
Major League Baseball owners are watching the hockey lockout and will more than likely study the NBA talks waiting for their turn at the negotiating table. They, like their comrades in the NHL and the NBA, would like to bring down salaries.
These are troubling times for sports fans. The owners are determined to regain control of players salaries. In doing so, they may burn down the village and scorch the earth to get their way.
The question after they do all of that is whether or not people will care enough to watch them rebuild their sports league or if the fans found something else to do with their time. The owners are betting they will come back.
Evan Weiner is a radio commentator on The Business of Sports and a contributor to NBCSports.com.
