So much for the 2011-12 NBA season. Now the NBA players union is set to disband and negotiations with the team owners have ended, which means any hope for an NBA season has all but disappeared.
Since the union called it quits, players are now free to sue the league under antitrust laws. This situation is not a complete surprise because professional basketball was operating on a business model that was ill founded.
Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, the players and owners split the league revenue 57 percent and 43 percent, but thanks to inflated contracts, the league paid players more than their talent was worth and operating costs became too high.
Over a third of NBA teams are losing money, including the Phoenix Suns.
The owners backed out of the latest collective bargaining agreements because of these financial mistakes. They offered the players a 50-50 split in league revenues, but the players turned it down.
While the deal is supposedly “equal,” many different stipulations slant it towards the owners. Now, the owners also want to institute a “hard cap” on salaries, which would be a maximum amount of money teams could spend on players.
There is currently a “soft cap,” meaning franchises can spend a set total amount on payroll for the athletes, but if the franchise goes over, it must pay a “luxury tax.”
This is all a game for the owners; it’s a bad front to cover their bad business practices.
And in all, it’s a no-good, sticky situation for everyone involved.
In the middle of a brutal recession, athletes, many of whom make millions of dollars, are disputing wages. The rest of us suffer from foreclosures, student loan debt and an abhorrent job market, but most of the players are financially stable, and will not be hurt by a canceled season. However, the local businesses that broadcast games and stores and restaurants near arenas will see a steep decline in business.
The NBA left on such a high note at the end of last season — the underdog Dallas Mavericks took away the championship from King James and the rest of the Miami Heat. Viewership was up and the drama was made-for-TV.
That will not be the case for the foreseeable future. When fans see players squabbling over money, they get angry. The 1994-95 baseball lockout resulted in a drop in attendance, not just by a few hundred thousand but by millions. Now die-hard NBA fans are void of a hobby, and need something to fill the empty space.
NBA players belong on the court, not in a courtroom.
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
