On Friday, the league announced the cancellation of 43 pre-season games, three of those matchups involving the Lakers. Fans may view the lockout and subsequent ongoing negotiations between the players and owners as being generally inconsiderate of those who pay their hard earned cash just to watch a game of hoops. They might be right.
Last season kicked off with a television experiment labeled “The Decision,” carried on nicely as a batch of new stars emerged towards the top of the league’s elite talent and ended with the highly entertaining vindication of nearly everyone outside of South Beach, most notably Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks and the city of Cleveland. In short, it was spectacular — a perfect platform to help propel the future of the NBA brand.
Then the work stopped.
The draft came and went without so much of a splash. Free agents remained team-less. Players began to find ways to occupy their time and (if the opportunity presented itself) make some money while they’re at it. But where do the fans factor in all of this?
As of right now, fans only appear to be on the back burner. Still relevant, but not relevant enough to speed up the negotiations.
If you’re like me and receive e-mail alerts from your favorite team, then chances are you received an e-mail last Friday detailing the league’s plan to cancel training camps and pre-season games through October 16. It read like a letter, but it felt more like a half-hazard apology from team officials.
Did you have tickets to go see the Lakers play Atlanta at Citizen’s Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California? So sorry, you can’t go. Were you going to finally enjoy some basketball in Sioux Falls, South Dakota? Oh no wait you can’t because the players and owners can’t decide how to divide the profits of a multi-million dollar industry.
I get it. Money makes the world go round. The owners are claiming they’re losing money, but until the players’ union gets a glimpse of their books, they won’t be convinced. The players want to continue to receive the hefty contracts they’ve been offered in previous years.
It appears, however, it’s not just a quick fix to restore funds to the few teams that struggled to compel fans to enter their respective stadiums. They would rather try to change the whole model so that a loss of profits never happens again. That’s easier said than done.
Next: Who’s to blame?
Place the blame on small markets, if you want, but the reality is not all small market teams operate the same. Some owners bought into the NBA a long time ago, others rely on the ability of their front offices to manufacture winning teams and then there are those who bought high, made poor choices and now see the profits they were promised as non-existent.
The owners, who presumably are making money outside of basketball aren’t the victims. Are some losing money? Maybe. The players aren’t the victims in this scenario either. Could the players still survive financially if they made less than the 57-percent share of NBA profits they already receive? Just ask the 14 million Americans (as of August 2011) who are out of work. The players are willing to take a cut in profit share, but would rather keep the structure of contracts as they are.
Here’s the thing. The last time the NBA had a work stoppage leading to a shortened season was in the 1998-99 season. Only 50 games were played that year after an agreement was reached and at the time it was viewed as a victory for the owners. It’s the same agreement that wasn’t good enough to proceed through the 2011-12 season. If you’re counting your fingers–stop–it’s a mere 12 years. What was so different back then from now?
Okay so maybe the owners couldn’t foresee a dive in the economy. They had to have at least made sure they were smart about team’s operation. A bounty of overblown contracts for mid-level players were handed out along with max contracts for players who haven’t produced the way they were expected to. Now owners want to have the ability to get rid of these financially-strapping contracts with no strings attached. The players don’t want non-guaranteed contracts to be part of the new package.
Every day there’s news of some movement towards the end of a lockout or signs of a greater divide between the two sides. The status of the 2011-12 NBA season is unpredictable.
The longer the two sides take to come to terms, the easier it will be for fans to harbor all their negative sentiments towards the league. If the NBA wants to stir up interest in their product, the lockout has to end now while fans are still actively engaged.
If the season started tomorrow, there would be no fallout. If the season started in February, there would be some fallout from the casual NBA fan. If the season didn’t begin at all it would be the worst case scenario for fans.
The talent in the NBA is as good as it has been in a while. You still have Kobe Bryant playing at a high level even in the twilight of his career. There’s still a legacy at stake for LeBron James. Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder still have the bitter taste of defeat to wipe out and the Dallas Mavericks at least deserve the chance to defend their title.
In a perfect situation, the owners and players would come to some compromise sooner rather than later. Until then, fan sentiment towards the league as well as an entire season hang in the balance.