NBA commissioner David Stern was hit with questions today about the league’s upcoming negotiations with players on a new collective bargaining agreement. The bottom line: It doesn’t look good. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because the NFL’s labor talks ended last month with the owners locking out the players and the players suing the league. (The two sides in the NFL dispute finished their second day of court-mandated mediation in Minneapolis today as a judge decides whether to grant the players’ injunction request to halt the lockout.)
By all accounts, an NBA labor standoff could make the NFL’s look like backyard touch football. Whereas the NFL’s main sticking point is how to divide $9 billion in revenue, Stern has said the NBA has been losing more than $300 million a season and offered up today during a press conference that this year’s losses could reach that figure again. (Currently, players receive 57% of the league’s gross revenue, which Stern says is unsustainable going forward.) This shortfall is despite lucrative TV broadcast contracts with ESPN/ABC and TNT that go through the 2015-16 season and pay the league more than $900 million a year. Last year’s NBA Finals and this year’s All-Star Game saw big ratings gains, and more of the same is expected for this year’s playoffs, which begin this weekend.
Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver said today that the league is prepping an offer for the NBA Players Association to be presented soon, but they reiterated that the sides are far apart as the labor contact nears its June 30 expiration date. “The current system is broken,” Silver told the gathered media, adding that the threat of a lockout already is hurting the league’s businesses. Stern said the uncertainty could affect the league’s bottom line — its fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Today’s press conference, which followed two days of owners meetings, comes as Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson was fined by the league for comments last week regarding a potential lockout. “Who knows what the NBA is going to look like next year?” Jackson said, according to ESPN. “It’s going to take on a whole different proportion. How long is it going to last? I think there are some people who are pretty convinced there’s not going to be a year next year.”


They are just millionaire sports entertainers!
Yes, now what’s your point? Simply because people earn millions means they don’t deserve to get paid a fair price? Unfortunately your naive and populist opinion will probably be quite pervasive in the upcoming labor dispute.
If the league is really losing millions annually then why is David Stern not being fired for gross ineptitude. The NBA is at its most popular since the late 90s. TV ratings are high, attendance is high, jersey sales are high etc.
The public voluntarily goes to games, watches on television etc and thus generates revenue and the players deserve a very large slice of what they create. Unfortunately Stern has long treated the players with contempt and it appears he wants his final round of labor negotiations to conclude with a Carthaginian peace.
What a dumb post!
Funny how people don’t have a problem with sport and entertainment figures earning millions; but they have fits over those nasty CEOs from those greedy corporations doing the same thing.
Walter, please stick to what you know about sports, which probably is nothing at all.Sport fans have been crying about athletes pay since Dave Winfield Yankees contract.
If the NBA is losing so much money, why do teams continue to sell for record amounts? Why cannot teams run on 43% of revenues? And if things are so bad, why won’t the owners discuss more revenue sharing? So the players have to take a pay cut to help support the poorest franchises, but the rich owners are not willing to sacrifice?
There seems to be no logic to NBA management. If the Kings move to Anaheim next season they will have one-tenth of the league in one media market. They have re-placed teams in markets that failed (Charlotte, New Orleans) and they will have abandoned nine* North American markets larger than the cities where current franchises are located. And the last three franchise moves have all been trade-downs: Seattle (16) to Oklahoma City (55), Vancouver (11) to Memphis (58), and Charlotte Hornets (29) to New Orleans (62).**
A business run that poorly deserves to fail.
*Vancouver, BC, Seattle, Sacramento, St.Louis, Baltimore, San Diego, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Buffalo (The Kings are represented here three times and the Clippers twice)
**Combined US/Canadian Metropolitan Markets
The NBA has become a bunch of tattooed thugs that argue about every foul call. Pro basketball is unwatchable now and I could care less about a strike. The whole league can go under for all I care.
Tattoos! What a travesty! Old white man alert.
Great post. So accurate. The NBA has done such an outstanding job keeping the league young, hip and fresh they have freshed themselves right off my TV. I could care less. I’d love to see a lock out for both the NBA and NFL. I’d love to see them start to broadcast all media on their own channels too. That would free up a ton of programming space for some new cool stuff.
Methinks the owners of both sports are all drawing the line in order to follow the NHL with a salary cap, and to streamline the business model.
Once the cap is in place, then concrete business plans can be laid out for years in advance, projecting sales and financial outcomes. Perhaps the day will come when your team ownership will have an active public stock speculation run at the beginning of each season.
Hey..you could do the same with the film business!
What the heck are you talking about?
The NHL is the worst financial performing league of all the major North American sports, so much so that none of the major networks or Sports channels would want to air NHL games on their channels – except for NBC; but of course all their programming is crap anyway.
Why the hell would the NFL and the NBA the top 2 0r 3 major sports leagues in the country want to emulate a business model that’s been such a disaster for the NHL since their own lockout?
Tattoo’s makes them thugs??? How? Rockers have tats. We don’t call them thugs. Actors get bad 20 million bucks for a film and it flops. That’s not a problem though. They deserve it. The numbers don’t lie. The owners can offer the contracts then bitch about it. Thus America baby lol
You mean I might not be able to watch a bunch of spoiled millionaires dribble a ball around a court for a couple hours? Oh, what ever shall I do? Might I actually have to get *gasp* a real life? Heavens, no!