Again, I’m going to piggyback on my buddy Kratch and bring up the NBA lockout. You thought the NFL lockout was bad? The NBA lockout is a debacle. Before the NBA owners can go to the bargaining table with the players they have to stop bickering amongst themselves. 22 of the 30 NBA teams are losing money. That’s a problem. The owners need to sort that out before they patronize the players with a slew of awful ideas.
Currently the revenue is split 57% to the players and 43% to the owners. Obviously the players are going to have to take some kind of cut. The length and size of current contracts are outrageous and can drag teams into the dregs of the league for too long. The owners want the players to take a drastic play cut, proposing the players go from taking 57% of the revenue to 39%. That’s a joke.
One of the other massive disagreements is how the TV money is split up. The owners want the next CBA to extend for maybe up to 10 years but during that time the NBA’s TV contracts will expire and will be up for negotiation. On the heels of one of the most talked about and exciting basketball seasons in years, the TV rights are going to mean big time money for the league. Big time money that the owners don’t want to let the players in on. The owners basically want to structure the CBA ignoring the fact these contracts will have to be re-upped and are more than happy to keep the money for themselves. Shockingly the players aren’t ok with that.
I could carry on about this for a long time but instead I’ll send you over to my authority on all things NBA, Ryen Russillo at ESPN. Russillo hosts the NBA Today Podcast and is also the cohost of The Scott Van Pelt Show. He knows his NBA stuff inside and out so give him a listen as he runs down the entire lockout situation. When you’re done, get at me on the Twitter @SchwinkCT and we’ll have some rousing conversation. Happy listening.
