If you live with a sports fan, it’s bound to be a lot quieter in your house for at least the next month or so (not counting Sunday’s NFL football games). The reason being that for the past four months, the National Basketball Association has been locked out. At this point, the first month of the NBA season has been canceled and there’s no apparent end in sight. We’ll try our best to clue you into exactly what this work stoppage is and why it’s happening.
What is a Lockout?
The NBA lockout began at midnight on June 30 when the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) ended. The CBA is basically a contract between the NBA team owners and the players union every five years that essentially covers everything related to the business of basketball. Everything having to with salary or revenue is covered under the CBA.
When the current CBA expired, the NBA owners locked out the players, which means they shut down the league and are preventing them from playing any NBA games, or earning a paycheck, until a new agreement can be reached.
What Caused the Lockout?
Surprise, surprise – it’s all about money. There are many small issues on the table related to the salary cap and individual player salaries, but the biggest one dividing the two sides is that the owners feel the players are getting too big a piece of the NBA’s financial pie. The last CBA gave the players 57 percent of all Basketball Related Income (BRI), which is basically all revenue streams available to an NBA team. It includes everything from parking to tickets to apparel sales to media contracts.
Another issue, although certainly not as divisive, is revenue sharing between NBA teams. ESPN.com reports that eight teams earned a combined $150 million in profits during the last NBA season while the other 22 teams lost a combined $450 million. The NBA would like to bump up the amount high-revenue teams like Los Angeles and New York share with low-revenue teams from around $60 million to $150 million each season. The Lakers, for example, just signed a 10-year television contract which will net them $150 million per season, which is more than many teams make over the entire duration of a TV contract.
What Both Sides Want
Kobe Bryant and the Players Association believe they have made enough financial concessions to reach a deal with the owners.
The owners want to even out the distribution of BRI. They are calling for a 50-50 split, which would mean a dramatic decrease in revenue for the players. Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amick reports that a BRI percentage point is worth about $40 million each season, so the players would be giving up $280 million in revenue by dropping from 57 to 50 percent.
Thus far, the players have agreed to cut their portion of BRI to 52 percent, but the 48-52 split has not been good enough for the owners. They won’t rest until they get an even 50-50 split while the players feel they have already made enough concessions by essentially giving up $200 million per season to drop their income from 57 to 52 percent.
The players are for team-to-team revenue sharing because it will help players who are stuck on teams in small markets who can’t afford to compete for players with the big market teams. The owners are split on this, but it’s an issue that should get done once the division of BRI is decided on.
When Will the Lockout End?
The Los Angeles Times reports that with the cancellation of games through November, both the owners and players stand to lose about $800 million in revenue, so it should go without saying that both sides would probably like a deal to get done soon.
The issue is, neither side seems to want to budge. The owners are unwilling to offer anything more than 50-50 split, even refusing to meet halfway at 49-51. Meanwhile, the players seem unwilling to budge but stand to lose more from the lockout than the owners do, so each passing day becomes more and more crucial. Many of those close to the situation, such as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, believe there is no way a deal gets done with anything other than a 50-50 split and that the players union had better get ready to miss an entire season if they expect the owners to budge.
What the Lockout Means for Everyone Else
NBA arenas all over the country are empty.
The lockout doesn’t just hurt those directly involved with it. In fact, some of those hit biggest are the arena employees who depend on the season to earn a living. Each arena across the country employs hundreds of security guards, parking attendants, janitors and concession stand workers, all of whom are missing out on the steady stream of income that comes with an NBA season. The Orlando Community Food & Outreach Center estimates that about 1,000 families in Orlando will be out of a job due to the NBA lockout and are asking the community for donations of money and food.
The effect the lockout has on local business is staggering. Many restaurants and bars in the areas surrounding NBA arenas are experiencing huge drops in business without the pull of an NBA game to bring in customers. One example of the hit a local economy can take comes from San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez, who said if the entire season is canceled, the lack of San Antonio Spurs games would cost the city around $95 million of potential income.
What to Do Until the NBA is Back
The fact that these guys are bickering back and forth over hundreds of millions of dollars doesn’t mean you have to sit home and be miserable all day. Here’s a few things you can do to stay occupied:
- Go Have Dinner Downtown
Hey, if all these restaurants around NBA arenas are empty without the games, that might be the perfect time to go have dinner at a nice, fancy restaurant without having to wait 30-to-45 minutes for a table.
- Shop for NBA Apparel
If you were hesitant about shelling out big bucks for your favorite player’s jersey, now might be the time to do it. You’ll probably never find lower prices on NBA stuff than you will while the league is locked out.
- Watch Other Sports
An exciting World Series just ended and football season is hitting it’s stride. Hockey just got started and there’s always soccer going on. You don’t really NEED the NBA, do you?!
- Get a Basketball and Play!
If you need your basketball fix that badly, go to the park and pretend to be Kobe Bryant in your own pick-up basketball game.
