First the NFL, is the NBA now facing a Lockout?

by UK American Sports Fans

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Representatives for NBA players and owners will meet in Dallas today, just hours before the collective bargaining agreement expires at midnight. Unfortunately, the chances of a deal being completed are extremely slim and a lockout is expected to be imposed.

Here are some of the issues the player and league officials will discuss.

Flex Cap

  • The owners want: A flex cap where salaries cannot exceed $62 million except to sign their own players to contracts.
  • The players want: An open-ended salary structure that would enable teams to spend more than the salary cap.

Income Split

  • The owners want: A 50-50 split of the basketball-related income: ticket sales from all games, including preseason, and television rights.
  • The players want: To keep the current split in which players get a 57 percent share.

Revenue Sharing

  • The owners want: To wait until after the labor agreement is reached to implement a revenue-sharing plan to help small market teams like the Hornets.
  • The players want: Revenue sharing to be included in a collective bargaining agreement.

Put a note in your diary for November 15th 2011. This will be the first date NBA players will not get paid if a lockout is imposed. The longer the lockout continues the more the advantage shifts to the owners. Despite their healthy salaries many players cannot afford to miss too many pay cheques. With many of the owners ready to sacrifice the whole 2011/12 season, the question is how long will the players be willing not to see any money going into their accounts?

The word ‘Lockout’ has become my least favourite word over the past year. I was talking to a young American sports fan in Florida last September. We were watching the Eagles and Lions game in a Sports Bar. We talked for about an hour before we fell into the NFL and NBA regular season games being played in London conversation. This is a sore subject for many football and basketball fans in America but the fan I spoke to was happy for both sports to be played overseas. “I support anything that will help our game move forward. As long as there is no lockout and games missed I don’t care if the games are played in America, Mexico or England” he said. This wasn’t the first time I had heard about a potential lockout but it was the first time I had heard a fan openly talk about a work stoppage with fear and anger.

I questioned this mid twenty-something year old sports crazy fan about the realistic chances of a lockout, as I was convinced a deal would be in place and no football would be missed in the 2011/12 season. “Oh, a lockout is coming. Not just in the NFL but also in the NBA too”. Still not convinced, I pressed him about what league had the most chance of avoiding a lockout. Drowning in his Eagles jersey (at least three sizes to big for him), he leaned back in his chair and reacted angrily towards the current situations in both leagues,.”‘There could be a delay to training camps in football and maybe some missed games, but we could miss months or a whole season of basketball. The thought of lockouts in the NFL and NBA make me sick to be totally honest with you.” Strong words from a very passionate fan. I wanted to ask if he thought it was the players or the league to blame but the Eagles were down 17-10. So, with his team losing and the talk of a potential lockout beginning to upset him, I brought the conversation to a swift end.

It was then I realised the possibility of no football and basketball was greater than I had imagined. Yet more importantly, I learnt that for all the millions and billions of dollars the officials of league and players will fight over today, it is the fans that will suffer the most. The fans attend games, buy the jerseys and merchandise that helps pay the players and officials their huge salaries. Fans eat, drink and breathe their favourite sport. It is at the top of the conversation list at work with their friends and all over the social networking sites.

My message to those attending the meeting today is to get this mess sorted as soon as possible and avoid any games being missed next season. Basketball is as popular now around the world as it has ever been. My guess is people would prefer an off season of amazing hype and great talking points like last year, when LeBron James made the decision to take his talents to South Beach. Rather than an off season where all the talk is about whether it is the salaries of the owners or players that will increase by millions of dollars in the years ahead.

Article courtesy of Michael Roberts.