As the talk starts to build of all the little concessions the NBA players got in the last week to make an NBA labor deal happen in time for games on Christmas day, remember this:
The owners won.
In a massive way. This is an Attila the Hun sweeping through Eastern Europe kind of win — devastating and total.
David Stern and the owners came into these NBA labor talks saying they lost more than $300 million last season and $400 million the year before that. By getting the players to agree to what is in practice a 50/50 split of basketball related income (although the deal allows the players to get to 51 percent if revenue increases enough) the owners got the players to essentially accept a 12 percent salary cut that will cover those losses.
This will come to more than $3 billion back in the owners’ pockets if the deal lasts the full 10 years (both sides can opt out of the deal after six years). What’s more, the deal means the players will have shorter contracts with lower raises going forward. Plus, the system now ties the hands of larger market, bigger spending teams helping depress salaries that way.
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5 comments:
I would rather watch college than this disgrace of a league.
I have'nt been able to go to an NBA game for years,because I can't stand to go alone and tickets for 4 or 5 people are high.Watching it on TV is OK,but nowhere near as good as being there.I have'nt been able to afford tickets since the Wizards were the Bullets.If all of the politics equate to lower ticket prices in the future,then the drama was all worth it.
very nice.....
Havent missed it yet and doubt I will....
Who cares about the thug league? But in the end, good for the owners. They are the ones with millions at risk-not the players. Who in the hell do the players think they are? demanding more of a cut of the pie than the owners. To heck with them. Maybe the players should be made to "invest" 40% of their earnings back into the team, for player developement, expenses etc. Then they would have right to demand a larger chunk of the pie. Greedy players. I was hoping they would cancel the whole season.
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