With the NFL already locking out, and the NBA very possibly looking to follow suit, one is forced to wonder exactly how two multi-billion dollar industries could possibly prefer a work stoppage to continuing putting on the show that regularly lines the pockets of the owners as well as the players. The two situations are as different as sports themselves, and with it being the hot button issue that is right now, I thought it would be a good time to try to explain both of these issues, and show why the current systems for both leagues need little changing.
NBA LABOR ISSUES
In the case of the NBA, the owners feel like the current bargaining agreement, which was ratified in 2005, should be changed because the league is apparently losing money. You may have noticed that I used the word “apparently” there. NBA Commissioner David Stern has said this on a number of occasions, but nobody really gets to look at the actual financial statements, although Forbes did report that 17 of the league’s teams did go into the red last season, and that all told, 22 teams will lose cash this season Stern’s solution is for the teams to go to a hard cap, lessen the maximum money and length of contracts. For obvious reasons, the players are resistant to this.
This isn’t the first time that the NBA has locked out, by far. For all of Stern’s time as commissioner, the NBA has developed the nasty habit of locking out every five years or so, even if it isn’t very long, usually under the pretense that players need shorter contracts, and less money. But here’s a question: What if the problem isn’t the rules of doing business, but the people doing it?
NBA GM’s have signed a ton of ridiculous contracts over the recent years, almost without exception. Travis Outlaw has a was signed to a 7 million a year for five years contact after a year that he played 11 games. Gilbert Arenas has an absolutely ridiculous contract (6 year, 110 mil at signing), and to be fair, he had a great year before he signed it. Afterwards however, he pooped in a teammate’s shoe, brought guns into a locker room, and was suspended for an entire season, came back and played awful basketball, and then the Magic traded to get him. Darko Milicic (yes, that Darko Milicic) has a 20 million contract, thanks to Minnesota GM David Kahn.
Under the current labor agreement, player salaries account for about 57% of overhead for an NBA team. If that is how much you are going to pay for your players, you better not overpay them. Fans love winning basketball, and terrible GMs will kill your profit quicker than anything. You will have trouble selling out an 82 game season or getting national TV exposure if your team is terrible. This is not rocket science. Now I may come across as harsh here, and I’m sorry, but I’m the type of guy that believes that if you are dumb enough to jump in the deep end of the pool knowing you can’t swim, then what ever happens is solely your fault.
NFL LABOR ISSUES
The NFL Lockout is an entirely different deal. The revenues for this country’s most popular professional sports league have been increasing every year for pretty much as long as I have been alive. This isn’t a secret, and no one is disputing this. This year, the league claims that average value of an NFL team dropped from 1.04 billion to 1.02 billion. Players are saying that the league’s Direct TV and other broadcast deals should offset that.
The current collective bargaining agreement was set to expire after the 2007 season. That never happened, since in March of 2006 the owners deciding to extend it through the 2012 season with an overwhelming 30-2 vote. So these are the rules that the owners wanted, and agreed to.
The league then balked on the deal, using an opt-out clause that was included in the agreement to cause it to end this season. What do the owners want? Nothing much. They merely want to increase the regular season to 18 games, cutting the preseason down to two, and to reduce the players’ salaries while they do that. So basically, they only want more work for less pay.
The timing of this is not an accident. Owner’s operating costs will go down in a lockout, mainly because they won’t be paying the players. They have also signed super lucrative TV deals that somehow still pay even if there are no games. Sounds like a great time to squeeze your workforce, huh?
So basically what I’m getting to is this: When you are sitting around later this year, wondering why the only sport left for you to watch is hockey or the college games, there will be a reason for that. You see, some people in life are stupid. Worse than that, some people in life are greedy. The worst part of all? It seems that most of these people work in the front office of your favorite teams.
Photos courtesy of I Can Has Cheeze Burger and Celebrity Sentry.
No comments:
Post a Comment