Comments about ‘NBA needs to find new business to model after’

A good start would be to market the league as a cure for insomnia. It works.

Great article!

If the NBA under Stern continues to do business the way they have, its death is eventually inevitable.

For me, it has already died.

It's like a conversation I had a while back with a friend who lives in L.A. I was trying to convince him that the NBA set up favors the large market teams. He strongly disagreed.

Then he made a statement that belied all he'd argued for. Nonchalantly he said, "But when you look take in consideration all the fans in the country, what portion of them even wants to watch the Jazz in the finals -- two percent?"

That's the problem, and Strern knows it. But he won't change. He structures everything around the big markets and caters to them. And he does it with an iron fist.

does anyone really care?

Some teams can afford to lose money because their owners make so much money outside basketball that they can absorb some losses just for the prestige of owning a team or for the ancillary benefits of owning a team that promotes their other businesses. But some teams cannot afford to lose money. So I support the ownership for trying to change the model to one that works. If they can bring about parity among the teams, that would be great, too.

LeBron would have made more money if he had stayed in Cleveland. It wasn't just money that lured him to Miami. Unfortunately for him and Dywane Wade, Bosh just wasn't as good a player as they thought. James is the sort of player who would have improved any team he joined. If he had gone to Utah or Portland or San Antonio, any of those teams probably would have reached the finals, too.

Greed has taken the lead.

I agree with everything you said in the article. That said, GO LAKERS!!

It's definitely a broken model. The only way teams can develop any king of long-term following and generate revenue is to win championships. But small-market teams can't do that with an uneven playing field. So, regardless of whether last year's worst team gets a first round draft pick, they'll still probably trade that player to a better-funded team to get 2-3 average players who may or may not lift them above their previous year's performance.

Frankly, I'd be fine with there being no NBA season this year. It took nearly 10 years for Major League baseball to get back the support they had prior to their hiatus in the 90's. The NBA's been through this before, but even they managed to eek out half of a season. I don't think they realize that this quibbling not only affects them, but all the business that support them, and the local businesses that benefit from games during the season. If they think they're losing money now, see how they feel next season when people are still bitter and decide not to buy tickets or advertising...

Thanks Doug, it's not often I agree with what you have to say, but you do raise some interesting questions. Like most I believed this to be a spat between millionaires (players) and billionaires (owners).

Very good article. I've always thought the NFL had the better model, but my feelings on the NBA needing to change their model are even stronger now after reading this article. I didn't realize that the championships in the NFL were so much better spread out among the small market teams than the championships in the NBA. The current model does make it very hard to be a fan in a small market.

There is always a problem when the union tries to run the business of the employer,so you can start your own business and run it or you can find another employer, or you can have a situation like we now have, or you can get some smarter people that can make a deal both sides can live with.Pick out the best solution and then make it work:
1-- start your own business
2-- Find adifferent employer
3-- Keep the status quo
4-- find smarter people and direct them to make a deal- be willing to comprise

Take your pick

The business model definitely has to be different. But the owners have their ideas and the players have their ideas and it looks like we're going to continue to argue about a 1.8% discrepancy in desired portions of BRI until we're blue in the face.

If something is so broken, like the NBA owners seem to claim, then there has to be much more to the fix than "take less money."

The league needs to lower prices so that an average family with kids can easily afford decent seats. Revenue should be shared evenly between the teams, and neither the team owners nor the players would become millionares, but the game would be played for love of the game. If not find something else to do.

That was great, Its funny why they cann't look at the NFL and say hay look what they do. Don't get it at all. Like i said in another article. I don't care who makes what. I just want the small market teams to have a chance.

Anything that allows the Jazz (or anyone else) to beat the Lakers is a good thing.

I don't care if this season is cancelled. The NBA small teams need to help reshape the league to be more competitive from-top-to-bottom.

I think the owner need to stand firm and not let the players have all the money
I like the hard cap with no one can go over it and then all the players will have to be paid what they are worth instead of getting over paid. Like boozer. he not worth more then two million a year, if that. As a fan I hope we don't have a season and next year we can have replace players and if the older ones want to play then they will be paid for what they are worth. Get read of the union, its just a big pain in the butt for the owners, and their pocketbook, then as a fan I might beable to buy some season tickets at a fair price. Yes you go Owners and not give in!!!!!!!!!!!!