Owning an NBA team is a privilege and a franchise. If you own a Subway restaurant or McDonalds, the corporation (NBA) may demand more money if the company wants to sell its wares using the NBA logo or any logo. Wealthy teams should kick in more money to support the franchise. If they don’t, they should get fined.
If an NBA franchise does not meet business goals (22 out of 30 teams), they should be forced to sell their team to another city that can meet business goals. The players are a product just like a sandwich or cheeseburger. It is up to the owners to make their franchise successful. A failing franchise should not be bailed out by the players if prudent business decisions are not followed.
If an NBA team is not making money, it should be sold off. Subsidies can only go so far.
According to Wikipedia: “According to the NBA, 15 of the 29 teams posted losses that season (1998).” Teams that are performing poorly are blaming the players for their failures. This is bad business.
The new CBA needs to include an arbitration agreement where a retired judge or a mediator would sort out any future disputes. There is too much to lose for the fans, employees, advertisers, etc to NOT HAVE an NBA season. Can we move a team to Seattle or Las Vegas?
Good post. I'd also add a lot of these small market owners (Gilbert and Sarver especially) are never interested in building a championship team because they don't want to spend money to get talents. So all these talk about competitive balance is laughable because we all know that most of these owners who are crying for it are too cheap to run a championship-caliber team.
ReplyDeleteHi Ezra. Ya man, Gilbert is a moron. He had some bad choice words for Lebron when he left but loved swimming in the mounds of cash Lebron brought in for 7 seasons.
ReplyDeleteHe and the other team owners who have the same business sense as an 8 year old running a lemonade stand should keep their mouths shut.