Comments on: Shane Battier thinks the NBA should be a lot more like college

By: C

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:47:46 +0000

No way the union would agree to cut around 100 NBA jobs as would happen in that scenario.
Cutting the number of roster spots on a team and at the same time expanding might work to lower team costs, if you could get high enough expansion fees and probably also expand league TV revenue (get back on network TV more?) enough to get the owners to agree to it. Very unlikely.
Battier might end up working for the league office. But I’d give him Stu Jackson’s job with a focus on the officiating rather than making entertainment or financial impact proposals.

By: C

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:43:28 +0000

No way the union would agree to cut around 100 NBA jobs as would happen in that scenario.
Cutting the number of roster spots and at the same time expanding might work to lower team costs, if you could get high enough expansion fees and probably also expand league TV revenue (get back on network TV more?) enough to get the owners to agree to it. Very unlikely.
Battier might end up working for the league office. But I’d give him Stu Jackson’s job with a focus on the officiating rather than making entertainment or financial impact proposals.

By: C

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:22:58 +0000

Well that wasn’t clear. I shifted away at the last minute from point another point and ended up with a mess.
I meant “Either all players and owners would need to take 30% less in salary and profit or they’d need to cut enough roster spots and other expenses to save 30%. I can’t see either happening.
The latter would be pretty difficult. Maybe if you cut back to 10-11 roster spots and changed some other things about the NBA lifestyle and collective bargaining agreement you could save 20-30%. But why go to all that work just to break even at best?

By: C

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:04:23 +0000

“Shorten the regular season to 58 games”
That will cut revenue by about 30%. Either players and owners would need to take 30% in salary and profit or they’d need to cut expenses (especially player salary) by 30%.
Are they willing to do that? No.