By: LBC Phil

LBC Phil — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:52:54 +0000

The core issue here is that the Owners want a bigger slice of the revenues and to to reduce the amount of money on the table to be shared in the first place. At least the NBA and NBAPA have properly dealt with the problem of rookie contracts, that is the fundamental first step that the NFL will have to take. The problem is that the owners like in the MLB don’t like sharing with each other. The owners can say that the players are killing the NBA but its the free riding owners that are killing the NBA. The Grizzlies and Thunder have proven that good teams can be assembled without breaking the bank. If the smaller market teams are really losing money, which is a questionable theory at best, its their own fault.
Look at the other extreme, there is no incentive for teams like the Clippers to put on a winning product. When the Anaheim Pond [now Honda Center] first opened they tried to lure the Clippers down to orange county and even offered Sterling free rent for [I think] 10 years. Sterling didn’t want to move the team because his friends wouldn’t come all the way down to Orange County to attend the games. Creating a new fan base and increasing revenues to improve the team didn’t matter to Sterling and still don’t. Sterling still gets money from the revenue sharing for putting on a last place product with little more than minimum expendature. Until that problem is fixed every thing else just spackle over a big crack in the wall.

By: Christopher J. Emge

Christopher J. Emge — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:29:28 +0000

In the NFL I tend to side with the players, but the NBA is a different beast. The owners while I’m sure want too much, I think some real concessions are going to be required to make the legal financially solvent for all the teams. Having the top players show up to this is ridiculous, the don’t represent the real nuts and bolts of the 300 players in the league. Teams didnt’ help themselves by over paying per usual during free agency My Idea:
- 4 levels of salary cap: Min, Max, Tax threshold, Ceiling
- All contracts are only 50% guaranteed which gives players financial stability, while allowing owernership to get out of bad contracts that would cribble the franchise
- Limit player salary increases to 7.0% (w/team) and 5.0% without it
- Increase player min and veteran min by 20%

Comments on: Owners, players have "amicable" meeting on a new CBA, but that is different than progress

By: LBC Phil

By: Christopher J. Emge