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Wednesday night around 9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time was about as close to the pinnacle of fandom as it gets around this sports-centric household. In a frenzied span of 180 seconds, we got to see the spoiler Baltimore Orioles eliminate the Boston Red Sox from MLB Playoff contention, the Tampa Bay Rays come from 7-0 down to defeat the New York Yankees (and seal the Red Sox fate), and watch the premiere of Sportfolio, Rick’s new weekly half-hour sports business program on Bloomberg TV.
Both the baseball and the talk show are getting favorable reviews this morning. The NBA lockout, which enters its 92nd day on Friday, not so much. NBA Commissioner David Stern is using increasingly dire language to describe the scenario for the 2011-12 NBA season, insinuating that regular-season games will be in jeopardy if no deal is in place by the first week of October and that planned labor talks Friday in New York that will likely continue into the weekend represent “enormous consequences at play” as the two sides try to preserve an on-time season opener.
This week’s talks ended on Wednesday after two days so negotiators could regroup before joining their respective contingents in Manhattan for what is perceived as the most important stretch of the lockout so far. Along with Stern, NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver; Spurs Owner/NBA Labor Relations Committee Chairman Peter Holt; Billy Hunter, executive director of the players’ union; Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers, who is president of the players’ association; and some of the league’s superstars, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, are expected to gather in New York.
The fate of the NBA’s 2011 season has far-reaching consequences beyond players and fans. At stake as well are thousands of jobs around the NBA’s 29 arenas, public subsidies in several cities, and possibly a new arena project in Sacramento that would keep the beloved Kings in town. The lockout also has far-reaching international impact, as dozens of top players, including Bryant, mull whether to commit to overseas teams in the absence of a North American season.
The Key Issues: Not Icing, But Cake
The main issue of contention between the two sides continues to be the revenue split between the 30 NBA teams and the players.
In a sweet summation of the issues at stake, the New York Post reported on Wednesday that CBS Sports reported Ken Berger “bought a chocolate cake from a Queens bakery” that had a message written in icing: “Please split 50-50.” Berger reportedly had the cake “delivered to the 14th floor of the Park Avenue hotel in which the sides were meeting.”
While basketball fans can make all the Marie Antoinette insinuations they want about multimillionaire NBA owners, executives, and players, the fact is, the dollars at stake are hardly crumbs.
The NBA made more than $4 billion last fiscal year, but Stern claims the league still lost $300 million. Owners want to change the 57 percent-43 percent revenue breakdown that currently favors the players and establish a hard salary cap. And while they’ve shown signs of softening their stance this week, the sides remain at least $500 million apart. In last week’s negotiating session, the owners proposed that the players’ share of basketball-related income be cut from 57 percent to 46 percent. League sources said the players were offered a 48 percent share on Tuesday.
The owners also want a 5 percent reduction on all current salaries for this season, a 7.5 percent reduction in all 2012-13 salaries, and a 10 percent reduction in 2013-14 salaries, the source added.
