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(This story has been updated. A quote on page 2 that had been attributed to NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr was actually made by sports agent Allan Walsh)
It’s midweek in early November and you’re befuddled. The World Series is done, NASCAR is winding down, and meaningful pro golf is a distant memory. The college hoops tipoff is still a week away—and who really pays attention to college basketball before February, anyway?
So you open the paper to look at the evening’s sports listings. They’re pretty slim. ESPN is showing second-rate college football—Temple at Ohio, following last night’s Northern Illinois at Toledo. We’ve got women’s collegiate volleyball, the MLS playoffs, and men’s pro tennis on delay.
Facebook friends chime in that they’re watching Champions League futbol … and Road House. Some claim they don’t really miss the NBA because they’re getting their fix watching reruns of Kim’s [Kardashian] Fairytale Wedding.
Without NBA games to watch, what’s a hardcore American sports fan supposed to do during those dark, still, newly Standard Time hours between Monday night and college football’s GameDay (aka Saturday morning)?
One smart choice is Bloomberg Television’s Sportfolio on Wednesday nights. We’re big backers for obvious reasons. Outside of that, the diehard sports fan’s games of choice are the National Hockey League and—unless you’re an out-of-market Time Warner Cable subscriber—a return next week to Thursday night football on the NFL Network.
Hard Foul: Who Feels the NBA’s Pain?
Without a doubt, the NBA lockout is taking a substantial toll on fans, owners, players, arena workers, and the league’s advertising partners.
On Tuesday, Commissioner David Stern levied an astonishing $500,000 fine on Miami Heat owner Mickey Arison for divisive but honest comments he made on Twitter “that violated the league’s censure on speaking publicly about the lockout,” according to league sources. The fine, one of the largest for an individual in NBA history, is reportedly “five times the amount other owners have previously been fined for public comments about the ongoing labor situation.” While the consensus among media pundits is that the heft of the fine is in direct proportion to Stern’s desire that the league’s 29 owners continue to present a united front, it’s possible that the commissioner is simply looking to replace, in part, some of the NBA’s currently dried-up revenue streams.
The lockout is also changing the on-course plans of Charlotte Bobcats majority owner Michael Jordan. The NBA legend has been forced to pull out of his cherished role as captain’s assistant for the United States Presidents Cup golf team competing at Australia’s Royal Melbourne later this month. Jordan has been replaced by 11-time PGA Tour winner John Cook, who will join golfer Jay Haas as an assistant to captain Fred Couples.
Are the NBA’s broadcast partners also experiencing acute lockout-revenue-loss pain? Newly-released data from SportsBusiness Journal indicates that the total amount spent by NBA advertisers last season, excluding the NBA Finals, was $627.7 million, a windfall that networks “would be hard-pressed to match if there is a significantly altered season.” In 2010 advertisers “spent $42.2 million on NBA games and pregame programming in November and $61.4 million in December, for a total of $103.6 million across Turner, ABC, and ESPN, the league’s three sanctioned TV partners. According to Nielsen, Ford was the NBA’s top national broadcast advertiser last season, spending $19.3 million, followed by $16.9 million from Yum! Brands.
Both ESPN and TNT reportedly lost money last season on their NBA telecasts, an estimated $25 million and $227 million respectively. According to an analysis by Credit Suisse, given the higher margin profile of replacement programming (college football/basketball for ESPN and prime time library content for TNT), profitability and margins would improve moderately for each network.
