On Friday, the NBA canceled dozens of preseason games -- including three Bobcats games -- and there's still no deal in sight to end the lockout. Regular season games could be canceled if a new labor deal between players and owners isn't reached soon. Eyewitness News went through the contract the Bobcats signed with the city of Charlotte. The Bobcats are responsible for all the operating costs of the arena -- such as electricity, water, and labor -- even if there's no season at all. However, that will mean tens of thousands of fans won't be travelling to the Queen City this year to spend their money. Adam Dietrich is a manager of the Hotel Sierra, less than a basketball bounce pass away from the arena's door. "We rely on fans pre - and post-game for a lot of our additional revenue. It's going to hurt us a lot if there are no fans," Dietrich said. Dietrich is more than a businessman. He's also a big Bobcats fan. He bought tickets for 20 games this year and doesn't know how a refund would work. "We're all on edge, waiting to see what happens," he said. Center City Partners is planning emergency events that can be held in the arena if games are canceled, such as small concerts. "Things that you can organize in a shorter time frame," said Michael Smith, president of Center City Partners. "We try to activate downtown. We market it and program it so that there's a lot of reasons for folks to come here." The Bobcats have to pay to run the arena, but they don't have to lease out space for other events. City Councilman Andy Dulin said that's unlikely. "We have an ironclad contract with the Bobcats, that they are responsible for all losses. The other side of that is, they get to keep all profits. So we went to them, and we incent them to run a good, profitable business," Dulin said. But Dulin said Charlotte will likely lose millions of dollars in tax revenue if regular season games are affected. "If a waiter or a security guard makes 60 bucks less, 42 nights of the year, than that guy's not taking his wife or his girlfriend out to the movies. He's not taking her out to dinner on his night off," he said. Dietrich said if more games are canceled, the hotel will be more creaitive in its approach to lure new customers. He said he'd likely pursue concert-goers more aggressively by reaching out to fan websites or offering group sales. As of Saturday night, just three Bobcats games are canceled, all of them away games. But a labor meeting between players and owners fell through Thursday, and the next meeting isn't even scheduled yet. This isn't the first time the NBA has canceled preseason games because of a lockout. In 1998, the league decided during the first week of October to scrap the postseason altogether and reduce the regular season to 50 games. http://www.wsoctv.com/news/29285537/detail.html
I'm sure that the less than 10,000 regular attendees will be very upset. The Charlotte Bobcats are a great example of how not to launch, promote and manage an expansion franchise.
