http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/10/commentary/column_sportsbiz/sportsbiz/index.htm?cnn=yes Star-free finals are hurting NBA An absence of popular players in the finals deals another blow to NBA ratings and merchandise sales. June 10, 2005: 3:15 PM EDT A weekly column by Chris Isidore, CNN/Money senior writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - What if they held an NBA finals and none of the stars came? That's the problem facing the National Basketball Association, which is looking at one of its most star-free championship series in recent memory. That's not good news for a league that was already seeing a sharp drop in merchandise sales and television viewership. The San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons have a number of very talented players. But when the Pistons beat the Shaquille O'Neal's Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, the league's last chance of having some star power for its championship also ended. The initial ratings for Game 1 of the finals showed just less than 9 percent of the homes in the nation's largest television markets watching the game. That's down by almost 25 percent from last year's L.A. Lakers-Pistons final. ABC tried to portray this as a gain from the last time a Game 1 didn't feature the Lakers. But that's not the point. The absences of popular, large-market teams like the Lakers and New York Knicks from the playoffs this year, as well as the league's most popular players like Cleveland's LeBron James, is hurting the game's popularity. Of course, weak television ratings are more of an immediate problem for the broadcasters, not the league, which has its rights deals locked in for three more seasons. The more immediate problem is merchandise sales, which are down 42 percent for the year to date. "They're missing their chance to highlight their most popular players," said Neil Schwartz of SportsScanInfo, which tracks sales of sporting goods at 13,000 stores nationwide. That compares to a hot 2003-2004 season, when James and Denver rookie Carmelo Anthony burst onto the scene and shot to the top of the charts in merchandise sales. "I'm not sure if Denver played Cleveland in the finals, it would be the same phenomena as when they both came into the league," said Schwartz. But part of the problem is that NBA fans have not warmed to the league's current crop of foreign-born stars the way baseball fans have. Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki has the best-selling jersey of any foreign born star, but he's No. 24 in the rankings by SportsScan. Houston center Yao Ming might be a huge star in China, but here there are 40 jerseys more popular than Yao's. And both Nowitzki and Yao outsell any jersey worn by a Spur or Piston. Spurs center Manu Ginobili, who was good enough to lead Argentina past the United States for the Olympic Gold Medal in 2004, isn't even on the radar on year-to-date sales. "Pete Maravich sells more uniforms today than Ginobili," said Schwartz. It doesn't help that retailers are starting to cut back on their inventory of NBA merchandise due to the threat of a possible strike or lockout. The comments from management and the union on problems in labor negotiations seem like more sabre-rattling than a true threat to the start of the 2005-06 NBA season. But the din has been loud enough to catch the attention of retailers. Commissioner David Stern said in April that the league had been notified that at least one major seller of its goods was cutting off all orders because of the labor uncertainty. Its blue-collar finals notwithstanding, some things are going right for the NBA. The league has done a good job promoting the game in overseas markets. It also just set attendance records this season, with the league-wide average showing 90 percent of seats being sold. By comparison, the Major League Baseball team with the best attendance last year, the New York Yankees, sold only 80 percent of its available seats. Ratings are down, but that is as much about the shift of more of its inventory of games from broadcast networks to cable than anything else. But the difficulties are another sign that the game is in too vulnerable a position to engage in any kind of work stoppage. Once the finals are over, the league and the union have to stop playing games as well and reach an agreement relatively quickly. Top of page
Oh come now, don't be so damn critical. This article is nothing more than obvious in saying that this is a boring Finals and will be. "Team" ball just doesn't attract viewers. What the writer should have done was bring up solutions as to how to increase attention instead of talking about jersey sale statistics. I believe (say if he didn't care for Stern) that he should be critical of the NBA and suggest that the best way to increase attention would be to have Yao (and the like) in the Finals. Of course when that happens, David 'Look at My Large...Ego' Stern will take credit for it and how HE was the one who expanded the NBA globally when it will be predominately Yao, TMac, Shaq, and LeBron.
These NBA finals ratings are down for one reason, almost all the playoff games up to the finals where on cable. The guys and gals watching the NBA Finals are the basketball fans or From SA or Det. People who'd be watching either way. There is no Drama in the background, there is no star gazing, there is no hoop-la about anything. If more of the playoff games had been televised on ABC, people could have become a part of the drama. People could have chosen for teams to root for that were not their own home teams. But the NBA went for the sure money and got the guarantee money from TNT and ESPN. The cost was that people aren't going to watch the NBA Finals like they'd be watching the Super Bowl. The NBA has never distinguished it's title match; there isn't the hoopla around it. People watched for Jordan, the Lakers, Shaq. But if the NBA doesn't fix the problem, then the revenue won't continue to increase exponentially as it did in the 80's and 90's. The NBA has to be the main draw; and the best way is to give maximum exposure of your product. Putting the games on cable will put money in your pocket, but they aren't going to promote your game to people who are barely being introduced to it. Now the ratings are down. No duh!!
While the cable thing is true, but also more American homes today do have access to them The ratings would've been through the roof if it was the Heat vs. the Rockets
The Rockets are 10x's more popular than the Spurs. Imagine if Tony Parker didn't go out with Eva Longoria? Thats another 10 % points of popularity they lose. The Spurs won 2 championships, those were the worst ratings ever.
This articles is pretty crappy, and i mean in substance. Yao's jersey is ranked 41? Ginobili is ranked 24? I would like to see the list. I'm sure it's skewed to support his theory (i.e. total sales OR sales on the last week of March OR sales made on odd number days...as long as it supports his article but disregards the rest). I think NBA's problem is: 1 - Moving games to cable and splitting up the games which just confuses viewers and reaches less viewers like a previous poster has said. 2 - Bad reffing makes people hate the NBA 3 - 7 game series makes for few surprises. 4 - rising ticket prices
Duncan's a superstar, but he's arguably the dullest and least captivating one in the entire league. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that Dream was the most charasmatic player who ever lived, but at least he would make some spectacular moves out there on the court. Duncan's called "the Big Fundamental" which is what makes him so great. It's also what makes him so unappealing to casual basketball fans. And before anyone piles on Yao for being just as dull a star as Duncan, keep two things in mind. First, he's got 1.3 billion fans back home. That easily trumps the few million locals in San Antonio. Secondly, he's got T-Mac on his team, who is much more popular than Manu and Tony Longoria combined.
stupid @ss Stern! He could have had Yao vs. Shaq Tmac vs. Wade JVG vs. SVG what drama that would have made for the finals? Come on Stern make it happen next year! Tell those stupid refs Yao is a superstar and deserves those calls. can you imagine Yao getting 5 - 10 FT's a game? 20 / 10 next year book it! J
I think you're deluding yourselves if you think the Rockets are that exciting or that big a draw. Yao is already losing fan appeal, as a lumbering, giant who plays a good but unexciting game about once every third or fourth time out. He'll get good ratings in China and make the all star team from the Chinese vote but that's it. People would tune into one Shaq - Yao wrestling match and say next. McGrady is popular but he wouldn't carry ratings either. Maybe Shaq alone for God knows what reason could carry it but he'd do as well, maybe better, in a Spurs - Heat matchup. But even Shaq is a shell of his former self and is losing the casual fan appeal.
Somebody in the West needs to topple these Spurs, if not for themselves then at least for the good of the league. It's not a coincidence that three of the worst NBA Finals in recent memory have all involved the Spurs.
I dont know it seems like this years Rox were pretty popular (my opinion based on the amount of games on national TV) .. People want to see this new dynamic duo (Yao/Tmac) .. I think next year will be our year. J
it would be slightly better than this. D Wade is awesome. Imagine how worse the ratings would be if Eva dumped Tony Parker?
Actually it is Dirk Nowitzki whose jersey sales rank #24, not Pinocchio Ginobili. Pinocchio is not even ahead of Yao. The reason why these finals have such low ratings is because the Pistons and Spurs both play an incredibly dull and boring style of basketball. It doesn't take a Rocket scientist to figure out that the general population or casual basketball fan is not going to watch 77-76 games.
I do think the Rockets are one of the most popular teams in the league. Don't we have one of the best away attendance records in the league? I know both T-Mac and Yao are high on the jerseys sales list. I also think it's crazy to say people wouldn't be excited to see Yao vs. Shaq. Remember the ratings they used to get on those regular season Lakers vs. Rockets games? Yao usually plays great against Shaq too. I think he really gets himself up for those games. I think the Rockets vs. the Heat would have been the best possible Finals this year, in terms of both popularity and drama. I'll tell you what the NBA really needs though, it needs Lebron to go to the Lakers, Celtics or Knicks. And you know, it also needs Jerry West to go to the Knicks. Isiah Thomas may be even worse than Scott Layden. I have no idea how a team as appealing as the Knicks can't seem to get a decent GM, or any decent players for that matter.
