[David Aldridge] Owner's are "tired of making these guys rich"

The owners are taking the risk, the players are employees, but the owners do not own their images or outside income, they have no rights to that at all.

Some of the owners have gotten a bit of income from being an NBA owner too, hell Les Alexander has gotten tons of contacts and money because he had Yao on his team.

The owners should be happy the players are getting rich, it means everyone is doing well.

Sounds like jealousy to me.

DD

 

we are soo ****ed

First time I buy season tickets and I won't even be able to use them.

 

You bought tickets during a well publicized lockout season?

 

In all honesty if the players mobilize and partner with the right people, they can get a new, smaller, better league in place. They don’t need the NBA as much as these owners seem to think. There is no platform without the players; they are entitled to certain % of the revenue. Go ahead and put CBA-caliber players in the league, let’s see how their cherished platform holds up without the stars.

Nobody puts a gun to an owners head and forces them to sign Stromile Swift to a bad deal… now they want sponsorship money? Do they need their asses wiped too?

The players should form a new league (if they can), make it global, make it fun, take a brief vacation from the shackles Stern has imposed. Go away from the professionalism. Be free, be real, be fun…

Would it last in the end? Probably not, we want our history, our records, and our tradition. But I guarantee you it would work for 3 years easy. And be very profitable. It would force the NBA to come crawling back, begging for mercy.

I say the players mobilize and crush the league – simply because they can.

 

Really sorry to hear that, dude.

If owners are tired of making the players rich, I'd say fans are equally tired of making the owners rich.

Not that they weren't already rich to begin with, but the point stands that fans pour money into their product, and all they can do is complain about having to spend tens of millions more, when most of them are hundred-millionaires, and some billionaires.

We go to games to root for the players, not fat richboys who are too used to getting their way.

I want players and owners to both admit that they're being too greedy and settle this s***.

Without fans, neither of those two groups would have a job.

If they deprive us of a season because of greed, we should boycott their product and let them know what employment feels like.

 

I get free concert tickets and a signed ball. BTW, I still get 5% interest on my money if the lockout lasts all year. I was going to get season tickets anyways and knew there was a lockout coming.

 

No it doesn't. Hence the lockout. And this isn't an NFL like lockout either. Yes, there may be some fuzzy math going on somewhere, but the consensus definitely seems to be that the owners aren't "getting rich" like the players.

I have no pony in this race, just love basketball, but to take the other side, it's ridiculous to think that the players can just band together and start their new league. Where are they going to play? How are they going to get revenues - will ESPN give a new league without arenas, etc. billions of dollars for a 10 year contract to televise their games at Rucker Park or something?

I'm not saying it's impossible.... BUT, there have been countless attempts across all sports to form new leagues that have generally all failed. Now, the players do clearly have a lot of leverage because ultimately it comes down to talent.... and that rests with the players. But it's foolish to think that this is all about the players and not at all about the system in place.

As with all these threads, this seems like more posturing. What's clear, though, is that there is a pretty large divide here...

 

Both sides are posturing, because it's what the incentives are at this point: i.e. there are no games missed, and no significant money missed by either the players or the owners at this point. When it gets closer to the points at which teams start missing revenue and the players start missing game checks, we'll see how willing they are to make a deal.

 

The NBA is about more than just the sport, it’s bigger than the product they put out on the floor. There is a culture, an atmosphere, a global element to it. Even more so than tailgating at football games or drinking beer during a baseball day-game. No doubt there is a lot to overcome, but they can find venues. Add the global element to it. Let the unique culture flourish, instead of hindering it like Stern has. Pro basketball can be done in a completely different way and be successful unlike football or baseball.

Disruptive innovation, applied to pro basketball.

I think it could work. Think a modern ABA. Where on-court personal style isn’t frowned upon. Where tweeting at halftime is fair game. Where you don’t have to wear suits on the sidelines. Kids instead of businessmen in the stands. I wouldn’t like it. But America would. The world would. And best of all, Stern would hate it…

It could happen. It won’t. But it should.

 

That is because the consensus consists of uninformed people, who generally overlook the accounting practices, and the monies made with the sale of the franchise, which is where the owners really clean up.

Generally, they try to show a loss each year to offset their other income, and then sell it for a large profit years later.

The loss however, is not really a loss, as they might be paying their wife $10 million a year to consult etc.

I would think they could look at the old ABA and get some ideas, there are tons of venues that are empty most of the year, I think some entreprenuers could find a way to make some $$$ by starting a new league, or having a series of all star games where the revenue is split with the players.

Totally agree with you there, this is 100% posturing, I honestly wish there was never any reporting on it...until it was done....just a bunch of ego feeding if you ask me.

DD

 

It may be true for a few owners, but not for the league as a whole. Lets use the assumption that the league is losing $300 million a year as a whole, I recall reading that, if no games are played, the league as a whole will lose $1.5 billion-- which makes sense if you consider that they will lose all of ticket sales, concession, parking, and TV revenue (I believe the national TV contract is structured so that the NBA gets paid up front but will have to refund if games are missed) and will still have to make loan payments, arena lease payments, and pay the salary of the staff (unless they fire all of them). This is not even including the loss of future revenue if fans start getting annoyed at the NBA and turn to other forms of entertainment like football, hockey, reading, p*rn and gardening instead.

I think this "we are better off not playing" thing is another example of posturing. Most people don't buy NBA teams to have their teams not play. We'll see how serious everyone is about their position when the math starts to matter.

 

I can't imagine that teams who are losing money would be better off without a season. They might say that, but I'm guessing that if there weren't a season, they'd be losing more.

 

The fact that the owners are able to depreciate players salaries as a hard asset is just funny accounting.

They are NOT losing $340 million a year, that is 100% bogus.

DD

 

Except for those jerseys that they wear, which is part of their image. I assume the NBA/Owners are compensated for when their team name/logo are used in these commercials, and that is why they don't always wear their team logo, etc.

 

If this is "100% bogus", do you think the idea that many owners are willing to cancel the season is also bogus?

 

this isn't the nfl, a bunch of owners are losing money, but dadakota is right on depreciating the contracts from what i saw.

they are losing money but not what they claim but they can't continue to lose money