Friday’s meeting between the NBA and representatives from the player union lasted 4 hours. By all indications the two sides are still millions of dollars apart. At best you can hope they extend the deadline. The current CBA expires July 1st at midnight est.
The Omni Berkshire Hotel in New York was the meeting location. Players showed up wearing tan NBPA T-shirts with the word, “STAND” printed on the front. The bargaining session included various player representatives who previously had only been briefed by union officials and executive committee members on the progress – or lack thereof – in negotiations.
Tuesday, the owners will have their own meeting in Dallas. The primary purpose of the meetings is for the labor relations committee – featuring big-market representatives like the Knicks’ James Dolan and Lakers’ Jeanie Buss and small-market owners such as the Thunder’s Clay Bennett and Spurs’ Peter Holt, who also serves as committee chairman – to update representatives from all 30 teams about the state of negotiations. The owners’ planning committee will also update the board on the status of a new revenue sharing plan.
The players and union officials have tried to get the owners to include their revenue-sharing plan as part of the new CBA, saying competitive balance could be improved through sharing more revenue – such as gate receipts and local broadcast revenues – without trying to solve the league’s stated annual losses of at least $300 million strictly through salary reductions.
Stern’s position on that is, if we lose money on an aggregate basis, we can’t possibly revenue-share our way to profitability. But, enhancing the sharing of revenue as a way to help small-market teams compete is a sensitive subject between high- and low-revenue teams that continues to divide the owners.
Bottom line, the two sides need to figure something out so that no games are lost. The NBA’s popularity is on an upswing right now. Record ratings for the playoffs and finals. Even a weak draft had a spike in viewers. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to lost that momentum. Get the deal done!