If the season gets cancelled, is there anything to stop the league and owners from simply starting from scratch next year and saying to hell with the players' union? It should be a strong draft class coming up, given how few people left early last year with the lockout uncertainty... If the union decertifies, does that change anything for the worse in that respect? You have to figure, a large percentage of the players would cross the picket line as soon as they realized the owners had called their bluff (and that their union leadership is a tired, misdirected lot), and most of the hold-outs would be beyond their life cycle within a couple of draft classes, anyway. Rookies are just happy to be getting a paycheck and wouldn't pose much a hurdle in drafting a new CBA...
The owners have to respect the union so long as they remain so and cannot start a new league. If the union decertifies, then the owners will have to go to court and try and have the contracts declared void. Maybe a judge will and maybe not. Only if the contracts are declared invalid can the owners then create a new league with their own rules.
If that happens, I already posted that attendance would be about 4000 per game leaguewide. With similar TV ratings. The league would go bankrupt and owners would lose about $350M each on average. But upon further reflection, I'll amend that to about 1500 per game.
Why? I think the average fan is turned off by the spoiled brat perception of most players and would be happy to see some fresh faces. Besides, the league is well known to be a star-making, PR machine. (Just ask Barkley.) It wouldn't take them much time to reproduce the visibility and familiarity of the current crop of players.
If I lived in PDX, I'd go to replacement player games, if for no other reason than to make a statement to the entitlement idiots who just scuttled the season.
But would you pay $100 a ticket? I doubt many would. TV ratings would be way down, the owners would lose billions of dollars of revenue.
I very much doubt that. The first year's draft class would probably put it a cut above the d-league, and a year later would far exceed it, especially with all the current players that would surely cross the picket line.
Well, that's about what the D-League averages. Those teams are in smaller towns, so maybe I should boost my estimate to 2000. 3000 for the big games. Maybe we'd hit 4000 if the Blazers made the Finals. But only if Roy came back and had a great quarter.
You're making the same assumption Denny Crane is -- that the level of play and fan interest would mirror that of the d-league -- but I see no support for that position.
Who wants to watch d league players turn the ball over every 3 possessions and jack up 30 3 pointers a game? I know i dont
Actually, knowing that Lebron isn't playing would make it easier to accept almost anything. I'd happily make that tradeoff. barfo
So, nobody but the 450 current NBA players know how to play basketball? Somehow I find that difficult to believe. barfo
Nobody but the current 450 made the NBA. There might be a couple dozen Joel Freeland types who might make the top 450.
Who cares? What's special about the top 450? Is that some sort of magical cutoff? Does no one watch basketball in Europe because they don't have the top 450? Does no one watch college ball? barfo
