I think this will become a big issue at some point. That tv money comes from people who want Lebron, Steph, etc. Not glorified D league teams. Whether you think so or not, does anyone have suggestion on how to handle it? They won't shorten the season because that means less money. My thought is to lengthen the days in a season and give teams, what amounts to 2 bye weeks, plus the all star week. Right now the seadon is about 170 days. Need to get thst up to 180ish. Starting sooner would be easy. Scheduling may be tricky, but try and schedule few back to backs, and go with a week off after a 1/3 of the season, the all star break and then again at the 2/3 mark.
I think getting rid of back to back games is the answer...could make a rule that only one healthy starter can rest per game though...that way you wouldn't have a game where 4 starters were sitting out
I can't remember where but I just was reading an article about this. It pretty much said that during the regular season stars don't do a thing for ratings. TNT averages 2 million viewers a game. The NBA gets shit ratings during the regular season and the money the networks spent on NBA TV was for the playoffs.
Start the season after Labor Day, in September, and start the playoffs beginning in May. Just like school. Give players a week off during Thanksgiving, a week off around All-Star Game, and a week off before playoffs. No back to backs, but fewer 2/3 days off. More every other night.
interesting, with the recent significant decline in both NFL and MLB viewership I wonder what is going to happen to the NBA? In addition a few weeks ago we were talking about how much money ESPN is going to be losing in a few years because the huge $$$ they gave in big deals to the NBA and some others. I hope these guys are enjoying these contracts because I have a strong feeling when it comes to the next TV deal the landscape is going to be much, much different.
It's a tough deal. I wish the season was about 66 games and absolutely no B2B games. Tops 3 games a week.
I'm sure the owners would agree to a 66 game season if the players agreed to a 60/40 split of the revenue instead of the current 50/50 split. Since that's not going to happen the season will remain 82 games.
Get rid of the allstar game altogether...the best players would rest during the break and honestly...the allstar game sucks. Give them an allstar medal in the mail and let them go to the beach. Maybe have the allstar game feature retired former allstars and celebrities but let NBA players in the middle of a season heal or work on their game at practice instead.
That would put the NBA in direct competition with the NFL for 2 more months than it currently is and MLB playoffs. The NBA doesn't really get a ton of national exposure until Christmas. Even if the season were started in September that wouldn't change.
True! I'm trying to stop back to back, which means more days or less games. NFL and NBA attract different viewers anyway.
Did you see an inferior product last night during the Blazers 2nd game of a back to back? And I'm not just saying that because the Blazers won. As a NBA fan do you notice a huge difference in the quality of play on the average back to back? I sure don't. The biggest drop off I see in play is when a team returns home from a long road trip.
I want as many games as it takes to have an balanced schedule. 87 games total. But to do that with no back to back and week long breaks in November, February, and April, you need 195 days. If the season started October 1, and ended April 8, with games every other day and two weeks off in November and February, that's 195 days. If you start pre-season in September, and extended season until end of April, you get more time for 2 days off sometimes. Still, no back to back games. This isn't bad, I think!
Nurkic isn't tired because he hasn't played in 3 years No, last night when I watched, it was a good game. We're playing great! But I think the NBA is better than the other leagues and deserves to play all players at a high level all the time. Wilt played 48 minutes 82 games every year because nobody played defense. Now we play hard defense all the time. People are rich and get afraid of losing value. Let them play at a high level, and if they won't unless they want time off more, then that's fine with me!
