NBA team owners are waiting for the league to provide them with new financial projections on lost revenues as a result of the coronavirus-related hiatus, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. As Wojnarowski explains, NBA chief financial officer J.B. Lockhart has taken the lead on making those estimates and sharing the information with owners.
[RELATED: NBA Hiatus May Extend Into June]
Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports and Bobby Marks of ESPN are among those who recently estimated that losing the remainder of the regular season and some or all of the postseason could cost the NBA upwards of $500MM+ in basketball related income. While the league has yet to publicize its own projections, it’s safe to say teams around the NBA are bracing for major losses.
According to Wojnarowski, the NBA will likely share a handful of projections with teams based on at least three different scenarios. Those scenarios are as follows:
- Shutting down the season entirely.
- Resuming the season with no fans in arenas.
- Resuming and playing postseason games with fans in attendance.
That lost revenue isn’t the most pressing concern for fans, but we’ll likely see its impact going forward on the salary cap. As recently as last June, the NBA was calling for a $117MM cap for the 2020/21 season, up from approximately $109MM in 2019/20. Given the projected earnings the league will lose as a result of this hiatus and its controversy with China earlier in the season, that estimate is no longer realistic.