The original dates the NBA set for the draft, free agency and the start of next season may be overly optimistic. The league’s board of governors addressed all three topics during a conference call Friday with commissioner Adam Silver, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Wojnarowski cites a report earlier this week that NBPA executive director Michele Roberts and other union officials have been preparing players for a delay in the start of free agency, which is currently set for October 18. Any changes must be bargained between the league and the union, but there is speculation the delay could be several weeks. Both sides seem to agree that pushing back the start of next season, which has tentatively been set for December 1, would create a greater opportunity to play in front of live crowds.
“Our No. 1 goal is to get fans back into arenas,” Silver said Thursday during ESPN’s draft lottery show. “… If it’s pushed back and it increases the likelihood of fans in arenas … that’s what we’d be targeting.”
Delaying free agency would give the league and the union more time to work out salary cap and luxury tax details for 2020/21. They are typically based on numbers from the previous season, but neither side wants to take that route because of this year’s sharp downturn in revenue.
NBA officials hope a delay will provide more information on how games can safely be played next season with fans in the arenas. Silver has estimated that paying customers provide 40% of the league’s revenue.
True dat, Arthur Hill. Society wide, America’s “intellectual” crowd ill underrate how long a return to normality will take. If you want full stadiums, it’s not a matter of early or late December. It’s about planning future bubbles; how they are to be arranged. Maybe taking the whole show city to city. Or, letting fans quarantine too if they want and can pay. Sorry about how awful that is. it’s a pandemic; blame the traditional unpopularity of grad students majoring in immunology; or a nearly world-wide unwillingness to accept a death rate rise.
I manage an outdoor concert facility; as of now, we’re being told that we’ll be allowed to have concerts again in spring of 2021, but with serious restrictions, including 10 to 25% capacity (changes weekly, it seems; right now, we’re being told that being allowed 25% capacity is “optimistic”). My guess is that it’s going to take the music industry three to five years to recover from this. Sports, probably not as long, but thinking things will get back to pre-Covid normal anytime soon isn’t realistic. Of the major sports, I feel like the NBA has handled the situation the best and been the most realistic about things. Silver, of course, has said many times that a bubble isn’t financially sustainable, which should be obvious to us all.
edit* I meant the major is unpopular, not the students.
It’s generally a bio/chem grad major, not a med school major. Not sure if that’s good or bad necessarily but… I did bring it up. The draw of big future incomes for the student can be assumed elsewhere. At any rate, society is unprepared.
Not world wide unwillingness, American unwillingness.
Tell ya what, we will accept deaths if you go first.
^? In effect, Italy did, by waiting to halt flights to/from Wuhan. Overconfidence
A Dec 1st start is too soon regardless of the virus. X-mas week at the earliest. Players, physically and mentally, are used to an off season. They waited too long to restart the regular season, but they shouldn’t compound the issue by a nominal off season. The draft should NOT be delayed. Maybe some games between non-playoff teams can occur prior to the regular start date.
Feels like we’re never going to get to the draft and it’s still two months away.
The NFL is planning to try reduced capacity crowds, I believe I saw. I think what you’re going to see is other leagues waiting on that to play out before moving forward. For the record, it’s an awful idea, imo. I don’t see it working.
If there is an unwillingness to stop the machine for a period, there is going to have to be an acceptance that nothing will be ‘normal’ for awhile. That means sports without crowds. To say maybe we’ll start later and hope for crowds is delusional. Be it Nov 1 or Jan 1, the world is going to be the same.
Delaying the draft, which can be held virtually, is silly. If they’re intent on playing next season, it should be started once the players have had adequate rest. Take the crowds out of the equation. Maybe in ’22 that can be a thought, if everything goes well.