Recession Deflates the NBA

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by Harkavy

As the economy goes in the tank, so are pro basketball teams.

This season, as is usually the case, most of the NBA’s 30 teams have no realistic chance of winning the championship.

But this season is different, the Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Futterman points out:

For the first time in NBA history, team owners, executives, and fans in numerous markets say they have resigned themselves to the idea that their teams are not going to be competitive this season and that, given the state of the economy, they could not make the sorts of expensive moves that would help them improve.

“We all want to win, but we have to be aware of the uncertainty of our future revenue,” said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Fans can howl all they want, but for a change, it may behoove teams to do nothing:

Beyond the obvious disappointment for fans, what’s most troubling about this situation is that for the first time in the long history of North American professional sports, the majority of the teams in one league have no financial incentive to improve. Most will be better off financially if they do nothing, and in many cases, will fare even better if they make personnel moves that are certain to make them worse.

We already knew that it’s always been all about the skyboxes, but the worsening economy has brought that into focus. Futterman adds:

[A]s the economy sours, NBA teams are increasingly concerned about their ability to raise sponsorship revenue and to sell expensive premium seats and skyboxes. Last week the league secured an additional $200 million credit facility to lend money to teams. Suddenly, the magnitude of the dollars in play has induced a wave of moves that don’t seem to be aimed at winning games.

Futterman points to the Detroit Pistons’ move earlier this season to trade its key playmaker, Chauncey Billups, for Allen Iverson, whose contract expires at the end of the season. With the move, the competitive Pistons clearly gave up their title hopes for this season.

You could argue, of course, that the Pistons were simply clearing cap room to sign one of the many great free agents who will be available in 2010. You could argue that they’re just trying to save money by getting rid of Billups’s multiyear contract for Iverson’s short-term one.

But with a new depression threatening, just the act of saving money makes sense, too.

villagevoice.com

This story is filed under: Sports

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