CBA Negotiations Could Get Ugly (Amare to take a hit)

[Mr. Sun]

In conversations with front-office executives Tuesday night, I was told some strong stuff regarding the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement. As you probably know, the current CBA will end after the 2010-2011 season.

The gist of what I was told is that the owners will go for the jugular and drop the players’ salaries immensely.

I spoke with one executive about Amare Stoudemire and was told that, the way owners are talking now, Stoudemire wouldn’t even get a five-year contract worth $60 million under the next CBA. That sounded crazy to me, but when I spoke with a team owner an hour later, he made the executive sound tame.

“The owners are really going to chop the money down,’’ the owner said. “I think Stoudemire would get $5 or $6 million [annually] in the next deal. The bottom line is that things are going to change dramatically.’’

Five to six million dollars for a five-time All-Star in his prime? That sounds cruel compared with the players’ current salaries, so cruel that I just don’t believe it. A general manager I spoke with later agreed that that was an extreme.

More: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... d-get-ugly

[elly23]

LOL i dont think that will happen. amare for 5-6 million a year? if he walks i hope he only gets that much from a different team. it will make my year

[Qwigglez]

Good. The league needs to be more like the NFL when it comes to contracts.
Wouldn't mind this at all.

[BurningHeart]

Doubt it happens....but it'd be great.

They need to make contracts exactly like the NFL.

[OrangeNation]

They might as well lower the ticket price 300% to make things equal. What a joke these owners are pulling.

[garrick]

With NBA tickets being so pricey I really think that salaries will be cut if the economy does not turn around drastically.
The prices for an NBA game in a market like Phoenix is astounding, for a middle income person if I had a choice between spending 100-800 dollar seat for one game I would rather just get NBA league pass and spend the money on something else.

If they made tickets cheaper you would get a lot of die hard fans coming to the games and changing the atmosphere of the arena, as it is right now the games are pretty quiet compared to the heyday of the Suns in the 90's.

[lilfishi22]

I don't think grown men should be paid millions to play a child's game but that's my personal opinion and not how the world works. But $20mil down to $5-6mil is insane, there's no way the NBPA is going to take this.

[dantian]

Derrick Rose, Mayo, Durant, Evans will not get more than 5-6 mil a year? Wow, just Wowwww!

[Miklo]

Mr. Sun is this your article/post or are you citing?

I've had some pretty good involvement/familiarity with CBAs in different leagues as many here know and yes there will be some pretty heavy downward pressure on player salaries throughout these next negotiations. However the negotiation is 2-sided. Fans will not pay current ticket prices to watch rosters full of replacement players (Alando times 12 FTW), so the players have plenty of leverage there. The numbers mentioned within this thread are not realistic. 5 years 60 million as a max contract is unrealistic enough - that would mean something like 8-10 million in year 1 and you are not going to get a LeBron for that, period. 5 or 6 million is absolutely absurd. Of course, some owners have these expectations which is why the idea of a lockout is sort of lingering over everyone's heads.

There's a lot more to be said about the upcoming negotiations but it boils down to owners/management/fans feeling like player salaries have gotten out of hand - which they have - and the NBPA showing their muscles in that they are okay with a lockout if owners will not budge.

Ultimately, a lockout hurts everyone as we learned last time. Players don't get paid. Teams don't make any money. Fans get pissed off and start watching college ball and other sports, some being lost from the NBA permanently. The negotiations will get ugly for sure, but things will go one step at a time. Perhaps player contract structures are edited and pay levels take a 20-25 percent cut, but when you hear executives saying they expect max salaries to be 5 or 10 million in year 1, this is just a bargaining strategy. Laying out your demands publicly ropes in the other side and puts your number as the first frame of reference - which is to say, these executives are just saying this so that the negotiations start with "so, we are committed to 5 million" - so that the NBPA side feels they have accomplished something by even getting the number up to 10 or 12. It's a long road ahead for the NBA and we can only hope there is no lockout.

[baldy_pm]

This is now an article on the main page here (CBA that is...)

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/64309/20100127/owners_want_severe_drop_of_salaries/

[bstein14]

The fact is, in 2009 12 NBA owners LOST MONEY.

7 owners made $10 million or less. (Phoenix made $20.7 and was one of the most profitable teams.)

How do you think these owners feel that are losing money or making less money then 1 of their players? Not very happy at all I'm sure.

Its going to be bad for basketball, with a long layoff unless the players are willing to really give this time around.

[MarJJMar]

1. We have made money all these years despite paying luxury tax.
2. We can look forward to the new CBA because we won't have anyone under contract. Nash is the only one who runs through 2011/2012 but I thought we have a buyout option there. Only if the new CBA restricted us so much in signing new players that you couldn't get competetive with teams who have teams under contract already maybe.

A lockout won't hurt us as much as most other teams.

[MarJJMar]

In 2004 we made 20.1M$ 12th in the NBA
In 2005 we made 49.4M$ 1st in the NBA
In 2006 we made 34.5M$ 2nd in the NBA
In 2007 we made 37.3M$ 3rd in the NBA
In 2008 we made 28.9M$ 6th in the NBA
In 2009 we made 20.7M$ 6th in the NBA

It is kind of ridiculous to think that we had to make all these cost-cutting moves despite being so profitable.

[bstein14]

But the new CBA is exactly why it'd be so smart for Phoenix not to give Amare a big deal...

A team can manage with a player like Lebron eating up 33% of its cap, but not Amare.

If Amare signed a 6 year $120 million contract with the Suns it'd severely limit their options down the road(especially if they're not willing to pay tax at some point).

[MarJJMar]

It is unrealistic to think that the league would place such a CBA if you can't rid yourself of these old big contracts somehow, imo.

[aIvin adams]

In 2004 we made 20.1M$ 12th in the NBA
In 2005 we made 49.4M$ 1st in the NBA
In 2006 we made 34.5M$ 2nd in the NBA
In 2007 we made 37.3M$ 3rd in the NBA
In 2008 we made 28.9M$ 6th in the NBA
In 2009 we made 20.7M$ 6th in the NBA

It is kind of ridiculous to think that we had to make all these cost-cutting moves despite being so profitable.

i did not know this. im not asking to be rude but only so i can share: link?

btw if they put alando x 12 on the court, they were called the phx suns, and they played at the purple palace (us airwys), and the tickets were 5 bucks, i'd be there about 10x more often than i am now. i'd go all the time. i dont care if the yfield a team of fatties who cant dunk. i'd go. i just cant afford to go at these prices. i couldnt afford to go if we had the 5 best players to ever hold a basketball. cant afford it.

*eidt - between buying a ticket and giveaways i prolly go to 4 or 5 games a year. soooo i would probably only go 7 or 8 x as often...

[Mr. Sun]

In 2004 we made 20.1M$ 12th in the NBA
In 2005 we made 49.4M$ 1st in the NBA
In 2006 we made 34.5M$ 2nd in the NBA
In 2007 we made 37.3M$ 3rd in the NBA
In 2008 we made 28.9M$ 6th in the NBA
In 2009 we made 20.7M$ 6th in the NBA

It is kind of ridiculous to think that we had to make all these cost-cutting moves despite being so profitable.

Are those numbers before debt servicing?

[Miklo]

In 2004 we made 20.1M$ 12th in the NBA
In 2005 we made 49.4M$ 1st in the NBA
In 2006 we made 34.5M$ 2nd in the NBA
In 2007 we made 37.3M$ 3rd in the NBA
In 2008 we made 28.9M$ 6th in the NBA
In 2009 we made 20.7M$ 6th in the NBA

It is kind of ridiculous to think that we had to make all these cost-cutting moves despite being so profitable.

i did not know this. im not asking to be rude but only so i can share: link?

btw if they put alando x 12 on the court, they were called the phx suns, and they played at the purple palace (us airwys), and the tickets were 5 bucks, i'd be there about 10x more often than i am now. i'd go all the time. i dont care if the yfield a team of fatties who cant dunk. i'd go. i just cant afford to go at these prices. i couldnt afford to go if we had the 5 best players to ever hold a basketball. cant afford it.

*eidt - between buying a ticket and giveaways i prolly go to 4 or 5 games a year. soooo i would probably only go 7 or 8 x as often...

You know you can go to D League games for free already right??

[nevetsov]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but when sold, the $400m+ the Suns were valued at also included $200m of accumulated debt with the team?

I think any profit that the team makes goes straight to paying off the interest that compounds on that debt - no idea how much that would be (anywhere from 7-12% per annum I guess??) So potentially even if the Suns collect a $20m profit each year, all that does is pay off the interest, and the principle debt remains about the same.

Having said that, does that mean Sarver only paid $200m for a $400m team and just kept the $200m debt?

If so, he should have either paid it out in full, or, if he only had $200m in his pocket.. umm.. not bought the team!!

I guess as long as there is debt, costs will be minimised in an attempt to put more money towards paying it off, once it is paid off and all the profits go directly to the owner, then maybe we'll see some real 'financial flexibility'.

It's a bit hypocritical of me to be saying that though, I mean when the time comes for me to go buy a house, i'm not going to have the $400k+ in my pocket to buy it straight up, i'll have to take out a mortgage - but then again, my investment doesn't invest the time, energy and passion of hundreds of thousands of people around the globe - the same people who I am counting on to pay off my debt because i'd rather use their money to buy something than my own.

[MrCheckOne2]

Sweet, lets sign LeBron with a midlevel exception, and Amare with our veteran minimum lol