Disabled Sports wrote:DBoys wrote:So you think all the owners, players, coaches, etc should sign up to take a 15-20% reduction in their annual income? Good luck with that idea. A total non-starter.
they can make that percentage up in attendance because right now according to
http://extramustard.si.com The NBA, on the other hand, has only eight markets averaging at least 100 percent capacity this season: The Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets."
You make less games sound like a panacea, but it's not the magic answer you envision.
(A) By eliminating 20% of your games, you can't possibly match the attendance the league is doing now, even if you sold every ticket of every game of the 80% retained. The league averages about 90% sold, league-wide.
- - - In other words: when you say that they could "make that attendance up" even while playing 20% fewer games, it's impossible. At the very least, they'd be reducing attendance by 10%.
(B) Even if you reduce the number of games, you will still have some teams who are really bad for a few years, and they won't sell out. Winners draw fans, and losers struggle. Some teams are bad, and games between bad teams are not as fun to watch.
- - - In other words: the idea that fewer games will entice fans to crave bad games as well as good ones is at best a theory. At worst, you still have pretty much the same problem on a percentage basis.
(C) Look at your list. Your top sellers, already selling 100%, are teams in the biggest markets with the most expensive tickets. (LAL, BOS, and BKN are all selling 95%+, as well.) Cut their games by 20% and you cut your biggest revenue producers by 20%, guaranteed. Big mistake to cut down their chance to sell tix.
(D) Fewer games means TV revenues would go down. Fewer games = fewer telecasts = fewer ads sold.
As I see it, you don't cut off your arm to fix a hangnail. While they have some leftovers on average, it's not a huge problem, and the proposed "solution" offered isn't one that even has any chance to make things better.