Salary Cap Could Decline 'Between $3 Million And $12 Million' Next Season

[RealGM Wiretap]

The NBA salary cap is expected to decline "anywhere between $3 million and $12 million" for next season, sources told Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

The league reportedly missed its revenue projections by $1.5 billion due to a combination of the shutdown, cancellation of games, and finishing the season without fans. 

It was reported on Friday that the NBA could hold up to 40% of player salaries for the upcoming season in escrow to offset anticipated losses due to having a limited amount of fans or no fans altogether.

The withheld salary would be roughly $1.6 billion based on a $4 billion projected salary for next season.

The league is also targeting a December 22nd start date, which could generate an extra $500 million in revenue. 

Via Connor Letourneau/San Francisco Chronicle

[ecuhus1981]

Saber rattling begot the CBA talks, but the owners have a point. Assume ticket sales revenue will be zero, and anything above that will be gravy.

[Jabroni Lames]

Saber rattling begot the CBA talks, but the owners have a point. Assume ticket sales revenue will be zero, and anything above that will be gravy.

Sabre rattling? Just finishing the season and salvaging the network revenue was a major miracle. Hopefully, people can clearly see the difference between players and owners. The owners have to bear the losses in tough times. Players make salary and endorsements no matter what. Zero risk... all reward.

[dougthonus]

Sabre rattling? Just finishing the season and salvaging the network revenue was a major miracle. Hopefully, people can clearly see the difference between players and owners. The owners have to bear the losses in tough times. Players make salary and endorsements no matter what. Zero risk... all reward.

Do you think the current split they negotiated is unfair? Every major US sportsleague has come to roughly the same revenue split with its players. Both sides are probably spending 10s of millions of dollars in legal fees as they negotiate this, and the owners have typically held stronger financial leverage in the negotiations.

It's baffling to me that anyone is going to take a strong stance on the moral outcome of a deal negotiated between two megawealthy entities, both with strong representation at the table that lands on a number which is more or less the same number that all comparative industries in this market landed on.

But I agree that owners aren't sabre rattling. They got hit hard. The way the CBA works as well, the owners lost a ton of money last year, but the cap only goes down by the amount they expect to lose this year (which probably is also a ton of money based on the current vaccine timeline as players in stands in any normal quantities seems unlikely at any point this season).

[njknicks]

Translation -- teams that are well under the salary cap will have an absolute field day in free agency & the trade market. You will probably witness once in a generation type of trades to offset next year's financial losses (i.e. all-star players traded to clear salaries).

[the_process]

Bobby Marks has come out and said the cap is staying flat or possibly even going up slightly, not going down.