Hawks employees hoping to avoid cuts

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While NBA players launch their moronic “Let Us Play” campaign on Twitter, it’s safe to say they won’t have to worry about their next rent or mortgage payment for a while.

Maybe they should try selling peanuts at Philips Arena.

The NBA has canceled the first two weeks of the regular season. So far, there’s no massive hysteria among the fan base. No surprise.

But here’s something to think about: While owners and players engage in a high-level, thumb-twiddling war, a lot of regular people with regular jobs are about to lose a significant part of their income.

Front office employees of the Hawks have yet to hear from either impending new owner Alex Meruelo or impending lame duck majority owners from the Atlanta Spirit about whether there will be a payroll reduction — be it in the form of layoffs, furloughs or salary cuts. But at the very least, about 300-plus game-day employees — concessionaires, ushers, ticket-takers, stat crew members, security, etc. — are out of jobs. Restaurants at CNN Center and around Philips Arena already took a hit when the Thrashers were sold and moved to Winnipeg. http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/ ... void-cuts/

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I wanted to quote this part as well.

When the NFL locked out out the players during collective bargaining talks), Falcons owner Arthur Blank instituted mandatory two-week furloughs (although he reimbursed workers after a new CBA was reached).