N.B.A. officials reported a $300 million loss last season. Reducing the players’ share to 50 percent would save about $280 million in the first year of a new labor deal. From there, league officials believe they would return to profitability with modest revenue growth in future seasons. Every percentage point paid to players beyond 50 makes the task that much harder. The league’s new revenue-sharing plan is also dependent upon erasing the deficit.
On a number of smaller items, tentative agreements were reached this week that:
* There will be a one-time “amnesty” provision that will allow each team to waive a player (with pay) without his salary counting against the salary cap.
* There will be a “stretch” exception, available every year, allowing teams to waive players and stretch out their remaining salary over a number of seasons, thus reducing the annual salary-cap hit.
* The midlevel exception will be set around $5 million, a decrease of $800,000, but more than double what the owners were seeking.
The parties are still wrangling over contract length and annual raises attached to the exception.
Assuming the revenue split can be resolved, the parties will still have to tackle the luxury-tax system, which is just as thorny. But first they have to start talking again.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/the-nba-proposed-a-stretch-exception/
Looks like they should be able to solve the remaiming issues and have a season.
