Monroe: Stern words on revenues

[duncan228]

Stern words on revenues
Mike Monroe

DALLAS — Nobody expected the frigid temperatures and icy conditions in Dallas over All-Star Weekend, but NBA commissioner David Stern swears he was ready for the heater union chief Billy Hunter fired at him Friday.

Hunter, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, gloated about telling the owners they had to tear up the proposal they brought to the bargaining table when the two sides sat down for a face-to-face session aimed at negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement to guide player payrolls, beginning in 2012.

“It was agreed at the end that the owners would tear up their proposal,” Hunter said at his news conference Friday, as if this were some sort of victory for the NBPA.

Stern's response was to get all Texan on Hunter.

“As Peter Holt, the chairman of our labor relations committee, a Texan, says: ‘This is not my first rodeo,'” said Stern, about as far removed from Texan culture as, oh, the son of a New York delicatessen owner.

The commissioner is many things. A bull rider he is not.

I wonder if Holt, the Spurs' majority owner, will loan Stern one of his bolo ties.

“I don't even know if this is my ninth rodeo, or my 10th,” Stern said. “I've been around this. I would give yesterday's meetings high marks on the list of theatrical negotiations. Literally out of the handbook of Negotiating 101.”

This is all public posturing, of course. It is what happens in contract negotiations, about which the public actually cares.

The ticket-buying public cares only that a season will begin on time in 2012. These talks began in August, nearly two years before the current deal expires, so there would be plenty of time to get the nasty posturing out of the way before the real bargaining begins.

There are real issues that need addressing. Stern said the league's teams will lose about $400 million this season. In each of the first four years of a new deal, the teams will lose at least $200 million a year.

This recession is hurting everyone, even multimillionaires.

Stern said the league presented to the union corroboration for all claims about the losses that mandate change in the formula that splits basketball related income.

These are financial realities that must be addressed, Cowboy Dave said.

“Make a proposal, pardner,” he drawled, sort of.

So now the Olympic Tower Gang awaits a written proposal from Billy the Kid, but Cowboy Dave has drawn a line in the sand.

“As long as it comes back and deals with our financial realities,” he said, “that's okay with us.”

It took Cowboy Dave about 20 minutes to get to the gist of his message to the media Saturday evening: The players must agree to a formula that gives them a lesser share of the revenue.

“We have shown the players the facts, and at our current level of revenue devoted to player salaries, it's too high.

“I can run from that, but I can't hide from that, and I don't think the players can hide from that, either.”

Let's hope Cowboy Dave doesn't find any hanging trees before he hits the trail out of Texas.

[Mark in Austin]

Stern's hypocrisy is staggering.

He spent the first 10 minutes of the press conference explaining how successful the league was. Then as soon as labor issues come up, the league is suddenly losing $400 million.

And he gives himself the perfect cover claiming they've given the players undisputable facts on revenue, then when asked to prove it he says he won't negotiate in public. Horse . The entire last half of the press conference was a public negotiation.

Props to Henry Abbott, the only reporter with enough stones to challenge him on it. He even caught Stern in his own bull : He asked if the league is doing as well as you said in your opening remarks, how can it loose $400 million?

Stern's response: teams have had to add more marketing people to help them sell tickets and ticket prices have had to be reduced given the current economic climate. Plus all the new markets the NBA is expanding / opening offices in are capital / investment heavy - each dollar of revenue they get from the new markets costs a lot more in the infrastructure investments needed to grow that market.

Abbott closes the trap: So what you're saying is - assuming the economy recovers and those markets mature - that these increased expenses are temporary. Then whay are you proposing such a radical restructuring of the CBA?

Stern: ...... our model is unsustainable. End of press conference.

[Mr. Body]

Awesome job by Abbott. Didn't see that.

[ShoogarBear]

Stern's hypocrisy is staggering.

He spent the first 10 minutes of the press conference explaining how successful the league was. Then as soon as labor issues come up, the league is suddenly losing $400 million.

And he gives himself the perfect cover claiming they've given the players undisputable facts on revenue, then when asked to prove it he says he won't negotiate in public. Horse . The entire last half of the press conference was a public negotiation.

Props to Henry Abbott, the only reporter with enough stones to challenge him on it. He even caught Stern in his own bull : He asked if the league is doing as well as you said in your opening remarks, how can it loose $400 million?

Stern's response: teams have had to add more marketing people to help them sell tickets and ticket prices have had to be reduced given the current economic climate. Plus all the new markets the NBA is expanding / opening offices in are capital / investment heavy - each dollar of revenue they get from the new markets costs a lot more in the infrastructure investments needed to grow that market.

Abbott closes the trap: So what you're saying is - assuming the economy recovers and those markets mature - that these increased expenses are temporary. Then whay are you proposing such a radical restructuring of the CBA?

Stern: ...... our model is unsustainable. End of press conference.

Doesn't matter. Stern knows that the default response of the public is always to side against the greedy players.