The NBA has indicated a decision to resume playing the games will be made in June and league officials are optimistic that the season will be restarted the soonest. However, even if the players will be notified to prepare for the battles to come, there will be more serious problems ahead that will need to deal with.
The online call organized by the league last May 12 prompted league officials, team owners, and players to look forward on a reopening, instead of considering to cancel the season. The general feeling during the conference was "increasingly positive," meaning the majority of the stakeholders want "a resumption of the play this season."
That was the report by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, who also reminded that while the league could actually work against the odds and bring back the games, there will be serious ramifications to attend such a decision.
The most serious concern raised by NBA commissioner Adam Silver is the projected revenues losses that the league will face even is the season is restarted. In the scenario presented by Silver's office, it was visualized that the games will be played in a centralized location and it would mean that cities hosting NBA clubs will be unable to capitalize on the league coming to life anew.
Silver also made clear, that games to be played are not designed for live spectators as they will be played behind closed doors to minimize the risk of getting infected by COVID-19. The reality of this is again significant revenue losses.
The estimate from Silver is that the NBA will bleed by up to 40%. The bottom line for the league is dire in the season and likely in the season to come. The projection is that teams located in small markets will be the hardest hit as the share of revenues that these clubs are tapped in will certainly dry up.
On the players' part, Forbes said, they will need to brace for the worse to come. The NBPA has already agreed on a 25% pay cut across the board to cushion the impact of the forecasted financial pressures that the coronavirus pandemic will bring to the league.
The reduction could potentially increase if the season is shortened or canceled altogether. In addition, the season scrapped could force the NBA, in an effort to stave off bankruptcy, to terminate its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the players.
"The 'force majeure' clause of the NBA's collective bargaining agreement gives the league the right to terminate the CBA within 60 days of an event that forces the cancellation of a regular-season or a playoff game," said the report from Forbes.
As Silver has explained: "This CBA was not built for an extended pandemic ... There's not a mechanism in it that works to properly set the cap when you've got so much uncertainty."
It's true the NBA failed to foresee that a virus could spell the league's extinction and the survival of which will depend on how the parties can best arrive at a compromise to benefit all the league stakeholders.
