Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner.
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On the eve of a new season, National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver made it clear that his league would not jump the line to get Covid-19 vaccines while the NBA tried to normalize their business.
The NBA returns for their 2020-21 campaign Tuesday. The league chose to play a short season of 72 games due to a pandemic break to the previous season, which ended in October instead of June as usual. The NBA will try to finish this season before the Tokyo Olympics start in July 2021, and align for a more normal off-season before they start again in October 2021.
The NBA pulled out two heavy hits to start their new season. He will be showcasing the Brooklyn Nets under Kevin Durant against his former team, the Golden State Warriors, and their returning star, Stephen Curry.
The second matchup: the Los Angeles Lakers defensive champion hosts the Clippers, their over-the-top rivals. This match was expected as a preview of the Western Conference finals, but Steve Ballmer ‘s team came out early last year despite stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
On Friday, the NBA’s Christmas Day schedule will feature international superstitions, including Milwaukee Bucks ’Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic, and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
The Silver league is well placed to enter the post-Covid world. The NBA is more diverse with competitive teams and stars are outsourced. The remaining work is to manage a season where Covid’s pandemic is worse than it was when the league resumed in July.
“We’re confident we can do it,” Silver said, on his media call Monday. “And if it weren’t, we wouldn’t have started. I will say, though, that we expect bumps to get in the way.”
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, will receive the Moderna Inc. vaccine. Covid-19 at an event at the NIH Clinical Center Masur Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, on Tuesday, December, 22, 2020.
Patrick Smeansky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Supporting the vaccine
Silver said the NBA would help with “government efforts on public messaging” to improve the safety of receiving the vaccine, acknowledging some skeptics about the treatment.
“For me, it means that there is a large group out there that would put me in the category of uncertainty about the vaccine,” he said. against vaccines, and I think there will be chances of breaking through that.
“But I think there’s a much bigger group of people who are just taking a ‘wait and see’ approach, and I hope we see the potential staff getting their vaccinations, health care workers and then the elderly, and then people see that this is happening safely and successfully, that the NBA community will then welcome vaccinations when it comes it’s going to be our turn. “
The NBA is banking that Covid vaccines will be more widely released by April, in time for its postseason, which is expected to begin in May. By then, local governments may give the green light to more teams, as playoff revenues benefit teams.
“It’s a big priority to get fans back in the fields,” Silver said, adding about six teams capable of starting with spectators Tuesday, as Florida and Texas allow some fans. follow at games. “I mean we learn a lot once we have regular season games with fans there. “
Expansion or movement is being considered
The NBA raised $ 900 million to support teams this year, and a pandemic loss without fans is expected to continue in the short term.
Beyond this season, the league could help make up the difference by adding more teams, which will bring expansion fees. Silver said the NBA has escalated talks on the subject, but said they remain concerned about economic issues related to the pandemic and the recession.
Big market clubs like the New York Knicks – a team without star power, with ongoing loss seasons, brand and image problems – can still make a profit. But most clubs suffer financially in slow economic circles, which would be true for any expansion team.
“I think I’ve always said that it’s kind of an obvious manifestation of the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said. “I’d say it’s caused us some of the analysis. has removed the economic and competitive impacts of expansion. We’ve put in a little more time than we were preoccupied with. But certainly not to the extent. that extension is on the face burn. “
Relocation is another option. Team owners can seek the latter option, as both have taxes paid to the NBA. Redeployment allows the league to share its largest revenue stream (media rights) between more owners, although transfer taxes and “meltdown damage clause” taxes may ”Clubs if they try to escape leases before agreements expire.
The chatter among sports bankers has put Seattle, Las Vegas and Kansas City in NBA scenes.
The biggest question is whether these markets – or any market – can support a new team in a time of economic downturn.
“It’s an economic issue, and it’s a competitive issue for us,” Silver said. “So this is one we’ll keep exploring, but we’re spending a little more time than we used to. we are overwhelmed. “
Kevin Durant # 7 of the Brooklyn Nets fires the ball against the Washington Wizards at a preseason game on Dec. 13, 2020 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Nathaniel S. Butler | National Basketball Association Getty Images
NBA race to 2 billion spectators
Perhaps the most obvious play of the NBA is its desire to continue global expansion and do so with a younger audience. Silver described the league as “nearly two billion people who spend the NBA in some way on social media on a global basis.”
With changing spending habits, the NBA’s race to surpass two billion would be huge in the post-Covid world, where a new generation of consumers seems to be interested in sports.
The research firm Morning Consult notes that Gen Z users (ages 13 to 23) are “as likely as the general population to identify as sports fans. Fifty-three percent of the 1,000 Gen Zers surveyed considered themselves sports fans, compared to 63 percent of U.S. adults and 69 percent of millennials in another study. “
The only major U.S. Gen Z player “over-recorded as fans compared to the general public” was the NBA.
That interest among younger buyers is why project rates of media experts are declining. And once Nielsen changes its ranking system by 2024 to include digital / streaming metrics, the league’s media rights taxes will continue to follow exactly the National Football League’s.
“The only thing you know about the NFL is the most interesting thing on TV, followed by the NBA,” said Kevin Krim, founder and CEO of data metrics company EDO advertising.
Silver is a 72-game season away from leading the NBA through his most challenging time. Again, some bumps are expected over the coming months, but the NBA seems set for a brighter future in a new decade and reality after Covid-19.
That future begins Tuesday.