After Cohen left the NFL talks, the union decertified and the players sued the owners in anti-trust lawsuit...so...not quite.
But I also look at the lack of pandering to the public as progress. But, equally as important, I want to see what happens during these owner meetings that got pushed back. That's where they'll discuss the revenue sharing among the franchises, and where the "big market owners vs small market owners" issues need to be worked out. If there's better revenue sharing among teams, then the owners can possibly ease up on some of their demands.
Concessions with the players can be made if teams like the Knicks and Lakers shared a bit of their tv contracts, and if visiting teams got a cut from the box office when they visit another team's arena. I believe the cut in the NFL is 60/40 in favor of the home team. If the NBA had that, then the T'wolves, Pistons, and Bucks would make a decent amount of money when they visit the Knicks, Celtics, Lakers, Magic, etc. As far as I know (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) the only monies divvied up between the teams right now is the luxury tax collected.
Follow me for a min, there are roughly 18,500 seats in MSG for a Knicks game....let's multiply that by...$200 (for a nice even number) as the average price per ticket when all the levels are taken into account, that's $3.7 million per game the Knicks sell out. As it is right now...the Knicks would bank that, but with the NFL's system...the Knicks would get $2,220,000 and the visiting team....say...the T'wolves, would get $1,480,000 from that night's box office. Multiply that by all the times they'd have to play the Lakers, Thunder, Spurs, Golden State (they almost alway sell out), then their games against the Knicks, Celtics, Miami Skeet, Bulls, etc. and they're a shitty team that doesn't have to solely rely on their team to make money, they can leech off of the strength of the good teams/good attendance arenas/big markets.
Obviously the issue with the players has to be taken care of, or there's no NBA...but don't for a second think that the issue of how money is shared amongst teams is "second rate." There's a reason for that report that Gilbert and Sarver were the owners who were up in arms and pissed that the league "considered softening" their stance on the hard cap a few weeks ago. Hard cap = restrict spending on players, restricted spending on players = "even" playing field for all teams, which helps small market teams compete with the powerhouses. Which side of the fence do you think Cleveland and Phoenix fall on? Would they have the same viewpoint if they get a cut of another team's game related BRI when they're in town?
A great thought up plan.....I had this same type of discussion months ago
in another forum on team-shared tv revenue. One member put it all to rest
with an arguement on the Chicago Bulls owner/management wasnt doing
something right when the departure of
coach Jax, Jordan, Pippin, and
Rodman wanting no part of the Bulls organization after their 3 straight
seasons of selling-out every stadium they played in (100% profit to 1% profit).
This member also mention numbers of when the Chicago Bulls were a small
market team, before
coach Jax, Jordan, and Pippin made the Chicago Bulls
owner one of the NBA top-3 big market owners to own tv network and
stadium.....plus he mention small-market teams are to greedy to share
their packed house stadium with a big-market team (Miami at Cleveland)
the return of Lebron was standing-room only in Cleveland.
The
small-market vs big-market owners has been the biggest issue the
past 2 decades in the NBA, this same issue prolong the previous CBA
lockout in 1998-99 which lead to the agreement of a soft-cap to lock
superstars to a team (KG, Duncan).
The wealthy-billionairs crying of losing money after the stock-market crashed
in 1929 was a helluva cry, but their billionair-grandchildren crying today of
losing money after another economic market crash that lead to a decade of
recession in this country b/c they want to be as powerful or on equal grounds
in the NBA market as the next billionair....
is insaneful crazy.
We all watch Knicks owner James Dolan "BAIL-OUT" so many NBA owners by
trading for their high expensive contracts within the past decade to average
a $100M Knicks cap plus paying the highest luxury tax in the NBA throughout
a decade while making a profit each season. How many small-market and big-
market teams could do what Dolan did for so many NBA teams and show no
tears after a decade?
Dolan gave every team a 2 year advance notice that the Dolan "BAILOUT"
bussiness is closed. Its a big waste of time, energy, and the NBA season
trying to figure a new CBA rule to make any small market-team half as equal
as Dolan's Knicks.