The NBA season gets started Tuesday night with a trio of games
highlighted by a clash between the Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls and
the two-time defending champion Miami Heat. Las Vegas has the Heat
favored to win a third straight title with the Oklahoma City Thunder,
Los Angeles Clippers and Bulls among the next set of favorites. The NBA
has been on a roll in recent years thanks to a bevy of stars, success by
big market franchises and the international appeal of the game. Total
revenues for the league were expected to approach a record $5 billion last season. Here are the business stories we are tracking this season.
LeBron James
The four-time MVP is story 1a, 1b and 1c in today’s NBA. We have not seen the focus on one player in the NBA since Michael Jordan hung up his high tops for a second time in 1998 after his second three-peat with the Bulls. ESPN The Magazine devoted its entire NBA preview issue to all-things LeBron and it is hard to blame them. The immediate questions are whether James can lead the Heat to another title and win a fifth MVP (the record is six by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while Jordan and Bill Russell each won five).
The bigger long-term question is where James will be playing next year. He is expected to exercise his early termination option in his contract to make him a free agent in the summer of 2014, setting up The Decision 2.0. Three years after James’ departure from Cleveland, the franchise value of the Cavaliers is down 9% and the value of the Heat is up 71%. James said he will not address his free agency during the season, but the Heat, followed by the Cavs are expected to be the leaders in the race for his services.
TV Contract
The NBA’s current contract with partners ABC/ESPN and TNT runs through the 2015-2016 season and is worth $930 million a year on average, but negotiations on an extension are expected to be completed over the next 12 months. Look for the NBA to double its annual take with the craving for sports programming rights at an all-time high. The addition of NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports 1 as national entities bumps up the number of players bidding on the rights packages. TV ratings were down last season, but they hit 10-year highs the previous year. The 10.4 rating for the 2013 NBA Finals was the second highest in the past decade.
David Stern’s Retirement
Commissioner Stern will retire in February after 30 years in the NBA’s top spot. The league has exploded under his watch. When he took over, CBS was paying $22 million a year for broadcast rights to games and the playoffs (outside of the Finals) were shown on tape-delay. NBA teams were worth about $400 million collectively in 1984 and now are worth more than $15 billion. Long-time deputy Adam Silver will take the reins, and he is expected to be the driving force in the next round of TV deals. Silver has been an integral part of just about every major NBA decision in recent years, including the settlement of the 2011 lockout.
SOURCE : http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/10/29/nba-tip-off-6-business-stories-to-watch-this-season/
LeBron James
The four-time MVP is story 1a, 1b and 1c in today’s NBA. We have not seen the focus on one player in the NBA since Michael Jordan hung up his high tops for a second time in 1998 after his second three-peat with the Bulls. ESPN The Magazine devoted its entire NBA preview issue to all-things LeBron and it is hard to blame them. The immediate questions are whether James can lead the Heat to another title and win a fifth MVP (the record is six by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while Jordan and Bill Russell each won five).
The bigger long-term question is where James will be playing next year. He is expected to exercise his early termination option in his contract to make him a free agent in the summer of 2014, setting up The Decision 2.0. Three years after James’ departure from Cleveland, the franchise value of the Cavaliers is down 9% and the value of the Heat is up 71%. James said he will not address his free agency during the season, but the Heat, followed by the Cavs are expected to be the leaders in the race for his services.
TV Contract
The NBA’s current contract with partners ABC/ESPN and TNT runs through the 2015-2016 season and is worth $930 million a year on average, but negotiations on an extension are expected to be completed over the next 12 months. Look for the NBA to double its annual take with the craving for sports programming rights at an all-time high. The addition of NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports 1 as national entities bumps up the number of players bidding on the rights packages. TV ratings were down last season, but they hit 10-year highs the previous year. The 10.4 rating for the 2013 NBA Finals was the second highest in the past decade.
David Stern’s Retirement
Commissioner Stern will retire in February after 30 years in the NBA’s top spot. The league has exploded under his watch. When he took over, CBS was paying $22 million a year for broadcast rights to games and the playoffs (outside of the Finals) were shown on tape-delay. NBA teams were worth about $400 million collectively in 1984 and now are worth more than $15 billion. Long-time deputy Adam Silver will take the reins, and he is expected to be the driving force in the next round of TV deals. Silver has been an integral part of just about every major NBA decision in recent years, including the settlement of the 2011 lockout.
SOURCE : http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/10/29/nba-tip-off-6-business-stories-to-watch-this-season/
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