First two weeks of the next NBA season cancelled as lockout drags on – NBA Labour Dispute Update
It’s official.
On Monday, October 10, 2011, NBA Commissioner David Stern cancelled the first two weeks of NBA games in the next regular season. A total number of 100 games, which were scheduled to be held from November 1st to November 14th, have now been wiped out.
The dreaded announcement came after the NBA owners and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) were unable to resolve differences over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the Monday deadline, as announced by Stern last week.
Both sides met till the late hours of Sunday and then held another marathon 7 hour session on Monday, but the gap between them ultimately proved too wide to bridge.
David Stern revealed after the meeting that both sides were "very far apart on virtually all issues. ... We just have a gulf that separates us.”
He also warned that if the gap is not bridged soon enough, more games will be lost.
"With every day that goes by, I think we need to look at further reductions in what's left of the season,"
Both sides remain apart on most issues, including the core ones regarding BRI split and salary cap structure. The NBA doesn’t want to give more than 50 percent of Basketball Related Income (BRI) to the players, who have refused to accept a hard salary cap. Many other, supposedly, B-list issues also remain unresolved.
The way things have gone so far, there is a very real danger that the season will be cancelled as a whole, sooner or later.
"I started out by saying I'm sorry to report, and I'm sad to report that we've cancelled the first two weeks," Stern said. "We certainly hoped it would never come to this. I think that both sides worked hard to get to a better solution. We think that we made very fair proposals. I'm sure the players think the same thing. But the gap is so significant that we just can't bridge it at this time."
NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver expressed his surprise at the stance taken by NBA players and revealed that he thought that by this time, both sides would at least have come a lot closer on key issues. That, unfortunately, hasn’t happened and both sides seem ready to sit out for significant amounts of time in order to get what they believe would be a fair deal.
The NBA lockout had already wiped out training camps and a pre-season, now arenas across the country will be authorized to schedule other events at the dates previously reserved for NBA games.
It is estimated that $83 million will be lost in ticket sales alone for the first two weeks and season ticket holders will have to be provided refunds, with interest.
Tags: