Rescheduling a complete season won’t be easy even the NBA lockout is settled soon
With the cancelation of the first two weeks of games, both the owners and the players union will now have to show some flexibility to end the labour dispute in order to save the 2012-2012 NBA season.
Hoping that there will be a settlement soon, some contend that the regular season can be extended by rescheduling the games to accommodate a full 82-game season and the play-offs can be stretched into July. However, rearrangement
of a complete season is easier said than done.
One of the major hurdles the league had to face in rescheduling the games is to find a place to play. Many arenas including Staples Centre will be unavailable due to lack of scheduling flexibilities. In this situation, it will
be very difficult for some arenas to put off the listed events and contractual commitments.
Lee Zeidman, the general manager of the Staples Centre which is the home building for the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, said that on hearing the talk of rescheduling the games, his mind flashed to his future commitments.
"I've heard talk that the players and owners would look to add games past the drop-dead date of the NBA Finals, June 21. I know they are tinkering with that. It can never happen here. On June 22, 23 and 24, I have tentative concert
holds, and at 4 a.m. on June 25, I'm contractually obligated to allow ESPN to start loading [the arena] for the X Games, that start June 30. Then, right after that, I have Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus coming in July 9-15." Lee Zeidman said.
New York Knicks home court Madison Square Garden has also dedicated the summer months to a renovation project of billions of dollars. Similarly, many other arenas have the same scheduling conflicts which make it quite difficult
to think about extending the season.
Despite of scheduling conflicts, the sources have suggested that the teams have asked the arenas to review their full schedules in order to find out that whether the rescheduling can take place.
Restoration of the games may force NBA owners and players association to end the conflict soon in order to make the extension of the season feasible with less cancelled games. However, both the parties are still far apart on a
number of issues, with sharing the Basketball Related Income (BRI) being the top concern. The players were taking home 57 percent of the BRI in the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement and the owners want to bring that percentage to 47 in the new CBA which
is completely unacceptable for the players.
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