What if an NBA and NHL game clash?

Question

Some NBA and NHL teams share arenas. What would happen if an NBA game was scheduled at the same time as an NHL game?

Has this ever happened before?

Answer 1

im pretty sure the leagues and arenas figure this out

Answer 2

The basketball team has to wear skates and play on ice

Answer 3

It does happen occasionally during playoffs.  The regular season is set up around conflicts.

Most recently, the AFL had to reschedule a game in Los Angeles to accommodate the NBA Finals.  

Also, an AFL playoff game in Cleveland had to be moved to Monday night because the arena already had a scheduled event.

I know this is not 100% of what you are looking for, but the same rules would apply.

Answer 4

Yeah they specifically make schedules to co-exist with eachother.

Answer 5

I work at the Air Canada Center during both raptors and Leafs games.  They are scheduled for both to fit in, its basically alot of talk between the owners of the arena, and both leagues.  Madison Square Gardens is able to change over there ice to a court in 4 hours and they have done an early game and a late game before.  Air Canada Center takes about 8 hours to switch over but are working on changing systems so it is quicker so they can do such things aswell.

Here, the leafs have the priorty, but with that said, the leafs season starts a bit earlier and for the most part certain days were leafs and certain were raps, leafs were usually tues/thurs/sat whereas raps had wed, fri, sun.. and then mondays were either team really

Answer 6

It wouldn't happen.

In the vast majority of arenas that have shared use, the primary tenant gets first choice on dates, and these dates are shared with both the NBA and NHL offices.  Both leagues work with their broadcast partners (network and local) to avoid any conflicts.

Other uses such as concerts and other sports (colleges, minor sports, etc.) then get the pick of what's left, with times built in (in other words, building in how much time it will take to get an arena from one configuration to another).

As an example, here in Toronto the Raptors generally never have Saturday home games because the Leafs are almost always playing on Saturday (for HNIC); but will have a ton of Sunday home games; while MLSE owns both clubs, MLSE knows their cash cow (and it's not the dinosaur) and plans accordingly.

It's actually quite amazing how much work goes into putting together the schedule, given that in some cases, arenas may have events booked years in advance (as an example, NYR has to vacate every year for the circus).  Add on to that conflicts with major events (my guess is that Tampa won't have any home games that conflict with the Super Bowl due to hotel availability issues), and it's a bit tricky.  

To that, it's why during the playoffs you see teams having 2 or 3 day layoffs during the playoffs as the arena has already been booked for an event (concert, other sport, etc.).  The league will normally not start asking arenas to "hold" April/May/June dates until later in the season (the arena holders, as you can guess, don't want to have "hold" dates that would prevent them from booking a potentially lucrative concert or trade show), by which time the calendar can get a bit tricky.

Answer 7

Nope.  They're scheduled not to interfere.  Prudential Center also holds concerts, and everything is scheduled to be on separate dates, with enough time to set up the arena for a hockey game - getting the seats and ice ready, etc.

Answer 8

In case it does the boston bruins players would slit Kevin Garnetts Throat

Answer 9

With the exception of Toronto, the NBA requires their team to be the primary tenant and with the exception of the playoffs, the NBA always has the priority.

Since the early 70s, the NBA furnishes their schedule to the NHL before publication to allow the NHL to create their schedule.

In the case of the playoffs, the NHL generally gets priority because their playoffs start first (although the last 2 weeks of the NBA regu;ar season have been known to play havoc with the the first round of the NHL playoffs, especially back in the old days where the preliminary round was 2 out of 3.

In the case of Toronto, the owner has determined that the Leafs have priority.

One other thing to note

Both the NBA and NHL ask their teams for 'preferred days' for home games.  This was designed to suit season ticket holders (i.e. Chicago held their home games in the 70s on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday so patrons knew to keep those days free) to plan ahead.

This system also allows teams that share arenas to select days (i.e. the 76ers choose Monday and Thursday, the Flyers choose Wednesday and Saturday).

Answer 10

they plan it so that it doesn't.

they make their schedules work. because they need to book the arena if it's not dedicated to their sole sport.

if they do clash, then somebody made a huge mistake.

there have been cases where it's like..

washington capitals vs. toronto maple leafs (at air canada centre)

washington wizards vs. toronto raptors (verizon centre..not sure if it's the right arena)

that doesn't happen too often but it's cool when it does.

Answer 11

They make sure it doesn't. But they sure don't show Rangers games on MSG! They have to show basketball. They sure don't mind playing basketball away games over hockey home games!

Answer 12

smart cities put the NHL ahead of the NBA