Stern: No NBA 'doomsday scenario'...

I'd like to see both leagues downsize. I think the NHL needs to do away with the southern teams that nobody cares about Florida, Phoenix, Nashville, etc.... maybe even the Blue Jackets.

Not sure about the NBA. Who would you downsize?

 

The Knicks.

 

"Other than the NFL" doesn't apply when the league office and teams are laying off personnel.

The trouble most big-time sports is going to face is that for the last 20-25 years they've completely thrown in their lot with corporate money and taxpayer-funded facilities. If either is less available, and the teams have to rely on fan money, they're all going to sink quickly -- what's happening now, in fact.

On the up side, you'll be able to afford to get to a game again.

EDIT: Like apparently what is happening with the Indiana Pacers, which are threatening to move or shut down if they don't get help for paying $15 million a year in arena costs they agreed to when Conseco Fieldhouse was built for them.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090310/LOCAL18/903100360

(Not that the team will move, because no one will pony up the dough to have them, and not that they will shut down, because David Stern will desperately try to keep every team alive -- which is why the league borrowed $200 million to prop up a bunch of teams.)

 

I find it interesting that the most violent of the Big Four sports is the only one without guaranteed contracts.

That tells you a couple things. One, that Gene Upshaw (RIP) was in the back pocket of NFL owners and that the players in the other three leagues should agree to whatever they have to to make sure their contracts stay guaranteed.

 

NHL contracts aren't 100% guaranteed. Players can be bought at 2/3rds of what is remaining on their contracts.

 

I'm guessing NBA and MLB owners would kill for that.

 

Given what the cash-hemorrhaging Pacers are paying Tinsley not to play this year, yeah, I would say they would.

 

Yeah, it does. The NFL and its teams don't <b>have</b> to lay people off, but it's a handy, money-saving way to be dramatic about the need for financial relief. So now they're walking around telling everyone, "Man, times are tough. We just had to let 25 people go last month." The NFL is fine.

You think the Cleveland Browns' video guy was really a big item in the team's budget?

 

Don't forget the Redskins laying off a bunch of people then shelling out $100 mil for a couple of players.

 

The NHL hasn't really recovered from its lockout.
It went away and nobody missed it.
It came back andit was behind NASCAR and golf.

 

If they cut back on the calendar for sports, I'd stop watching all together. Good god, there's already a huge enough entertainment gap post football/pre baseball.

Baseball, I'll admit, is already too long, but it fills a gap the entire spring and summer. Football is too short already. NBA and NHL? Afterthoughts in my mind now.

 

I don't know Fenian, I think the people who cared about the NHL before the lockout still do. The game itself is better as well. Bettman still thinks that the NHL is going be something other than a niche sport in the States. Going to Versus instead of staying with ESPN was a colossal mistake.