If Jim Dolan ruled the NBA off the court as much as his Knicks now rule it on the court, there\u2019s no telling how this offseason would play out.<\/p>\n
From his 26th floor office at 2 Penn Plaza, Dolan is the face of the big markets, while the small markets band together in the name of revenue share. It\u2019s made for intriguing board of governors sessions, and, this summer and early fall, the debate over expansion and the intrinsic revenue sharing that comes with it should bubble to the surface.<\/p>\n
The arguments for expanding from 30 teams to 31 or 32 \u2014 or sticking with 30 \u2014 are relatively simplistic. Ownership groups from Las Vegas and Seattle reportedly need to bid between $7 billion and $10 billion to get \u201cyes\u201d votes on expansion from owners such as Dolan. Otherwise, if bids are on the low end, they may not be enough to compensate for splitting the league\u2019s national media rights money one or two more ways.<\/p>\n
Dolan \u2014 whose Knicks will be on national TV ad nauseam next season and will lose MSG Network game checks every time they are \u2014 supposedly doesn\u2019t want to split anything. <\/p>\n
That said, Commissioner Adam Silver has said there\u2019s generally harmony in the BOG room, despite what people believe. If expansion is voted down, it will be by consensus. But, make no mistake, this offseason is about cold hard cash.<\/p>\n
Take NBA Europe. In a perfect world, the marquee EuroLeague clubs \u2014 Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Fenerbah\u00e7e, Asvel or Olympiacos \u2014 would submit bids between $500 million and $1 billion to give the fledgling league continental credibility when it launches as planned in the fall of 2027. But EuroLeague CEO Chus Bueno has said his teams shouldn\u2019t have to pay full price, due to the IP and fan bases they bring to the new league. Will the NBA give them a discount? Bueno also wants a full merger if there\u2019s a merger at all. Problem is: There are 13 EuroLeague teams and only 12 permanent NBA Europe slots. The numbers don\u2019t add up, and EuroLeague finances might not, either.<\/p>\n
Another revenue question is the local TV riddle of the 13 former Main Street Sports Group teams. This offseason, 11 of them (Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Bucks, Timberwolves, Thunder, Magic and Spurs) still have to choose among DAZN, Victory+, the Rangers Sports Network or a local OTA channel for their linear game broadcasts. DAZN\u2019s $20 million minimum guarantee is the high end \u2014 although fans may not like its paywall \u2014 while everyone else is mostly in the $10 million-$15 million range. Until the NBA unveils its national streaming hub, local TV money will remain subpar.<\/p>\n
The last financial equation of the offseason is the Clippers-Aspiration scandal. If the Clippers are found guilty of circumventing the salary cap for their part in paying Kawhi Leonard $28 million for a no-show job, the potential penalties could be harsh: losing three first-round picks, or a $30 million fine, or owner Steve Ballmer and executives being suspended or the league voiding Leonard\u2019s current three-year, $149 million contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, we have to wrap it up,\u201d Silver said at the Finals, presumably meaning sometime before the Knicks begin defense of their championship next fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Jim Dolan ruled the NBA off the court as much as his Knicks now rule it on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":884624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[1339,1260,4281,62,67,132,8971,68],"class_list":["post-884623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-print","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-upfront","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116793237046776467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}