the league is not losing money. stop it. it defies all logic. everyone admits that revenue is at a record-high. everyone admits that player salaries as a portion of that revenue has held constant over the last 11 years. What are the expenses that are rising so dramatically that the league is losing money? And why are franchise values appreciating at a healthy rate of return if the league has been losing money so consistently.
Other expenses, of course.
https://static8.businessinsider.com/image/4e1fa8d949e2ae0e64060000/nba-revenues-and-expenses.jpg
But you still don't get it (or like to beat a dead horse). It doesn't matter whether the NBA is profitable or not; if it is, then not by much, and it is not unreasonable for owners to want to boost their return on investment (ROI), especially when revenues are uncertain, some non-salary expenses continue to rise, and the other major sports unions receive a percentage far lower than 57%.
the league has not opened up its sales prospectuses not even for player inspection let alone for public consumption. the league is NOT losing money. they claim to have lost money for 11 straight years without having done anything about it? that defies belief. how did they stay open? how did they prop up a franchise in new orleans? how did they run the WNBA?????
They ran the WNBA at a loss; that's pretty intuitive. And they assumed the risk during this past contract, whereas the players did not. Although the owners were foolish to not rein in salary expenses, they now have the ability to do so during contract negotiation. Perfectly rational and reasonable.
Even after taking out every unreasonable expense, there are still several teams that are unprofitable. The attendance and other revenue simply isn't there--and that's just to get to profitability and positive cash flow. It's not unreasonable to demand the players to absorb some of this change in economic reality--just like any other company would do.
in what other business do you become less profitable as you get more revenue?
In businesses where costs are growing at a faster rate than revenue.
BTW, our beloved (and usually well-run) Jazz are one team that has been cited among the majority of teams operating at a loss.
https://bizofbasketball.com/index.p...-broken&catid=42:articles-a-opinion&Itemid=57
With more restrictions in place for big-spending franchises to rein in spending (and possibly with a hard (or less soft) cap, it is likely that Utah will be even less inclined to dip in luxury-tax territory. (Unfortunately, it might make things easier or harder to attract players to Utah. Could work both ways.)
