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Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA.
fake images
On the eve of a new season, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, Adam Silver, made clear that his league would not skip the line to receive Covid-19 vaccines as the NBA tries to normalize its business.
The NBA returns for its 2020-21 campaign on Tuesday. The league chose to play a shortened 72-game season due to pandemic interruptions from its previous season, which ended in October instead of June as usual. The NBA will attempt to finish this season before the Tokyo Olympics begin in July 2021, and will line up for a more normal offseason before starting again in October 2021.
The NBA brought out two great hitters to start its new season. It will show the Brooklyn Nets led by Kevin Durant against his former team, the Golden State Warriors, and the return of their star, Stephen Curry.
The second showdown: Defending champion Los Angeles Lakers host the Clippers, their crusader rivals. This showdown was predicted as the preview for the Western Conference finals, but Steve Ballmer’s team struck out early last year despite landing stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
On Friday, the NBA’s Christmas Day lineup features international superstars including Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Nikola Jokic of Denver.
Silver’s league is in a great position to enter a post-Covid world. The NBA is more diverse with teams competing and the stars are scattered. The remaining task is managing a season in which the Covid pandemic is worse than it was when the league resumed in July.
“We are confident that we can do it,” Silver said at his news conference Monday. “And if we weren’t, we wouldn’t have started. However, I will say that we anticipate there will be potholes on the road.”
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, receives the Moderna Inc. Covid-19 vaccine during an event in the Masur Auditorium of the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, on Tuesday, December 22, 2020 .
Patrick Smeansky | Bloomberg | fake images
Supporting the vaccine
Silver mentioned that the NBA would help with “government efforts in terms of public messages” to promote the safety of receiving the vaccine, recognizing the skepticism that some have about the treatment.
“For me, my feeling is that there is a large group out there that would put in the category of undecided about the vaccine,” he said. “I understand that there is a cohort that is strongly against vaccines, and I think there will be opportunities to overcome that.
“But I think there is a much larger group of people who are just adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude, and I hope that we see potential workers getting their shots, healthcare workers and then the elderly, and then to the people we are seeing that this is happening safely and successfully, that the NBA community will welcome vaccines when it is our turn. “
The NBA is confident that Covid vaccines will be more widespread in April, in time for its postseason, which is scheduled to begin in May. By then, perhaps local governments will give more teams the green light to open stadiums, as the playoff revenue is beneficial to the teams.
“Getting the fans back on the arenas is a high priority,” Silver said, adding that approximately six teams will be able to start with spectators on Tuesday as Florida and Texas are allowing some fans to attend the games. “I have a feeling that we will learn a lot once we have regular season games with the fans.”
Expansion or relocation is being considered
The NBA raised $ 900 million to support the teams this year, and the pandemic losses are expected to continue without fans anytime soon.
Beyond this season, the league could help make up the difference by adding more teams, leading to expansion fees. Silver said the NBA increased discussions on the issue, but added that they are still concerned about economic problems related to the pandemic and the recession.
Clubs in big markets like the New York Knicks, a star-powerless team with back-to-back losing seasons, branding and image problems, can still turn a profit. But most clubs suffer financially in slow economic cycles, as would be the case with any expansion team.
“I think I’ve always said it’s kind of the league’s manifest destiny that you expand at some point,” Silver said. “I would say that it has led us to dust off some of the analysis on the economic and competitive impacts of the expansion. We have been spending a little more time than we were before the pandemic. But certainly not to the point. That expansion is in the front burner “.
Relocation is another option. Team owners can go for either option, as both carry fees paid to the NBA. Relocation allows the league to avoid dividing up its largest source of income (media rights) among more owners, although clubs may incur relocation fees and “liquidated severance clause” fees if they attempt to escape arena leases sooner. the agreements expire.
The talk between sports bankers has put Seattle, Las Vegas and Kansas City in the sights of the NBA.
The bigger question is whether those markets, or any market, can support a new team during an economic downturn.
“It’s an economic issue and it’s a competitive issue for us,” Silver said. “So it’s one that we will continue to study, but we are spending a little more time than we were before the pandemic.”
Kevin Durant # 7 of the Brooklyn Nets shoots the ball against the Washington Wizards during a preseason game on December 13, 2020 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Nathaniel S. Butler | National Basketball Association | fake images
The NBA race to 2 billion viewers
Perhaps the most prominent play of the NBA is its desire to continue its global expansion and to do so with a younger audience. Silver mentioned that the league is “close to nearly two billion people who are consuming the NBA in some way on social media globally.”
With consumer habits changing, the NBA’s race to surpass two billion would be enormous in a post-Covid world, where a new generation of consumers seem disinterested in sports.
Research firm Morning Consult notes that Gen Z consumers (ages 13-23) are “less likely than the general population to identify as sports fans. 53% of the 1,000 Gen Zers surveyed are considered sports fans, compared to 63%. ” of American adults and 69 percent of millennials in a subsequent survey. “
The only Generation Z consumers of the US Major Leagues “over-indexed as fans relative to the general public” was the NBA.
That interest among younger consumers is why media experts project a rebound in ratings. And once Nielsen changes its ranking system for 2024 to include streaming / digital metrics, the league’s media rights rates will continue to second only to the National Football League.
“The only thing that is known about the NFL is the hottest thing about television, followed by the NBA,” said Kevin Krim, founder and CEO of advertising metrics data firm EDO.
Silver is a 72-game season away from navigating the NBA at its most challenging period. Once again, some hits are expected in the coming months, but the NBA seems poised for a brighter future in a new decade and the post-Covid-19 reality.
That future begins on Tuesday.
