The New York Times recently reported that the Owners claims that they are losing money is made-up. Having read the entire article I was amazed at how shockingly bad the analysis was in that article.
According to Nate Silver of the New York Times:
"Even as it stands, however, the Forbes data suggests that the league is still profitable. Its operating income — revenues less expenses (but before interest payments and taxes) — is estimated to have been $183 million in 2009-10, or about $6 million per team. The N.B.A.’s operating margin (operating income divided by revenues) was about 5 percent in 2009-10 and has been about 7 percent during the life of the current labor deal.
A 5 percent or 7 percent profit is not dissimilar to what other businesses have experienced recently. Fortune 500 companies, for instance, collectively turned a 4.0 percent profit in 2009 and a 6.6 percent profit in 2010 (both figures after taxes). Profit margins in the entertainment industry, in which the N.B.A. should probably be classified, have generally been a bit lower than that."
I've never seen more fallacious reasoning in an article, an article which by the way has been repeated in numerous places. Nobody disputes that accounting rules allow for some creative accounting and clearly not every team claiming to have lost money did. The fact that you can depreciate players like goods on a shelf is ridiculous. However, to conclude that three teams made 150 million dollars profit and there was a total of 183 million in profit, actually strikes against his entire argument. Mr. Silver divides 183 million by 32 teams and claims that each team on average made 6 million. Huh?? 3 teams made 150 million and the rest of the teams at most could split the 33 million left over. That is not a recipe for sustained growth. Given the facts as alleged in this New York Times article that was supposed to favor the player, I absolutely believe the league has no choice but to lock out its players.