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Should NBA players form their own league?

If the foreign markets are smart they would try to start a World Basketball Association right now. And start a few teams in the United states and start signing players from all over. Take some investors from overseas and here and have less games but that makes the visits to each country more valuable. Start FAIR TV contracts and stream everything online for free with advertising to bring in profits world wide. Make it so the advertising you would watch would come from the area you live. That would make up for the losses from less games at the arena's. Online is where everything is going right now anyways. Nobody wants to pay those prices anymore. But if the games were not as often more people would go.
 
billyshelby said:
They totally should. They could enjoy the benefits of earning less than they would make in a second rate Euro league for years playing in college arenas. But hey, they would eventually shake the yoke of billionaire owners, big TV deals would come back along with the corporate dollars, and the fans would finally return.

Then they can find out what it's like to have a league exactly the way they want it. And in 15 or 20 years, when their system goes wrong, they'll find themselves locking out greedy players who want 57% BRI and totally unrestricted free agent movement.
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Absolutely true, since we fans really pay to watch the owners, right?

I think this is a brilliant idea that the players should try. Why would it not work? Are you telling me that if they formed a league with the same players you would not watch it? TV would not be interested? Why?

I particularly like the idea of getting paid to win, and no long term contracts. No play, no pay.
 
It's possible, but the players couldn't do it on their own. Who takes the leadership? Who puts it all together? Who negotiates the TV deals, arena deals, etc.? Definitely possible, but are the players motivated enough to do it?
 
freakazoid said:
I was thinking about that, but decided the insanity factor was too much of an advantage. But you're right, he has to be involved in some way. I'm thinking the players could also recruit others from outside basketball. How about Ron Artest vs. the judges from dancing with the stars. Or perhaps Artest vs. 5 drunken Piston fans.
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HEY NOW! Ron Artest is dead. Long Live Meta World Peace!
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
It's possible, but the players couldn't do it on their own. Who takes the leadership? Who puts it all together? Who negotiates the TV deals, arena deals, etc.? Definitely possible, but are the players motivated enough to do it?
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Bartlestein, Rose, Pelinka, etc. The agents for all the big name players. I think only 6-7 handle most of the NBA contracts.
 
zman1527 said:
I think this is a brilliant idea that the players should try. Why would it not work? Are you telling me that if they formed a league with the same players you would not watch it?
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No, I wouldn't watch it. I'm a Jazz fan. This idea would be the death of the Utah Jazz, and I have no interest in watching the L.A. Beach Bums play the New York Cab Drivers every week.
 
freakazoid said:
No, I wouldn't watch it. I'm a Jazz fan. This idea would be the death of the Utah Jazz, and I have no interest in watching the L.A. Beach Bums play the New York Cab Drivers every week.
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That's the fallacy in the agents' and superstars' plan. I almost want them to try it in order to witness the train wreck (or at least the fading fancy that ensues very quickly).

A traveling league or mini-league would get old more than once or twice a year (see also the All-Star Game and the Harlem Globetrotters), and forming a new league would be a much bigger undertaking that these agents--however well-heeled--likely don't have the resources to muster. (And given the difficulty to make a profit in the "real" NBA and the high costs that these traveling players might expect, I don't imagine that investors will be lining up.) Besides, it's some much easier for players and agents alike to let the old white men who own most of the teams and have gone through the political and infrastructure shenanigans already, to suffer with the logistics. All the players have to do is stay in shape (easier said than done for some) and cash their checks; all the agents have to do is kiss babies & behinds, negotiate deals, and cash checks 3% to 5% the size of the players' checks (multiplied by several players). Nice work if you can get it.

But hey, they'll probably get respect--at a fraction (however large or small) of the income that they could make in the NBA, and they'll be doing it their way. Without the fan loyalty of each city/state to their team that the NBA league engendered (sort of), though, I see it being a very very highly glorified And1 league.
 
zman1527 said:
Absolutely true, since we fans really pay to watch the owners, right?

I think this is a brilliant idea that the players should try. Why would it not work? Are you telling me that if they formed a league with the same players you would not watch it? TV would not be interested? Why?

I particularly like the idea of getting paid to win, and no long term contracts. No play, no pay.
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The NBA players make the money they do because of the NBA. The NBA is a Golden Goose for everybody involved. There is no disputing this.

The owners of a new league will play in substandard arenas without luxury boxes (less money to go around.) But the lifeblood of the NBA (and salaries) is corporate sponsorships and TV deals. Any new league will be threatened by a mountain of lawsuits from billionaire owners that will go on for years. So nobody is going to invest heavily knowing that a legal victory by the owners kills their whole league. A new league isn't unfeasible, but no investors are going to sink a lot of money into it so long as their investment can be taken away by the courts in a day. (Translation: barely half the profits of the current NBA.)

THEN you get into the issues of that league succeeding. Say, 3 years later. The league the players want will eventually get them into the same trouble the owners are facing now. So we'll watch them discover Utopia isn't real after 5 or 10 years when they could have figured that out for themselves in 2011.
 
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