The Business of the NBA

Versus to air 16 NBA D League games

It seems that Comcast is really pushing to become a player in the world of major and minor sports. Comcast not only owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, but the cable channel Versus airs NHL games, UFL games, and now NBA D League games.

Nets owner wins key ruiling for Brooklyn arena

The State of New York’s top court has ruled that the State has the right to use eminent domain laws to seize property for the Atlantic Rail yards project. That means New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner, and his company Forest City Ratner can complete construction on the Barclay’s Center the new Brooklyn home of his New Jersey Nets. Completion of this project is also a key point to Ratner’s potential sale of the Nets to Russian Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

Lakers spend big bucks on their roster

It seems that many NBA teams are simply playing out the string in the current NBA season, insuring they have enough payroll room to be big players in the 2010 free agent market. The same cannot be said of the Los Angeles Lakers, who have the highest payroll in the NBA and are looking to win with what they got. Not only are they trying to win for today, but have much of their talent locked in for the future.

NBA is expecting lower revenue from gate receipts

The argument will always be that sports for the most part are recession proof. When a sports fan buys tickets, or gear, or something else that they are doing so based on emotion not on any economic principal. With that in mind the NBA is preparing to see a decline in gate revenue for the 2009-10 season, but so far the only decrease seems to be that they are selling season ticket packages at a discounted rate.

NBA working on revenue sharing

Facing a new collective bargaining agreement with his player’s union, David Stern is trying to hash out a plan that would have big market NBA teams share their revenues with those in smaller markets. Since the NBA owners are very motivated to avoid a lockout or a strike, it seems likely some kind of plan will get done to help pave the way to a new CBA with the players.

NBA Free Agency gets off to a fast start

Since Tuesday at 12:01 am EST the faces of many NBA teams have been changed, and in at least one case the very foundation of the team has undergone a free agent upgrade. To be sure the 2009 NBA free agent season got off to a very fast start.

Nets one step closer to Brooklyn

The New Jersey Nets are now one step closer to a move to Brooklyn. In a move that has had more than its fair share of legal and financial problems the Nets owner Bruce Ratner cut a deal that will eventually lead to the construction of a new NBA arena on the site that was once proposed for a domed stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers

Shaq to Cleveland, good business for both teams

Shaquile O’Neil has been traded to the first cold city of his NBA career. In the biggest trade of this off season Shaq has been traded to Cleveland for Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavolic, the 46th pick in tomorrow night’s NBA draft, and 500 grand in cash.

More bad news for the Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic just lost their NBA Finals match up with the Los Angeles Lakers and are no doubt spending a few days licking their wounds, there is more bad news for the Magic front office.

NBA Finals TV numbers off for game one

For Game one of the 2009 NBA finals ABC earned an 8.9 rating. It now seems that the NBA public are tuning out after almost getting their dream match up of Kobe Bryant’s LA Lakers versus Lebron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers.

The WWE versus the Denver Nuggets

Over the past week we have been taking a look at some of the worst owners in the sporting world. As a football owner Vince McMahon is among the worst ever, his XFL experiment failed miserably, but he has built a pro wrestling empire that has literally crushed all of his main competition. On top of that he is master of manipulating the public’s opinion and of all the “Sports” owners out here he is the last gut anyone wants on their bad side.

Best NBA owners: 2009 edition

SI.com has published their annual list of the best Sports owners. Today we will be taking a look at the best owners on NBA teams. It really is too bad that SI has become a less than credible source for sports information.

Worst sports owners: 2009 NBA edition

When we stop and think about the sports fans of Detroit, where I am based, are pretty lucky we have pretty good ownership for our teams beyond William Clay Ford (Detroit Lions) one of the worst owners in all of sports. When we take the time to really think about it the other Detroit based sports owners are above the average, unfortunately the same cannot be said for other cities.