David Falk told the Washington Post in a recent telephone interview that “There will be damage to both sides, severe damage to both sides if we don’t have a deal. You don’t know if the fans are going to come back. …I think it’s going to be severe repercussions with the fans, particularly because of the economic climate.“
That, my friend, is called agent-speak, and pure hype.
First of all, history doesn’t support this assertion, which appears to be truth steeped in wisdom to the untrained eye. Perhaps the biggest blow to fan confidence in the integrity of the game in a major American sport was dealt by the fixing scandal that submarined the 1919 White Sox, handed the World Series title to the Cincinnati Reds, launched a federal probe, and resulted in the lifetime ban of 8 White Sox players from major league baseball. The fans never left.
Then there were the 1951 betting scandals in major college basketball that saw the record setting NIT and NCAA champion CCNY team banned from playing in Madison Square Garden and subsequently dropping out of Division I athletics all together (they remain in Division III to this day), and 33 players (several big-named) from 7 major schools around the country barred from the sport for life. The fans never left.
And do I need to waste our time on professional wrestling? And look, they still have plenty of fans.
So, labor disputes are different than scandals you say? Okay, let’s look at the most recent lockout. How long did it take you to tune in a game once the 50 game season finally began? And I don’t remember there being any shortage of fans or interest in the NY-San Antonio NBA Finals that year.
Fans don’t watch basketball because they believe the players and owners are virtuous people. They watch because they enjoy the pace of the game, the eccentricity of some of the players, the artistic talent on display that inspires them to pursue their own greatness in whatever arena they happen to incubate talent. They spend the major bucks to go to the games to impress dates, or get dates, or be seen, or transact business, or feel the buzz, the electricity in the fourth quarter of a close game that swallows up the mundane ritual of their own lives.
Until someone comes up with a better product to satisfy those needs, NBA fans ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Fans may not quit watching basketball all together, but interest and willingness to pay top dollar will decline. If there is a season this year the players will not start in game shape. Many will soon get injured. Interest for going to games as well as watching on TV will be drastically reduced. I am a season ticket holder for the Orlando Magic, and if it were up to me, we would cancel this season, and only have a season 3-6 moths after contract agreements are achieved. Time are different. Many people are unemployed or under employed. To see players not satisfied with average salaries greater than 5 million dollars is annoying to say the least. Interest in basketball will not be the same or anywhere close to what it was last year once the teams start playing again.
i have to agree with ronald 107 what will the owners and players do if the fans stop supporting them?
iit seems to me that the players are only interested in making money as well as the owners what will they do if the fans protest the cost of tickets in these tough economic times they seem to be more concerned with money than the fans who spend the money and consequiently pay their salaries and another thing i keep hearing the players and owners say they are concerned about the fans but they are willing to put the entire season at risk for the love of money and not the love of the game.
I as a season ticket holder tend to side with the owners as they have all the risk, and the players should be getting a paycheck based on todays econimic storm. with the price i pay for parking, seats, and a few beers so the avg player can make 5mil a year makes me want to drop my tickets and buy the tv version for a while with a more reasonable price beer from my frige… Fans may not want to come back if the players dont give them a reason to
Both sides are playing with fire. Season ticket holders are getting pissed off. No doubt revenues will be reduced and players salaries will come further down. They are both making a huge, huge mistake.
If it were up to me, I’d have let all the players go and hired new players, still great ones, for less than half of what the players are making now (not to mention the amount they would like to make), and those players would be thrilled to make even a million dollars in these hard times. I would still love to watch them play as like he was saying before I don’t watch for the players, I watch because I love the game, and that’s it.
One Man’s Opinion