Only Victim of NBA Lockout- The Fans

D-Wade isn't the only one hurting this season

The recent NBA Lockout was long and drawn out but a resolution was finally found between the owners and players two months ago.  While I did keep track of the demands and wants of each side, I really didn’t care how it turned out.  The players ultimately make way more money than they are actually worth while the owners are not much better. 

They’re both intertwined into a system which continually drives the fan’s cost up- tickets, concessions, merchandise.  This is a problem in most major sports: players and their agents continually look for better deals, always driving the price of players up.  Big market owners outbid other teams to sign the free agents, raising salary caps and average cost of players.  This is transferred down to the fans, the consumers.  The owners bring the new costs to ticket prices, concessions and merchandise to try to squeeze out more profit.  Also, the price of tickets and items is hurt by brokers and scalpers, but that’s a conversation for another day.

As fans, we’re victims on a regular basis, but this NBA season in particular just stinks.  The owners managed to negotiate the worst schedule ever seen in professional basketball- they squeezed 66 games into a 4 month period.  The average team normally plays 55 games in a four month period, so they’ve essentially added 11 games into the mix.  As a fan this hurts you in two ways:

1. You may be forced to either watch more basketball than you normally do or just miss games, which greatly (financially) affects season ticket holders
2. Players get hurt or are just plain worn out, which lessens the product

I’d have to bust out some mathematical statistics (which I don’t have time for) to prove players are getting hurt more often but as a Fantasy player, I’ve seen way more injuries than normal.  When a player is injured, especially stars, this hurts fans because they came out or tuned in to see certain players that are unable to play.  Also, when a schedule is compressed, that player misses more total games.  Last season if a player missed two weeks, he might miss 6-7 games, while this season he’ll miss 8-11.  When that star player goes down, a bench player comes in to take his place which further dilutes the product.

The compressed season has also affected scoring.  Players are getting less rest and playing tired.  This is leading to less scoring- much less.  For example, in the 2010-11 season, the lowest scoring team was the Milwaukee Bucks with 91.9 pts/game.  This season there are 10 teams scoring 91.9 or less pts/game- that’s one-third of the league!  It also stands to reason that Field Goal Percentage would be down.  In the 2010-11 season there were only 2 teams which shot under 44%- the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks.  This season there are 14 teams under 44%- that’s almost half the league! 

One of the worst things that could (and probably) will happen is that a team with a legit chance at an NBA title, or even a playoff shot, will have a player go down for an extended period or for the entire season.  It’s already happened to a couple of contending teams- the Atlanta Hawks with Al Horford and the Memphis Grizzlies with Zach Randolph, and with a couple teams vying for a playoff spot- the Milwaukee Bucks with Andrew Bogut and the New Jersey Nets with Brook Lopez.  Fans could lose out on possibly seeing their favorite teams not at their best in the playoffs, while others will see their team miss out on the postseason when they normally would’ve made it, further diluting the experience.

In summary, this schedule has affected everyone- attendance is down, players are getting hurt or tired, and we’re clearly watching an inferior product.  The owners might be making less money and the players may be physically hindered, but both are still getting compensated.  The only ones losing in this, as usual, are the fans.