Adam Silver, NBA commissioner.
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On the eve of a new season, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver made it clear that his league would not skip the line to receive vaccines against Covid-19 while the NBA tries to normalize its business. .
The NBA returns to its 2020-21 campaign on Tuesday. The league chose to play a short 72-game season due to the pandemic interruptions of its previous season, which ended in October instead of June, as usual. The NBA will try to finish this season before the Tokyo Olympics begin in July 2021 and line up for a more normal low season before starting again in October 2021.
The NBA pulled off two heavyweights to start its new season. It will show the Brooklyn Nets led by Kevin Durant against his former team, the Golden State Warriors, and the return of his star, Stephen Curry.
The second showdown: Defending champion Los Angeles Lakers will host the Clippers, their crossed rivals. This clash was predicted as a preview of the Western Conference finals, but Steve Ballmer’s team attacked early last year despite stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
On Friday, the NBA Christmas Day lineup featured international superstars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Nikola Jokic of Denver.
The Silver League is in a good position to enter a postcovid world. The NBA is more diverse with competing teams and the stars are spread out. The remaining task is to manage a season where the Covid pandemic is worse than when the league resumed in July.
“We’re confident we can do that,” Silver said in his call to the media on Monday. “And if we weren’t, we wouldn’t have started. I’ll say, though, that we anticipate there will be bumps in the road along the way.”
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, receives the Modern Vaccine Inc. Covid-19 during an event at the NIH Clinical Center Masur Auditorium in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, on Tuesday, December 22, 2020.
Patrick Smeansky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Support the vaccine
Silver mentioned that the NBA would help “government efforts in terms of public messaging” to promote the safety of receiving the vaccine, acknowledging the skepticism that some have about treatment.
“For me, I have a feeling there is a large group out there that would put you in the undecided category about the vaccine,” he said. “I understand there is a cohort that is firmly anti – vaccine and I think there will be opportunities to break it.
“But I think there’s a much bigger group of people who take a‘ wait and see ’attitude, and I hope we see potential workers getting their vaccines, health workers and the elderly and people see this happening with safely and successfully, that the NBA community will welcome the shots when it’s our turn. ”
The NBA notes that Covid vaccines will be rolled out more in April, in time for its postseason, which is scheduled to begin in May. Then, perhaps local governments will provide the green light for more teams to open scenarios, as playoff revenue is beneficial for teams.
“It’s a big priority to get fans back on the fields,” Silver said, adding that about six teams will be able to start with spectators on Tuesday, as Florida and Texas allow some game fans. “I have a feeling we’ll learn a lot once we have regular season games with the fans.”
Enlargement or relocation is being considered
The NBA raised $ 900 million to support the teams this year and the pandemic losses are expected to continue without fans in the short term.
Beyond this season, the league could help make a difference by adding more teams, which leads to expansion costs. Silver said the NBA has stepped up debates on the issue, but added that they are still concerned about economic problems related to the pandemic and recession.
Big market clubs like the New York Knicks, a team devoid of star power, with consecutive lost seasons, brand and image issues, can still reap benefits. But most clubs suffer financially in slow economic cycles, which would be the case for any expansion team.
“I think I’ve always said it’s kind of a manifest destiny of the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said. “I would say that perhaps it has caused us the dust of some of the analyzes on the economic and competitive impacts of the expansion. We have been devoting a little more time to it than before the pandemic. But certainly not to the point. this expansion is in the front burner “.
Relocation is another option. Team owners can look for either option, as both carry fees paid in the NBA. The move allows the league to avoid splitting its higher revenue stream (media rights) among more homeowners, although clubs may incur transfer fees and “liquidated damages clauses” fees if they try to evade contracts. lease before agreements expire.
The talk between sports bankers has placed Seattle, Las Vegas and Kansas City in NBA venues.
The most important question is whether these markets (or any market) can support a new team during an economic recession.
“It’s an economic problem and it’s a competitive issue for us,” Silver said. “So we will continue to study, but we will spend a little more time on it than before the pandemic.”
Kevin Durant # 7 of the Brooklyn Nets shoots the ball against the Washington Wizards during a preseason game on December 13, 2020 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Nathaniel S. Butler | National Basketball Association | Getty Images
The NBA race to 2 billion viewers
Perhaps the NBA’s most outstanding work is its desire to continue its global expansion and do so with a younger audience. Silver mentioned that the league is “about two billion people who consume the NBA in some way on social media worldwide.”
With consumer habits changing, the NBA’s race to surpass two billion would be huge in a postcovid world, where a new generation of consumers seems disinterested in sports.
Research firm Morning Consult notes that Generation Z consumers (ages 13 to 23) are “less likely than the general population to identify as sports fans. 53% of 1,000 Gen Z gender respondents were considered fans of the sport, compared to 63% of American adults and 69% of millennials in a subsequent survey. “
The only consumers in the U.S. Major League of Generation Z “over-indexed as fans relative to the general public” were the NBA.
This interest among younger consumers is the reason why the ratings of media expert projects will recover. And once Nielsen changes its rating system in 2024 to include digital / streaming metrics, the league’s rights holders will continue to track only the National Football League.
“The only thing you know about the NFL, is the most appealing thing about television, followed by the NBA,” said Kevin Krim, the founder and CEO of advertising metrics data firm EDO.
Silver is a 72-game season away from navigating the NBA during his toughest period. Again, some highlights are expected over the next few months, but the NBA looks positioned for a brighter future in a new decade and post-Covid-19 reality.
This future begins on Tuesday.