Blog #3: NBA Should Change Season Dates

Changing Seasons

Guest blogger Ryan Rowbury explains how a December-July NBA season could benefit the NBA, MLS, NFL, NHL, ESPN, and sports fans in general. I think he’s right. What say you?

NBA millionaires are putting an already shortened NBA season in jeopardy just to fight over a small percentage of money. Stupid, I know. But if they're smart, they’ll act dumb just a little longer.

Nobody blink. This multimillion dollar staring contest called the NBA lockout will benefit all parties involved, if they play their cards right. Imagine if the NBA season started in December, and you don’t sacrifice any part of the full 82-game season. Wouldn’t you do it? As an NBA fan, I would, but I wouldn’t stop there. The NBA needs to dump the current season format and permanently adopt a December through July schedule.

You may have noticed that the impact of the lockout has hardly negatively affected anyone this fall other than the hardcore basketball fanatic. You know who you are. But who cares? we are all still busy with football, right? Even NBA superstars like Kevin Durant and LeBron James have made recent headlines showcasing their football endeavors.

In fact, a recent poll showed that only 12% of Americans even miss the NBA right now.

Football season dominates television ratings in the fall, not the NBA. Look back two days to find a prime example: Nov. 5, 2011. On a day that the New Orleans Hornets were slated to take on the Sacramento Kings, LSU played Alabama in a showdown between the nation’s top two college football teams. Which sporting event do you think would dominate local TV ratings in Louisiana? It’s safe to bet the LSU-Bama game would out-rate the Kings in Sacramento. For two weeks, all the major national media outlets took their shots at predicting and debating the eventual victor of the LSU-Bama game. For that night, and the weeks preceding, a single college football game consumed casual sports fans and made the NBA a mere afterthought.

That’s just one example. Don’t get me started on college football’s big brother, the NFL. Weekends in the fall are saturated with football viewership and that trend is not losing speed.

Casual sports fans just aren’t interested in basketball during this time of year yet. This undoubtedly kills the NBA when negotiating television contracts because a quarter of the NBA season is overshadowed by football. That hurts the exposure of the NBA. Even a two-time community college dropout can figure that out.

Speaking of community college dropouts, did you know that Major League Soccer was founded by one? Okay, maybe it wasn’t. But still, it is hard for me to argue soccer as a legitimized professional sport in the U.S. without that argument being laced with sarcasm. So hear me out. Soccer is the largest sport in the world and is finally a growing sport in the U.S.

Thanks to our NBA friends at the negotiating table, the MLS is currently stealing a (slightly) larger piece of the national exposure pie.

Why not let this happen every year during the MLS playoffs in November? The NBA already loses their fans to football (even more this year because of the current lockout). If anything, it’d hurt the NFL. Oh wait, nothing hurts the NFL except head-to-head contact and fines touchdown celebrations.

Anyway, here’s what should happen. David Stern should gift wrap the month of November to the MLS with a shiny bow. It’s a crucial month that inhibits the growth and exposure for the NBA. Plus, Major League Soccer will never be as popular as other professional sports in the U.S. Thus being exactly why they could benefit from a growth spurt provided by the NBA.

Delaying the start of the NBA season until December doesn’t just benefit other leagues. Basketball would still dominate television ratings on its showcase holiday – Christmas. This is also the same time of year that college football winds down and NBA ratings begin to spike. Now the regular season begins with increased exposure AND holiday cheer.

What happens with the NBA Finals you ask? They are no longer shared with the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs! It never made sense to have the two at the same time anyway.

An NBA Championship in July has another majorly overlooked advantage. Sports fans: have you ever heard of “the dog days of summer”? Can we please shorten it? Sorry, baseball lovers. Seriously though, think back and recall the same recycled sports topics that the “experts” debate on SportCenter around every July.

Here are some examples:

“Baseball: Only 90 games left!” Awesome.

“Will this be the month that Tiger Woods finally wins another tournament?” Yawn.

“How much is Terrell Owens bench pressing in his backyard? Our helicopters can find out!”

Every 4 years, “Why are Kenyans so good at running?!” and “Why is speed walking an Olympic sport?” Valid questions.

Every morning in the summer, SportsCenter anchors skip baseball headlines entirely and debate who will play in the Super Bowl next February. No one cares. Football doesn’t matter in July, but basketball should. Our culture needs more relevant sports news at the end of July and the NBA is primed to fill that void this year.

Ultimately, we know the NBA (and the greedy millionaires at the helm) will not make this change or end the lockout for its fans, the NHL, MLS, or anyone else. They won’t even get serious about the lockout to save the millions of dollars they are losing every week by not playing basketball – the same millions they are currently fighting over.

So if it hasn’t been made clear already, let me reword my thoughts for those at the top of the NBA food chain. Not only does this simple solution save the current NBA season, but it also gives the owners, players, and league officials financial security and exposure for years to come.

So there you go. Have your cake and eat it, too. Reluctantly taste a slice of humble pie, end the lockout, and start the regular season in December. Forever. The ball is in your court.