The bargaining game between NBA owners and players is heating up. The owners appear to have the upper hand. They are aging at a slower rate than the players. This article merits reading. Why should you care about this issue? The NBA offers good high paying jobs that are mainly held by Americans. The income that the players earn is taxed and some of that must come back to the University of California.
I’ve never heard the NBA lockout discussed in terms of the effect of a lost season on tax revenue (and overall economic activity), but it’s a good point.
As for the Plaschke article: I wasn’t overly impressed. I particularly take issue with his reference to the fact that “the NBA’s average player salary of about $5.1 million equals the average salary of [the NFL and MLB] combined.” This may be true, but the relevant number here is clearly total payroll, not average salary, and the NBA has a much smaller roster size than either other league (15 vs 55 and 40). Doing the multiplication, the NBA seems to have an average team payroll below the average of the other two leagues leagues. I don’t know the extent to which this difference in payroll reflects a difference in revenue, but at best Plaschke is being sloppy in the way he uses his figures.
Whither the language police when you need them?
What, those old nags, slouching towards Cupertino to be reborn? May their withers wither, say I.
Plaschke’s always been an old-school management stooge. He says players should give up hundreds of millions of dollars, and the owners should keep hundreds of millions of dollars, basically just because.