NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter "may be angling" to bring
licensing rights "under union control as they are in other
leagues, giving the PA a solid, marketable property for
licensing and a revenue stream without the owners and league
as middlemen," according to Terry Lefton of BRANDWEEK.
Hunter said that if the CBA is reopened by the league, then
the licensing rights "and the Group Licensing Agreement all
run together, so I would say if one is opened up, they
should all be opened up." Lefton adds that the group
licensing agreement, signed "simultaneously" with the CBA,
but running through 2004, currently generates "a minimum" of
$25M a year, or about $60,000 per NBA player. The league
also "controls" the NBPA logo. Through a spokesperson, NBA
CMO Rick Welts called it "extremely premature to address our
licensing agreement" (BRANDWEEK, 11/10 issue).
BEWARE NYC, HERE COME SOME WILD AND CRAZY GUYS: In
Boston, Peter May wrote that one item on the agenda at this
week's NBA Board of Governors meeting is a league-imposed
"gag order" on NBA owners relating to labor relations. May:
"Any owner who comments on the situation will be subject to
a heavy fine" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/9). In L.A., Mark Heisler
wrote that next July 1, NBA Commissioner David Stern "will
lock the players out. In September, as the opening of camps
near, everyone will get nervous." Heisler: "All the parties
have to do is figure out how to divide the riches in a
mutually satisfactory manner" (L.A. TIMES, 11/9).
