Stern Opines On Revenue-Sharing Policy, State Of Bobcats

Stern Feels NBA Needs To Continually Tweak Revenue-Sharing System

NBA Commissioner David Stern “agrees with the premise raised by some of the league’s smaller-market team owners that without changes in the league’s revenue sharing policy those teams are destined to continual financial losses,” according to Jim Utter of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Stern: “I would say that if we don’t continue to tweak the revenue sharing system, that there could be teams that were performing at peak and still having trouble making ends meet. I’m at both ends of this one. I am a proponent, not of blind revenue sharing, but in effect, performance-based revenue sharing based upon how you do against the potential of your marketplace. That sort of places me right in the middle, so everybody is unhappy.” Stern also said that recent layoffs of some high-level Bobcats execs were not “a sign of financial problems,” but “part of the team’s re-organization efforts.” Stern said that by the Bobcats’ fifth season, “they will be one ‘of the shining franchises of the NBA’” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/15). Stern: “This team was slow to develop a sales-team sort of efficiency. It happens. It doesn’t make them alone in our league.” He added that giving up control of the WNBA Sting “will ultimately benefit the Bobcats” (AP, 12/14).

TV FOCUS: Stern also “anticipates an improved TV package” for the team. The Bobcats’ arrangement with Time Warner “forces the team to air the majority of its games on a 24-hour local news channel unavailable to homes without [Time Warner] cable. It also does not reach some outlying, affluent suburbs.” Stern: “I would say that that’s an issue. But I fully expect that to be dramatically improved by the end of the year. It’s improved over what it was, but it has miles to go before I think ownership will rest. We talk to the franchise about it a lot” (Eric Spanberg, BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/15).