Under Koonin's proposal, the start of the season would shift from mid-October to mid-DecemberGETTY IMAGES
Hawks CEO Steve Koonin believes a way to increase the NBA's ratings is to "start and end the season two months later," according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com. Speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Conference in Boston on Friday, Koonin said, "Relevance equals revenue. We've got to create the most relevance, and the revenue will fix itself." Bontemps noted under Koonin's proposal, the start of the season "would shift from mid-October to mid-December, after college football has completed its regular season and has begun its bowl season." The shift "would allow the NBA to avoid having to compete with the NFL's regular season." Additionally, the NBA Finals "would take place sometime in August rather than June, with the draft and free agency to come after that." Koonin: "Sometimes, moving away from competition is a great way to grow ratings. If King Kong is at your door, you might go out the back door, rather than go out the front and engage in a hand-to-hand fight." He added, "Many times, at the start of the NBA season, we are competing with arguably the best Thursday Night Football game with the NBA on TNT, our marquee broadcast, and we get crushed and we wonder why. It's because at the beginning of the season, there's very little relevance for the NBA." Koonin: "Let football have its time. Let's have our time, and let's go after it" (ESPN.com, 3/6).
HEALTHY DISCUSSION: CBSSPORTS.com's Jack Maloney wrote Koonin's idea is "obviously quite a radical proposal, and would need to not only be further fleshed out, but accepted by everyone from the players to broadcast partners." Even so, one "shouldn't dismiss it out of hand" (CBSSPORTS.com, 3/7). PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Michael David Smith wrote Koonin's comments are a "far cry" from Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban's '14 "prediction that the NFL was a fat hog awaiting slaughter." It seems that the NBA is "starting to see that there's no competing with the NFL" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 3/7). In DC, Jake Russell wrote this "simple yet outside-the-box" idea could "ruffle the feathers of head honchos in other sports leagues." But "not the NBA, which is open" to Koonin's concept (WASHINGTON POST, 3/7).
