With the NBA beginning play in Orlando at the end of the July, Heat President of Business Operations Eric Woolworth joins our Bill King to discuss the NBA’s return plan, the league’s role in promoting social justice and much more on the latest edition of "SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead."
On the NBA getting close to returning to the court in Orlando:
Woolworth: What sometimes has been lost in the national press a little bit is this has been an incredibly difficult thing to put together. The NBA and the players association have been weighing health and safety concerns, competitive concerns, financial concerns, trying to come to a place that can work. (NBA Commissioner Adam Silver) and (NBPA Exec Dir Michele Roberts) and everybody need to be commended for having put together what looks like a really good plan. I hope it can be executed and comes off the way we all want it to. But it is definitely uncharted territory.
On teams shifting the focus in Orlando from blunting financial losses to creating a platform to promote social change:
Woolworth: The world over the past … three weeks or a month has been going through a lot of turmoil and I think having the platform that we’re going to have while the team plays in Orlando puts us in a position to not only think about our sponsors and our fans, but to think about our community and to use that platform ... to try to make our community a better place. Those are things that are front-of-mind right now. I would actually say that the mindset has somewhat shifted from business opportunities to social responsibility opportunities.
On reaction from sponsors and the team’s RSN about playing in Orlando and losing their playoff inventory of games:
Woolworth: Absolutely, there’s going to be some make-goods. We still owe, especially some of our bigger sponsors that had a lot of activities scheduled for the last quarter of the season. But we also, I think, are going to have some opportunities to sell some new things and to drive new corporate revenues, or at least center some new packages around some of the inventory we may get in Orlando … and again, don’t know exactly what that looks like yet. Hopefully, we get some more clarity at the end of this week.
