SBJ Unpacks: NBA Headed For Pre-Christmas Start

Tonight in SBJ Unpacks: The NBA is narrowing in on its desired pre-Christmas start.

• Star players committing to Australian Open.
• Sources: ESPN set for more layoffs this week.
• MLB Network to air Ken Burns’ “Baseball” in HD.
• IOC pushes back on esports' desire for legitimacy.
• How blockchain technology is revolutionizing sports industry.

• This free newsletter keeps you up to date on the biggest challenges facing sports. Click here to sign up to receive nightly updates on the industry's winding road to recovery.

REPORT: NBA, UNION EXPECTED TO AGREE ON PRE-CHRISTMAS START

• The NBA's Board of Governors and players' association will "hold separate meetings on Thursday expected to culminate with an agreement on starting the 2020-21 season on Dec. 22 and playing a reduced 72-game schedule," according to ESPN sources.

• The NBPA is "planning to take a formal vote of the team player representatives late Thursday," and sources said that "everything is progressing toward an agreement on a pre-Christmas start to the season." Sources said that the league and players are "still negotiating" an escrow figure "in the range of 18% for the next two years."

• The league "believes that a Dec. 22 start that includes Christmas Day games on television and allows for a 72-game schedule that finishes before the Summer Olympics in mid-July is worth between $500 million and $1 billion in short- and long-term revenues to the league and players," sources said.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN GETS COMMITMENTS FROM STAR PLAYERS

• Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams have "all committed to playing in January's Australian Open but are waiting on a final government sign off" before confirming travel plans, per the Melbourne Age.

• Tennis Australia has set a preferred Nov. 13 deadline to "make a decision on the structure of its summer and is relying on various state governments to provide exemptions that will allow players to leave their hotels during the 14-day lockdown period to practice at courts as part of a roaming bubble."

• The governing body also is "considering scrapping its multi-city lead-up events and basing all players in Melbourne" for the lead-up. The ATP Cup "could be scrapped or moved to Melbourne if TA is unable to gain government exemptions that would allow players to travel interstate."

• Meanwhile, tickets for the event are "set to go on sale" on Nov. 26, while negotiations with the state governments on "quarantine conditions for international tennis stars and limits on crowd numbers are continuing."

Both Nadal and Federer have committed to the Australian Open after skipping the U.S. Opengetty images

SOURCES: ESPN SET FOR LAYOFFS THIS WEEK

• ESPN is "expected to announce layoffs this week, possibly as soon as Thursday," according to sources from The Athletic. Remote production is "expected to be hit significantly while some of the cost savings will come from talent contracts not being renewed."

• ESPN has "approximately 6,000 employees globally, including 4,000" at its HQ in Bristol. A network spokesperson declined comment. ESPN "had been looking at headcount reductions prior to COVID-19 but every business has been hurt by the pandemic."

• The network has "experienced significant layoffs over the last five years," most recently in 2017. In October 2015, the company "laid off roughly 300 employees, about 4–5 percent of its workforce."

MLB NETWORK SET TO AIR HD RESTORATION OF KEN BURNS’ “BASEBALL”

• Ken Burns’ iconic 1994 documentary series “Baseball” will begin airing in HD for the first time tonight on MLB Network at 8:00pm ET, the result of a year-long restoration process led by longtime Burns collaborator Daniel White.

• White and his team meticulously inspected, repaired, cleaned and scanned 3.6 million frames of 16mm film at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY to present the 19-hour series in a new light. What White had originally envisioned as an 8-month process eventually took a full calendar year as COVID hit and the N.Y.-based team was forced to complete the project remotely.

• White told SBJ’s Thomas Leary that there was a push from both MLBN and sports fans across the county to restore “Baseball” following similar restorations of some of Burns’ earlier films, including “The Civil War.” One hope is to make the critically acclaimed series more accessible to the next generation.

• White: “What these restorations do is let the audiences who have seen the film before -- see it again like it’s brand new. And then for younger audiences, it introduces them to something that they might not have watched before. … They have a much higher expectation of quality. Much higher. Even cell phones are three or four times higher quality than our original broadcast. It’s hard for them to watch our early shows.”

ESPORTS OLYMPIC HOPES DASHED BY IOC MISSIVE

• Esports' collective desire for legitimacy as a sporting competition was dealt a blow when the IOC sent a message to all winter and summer federations stating that it would not recognize any global governing body at this time. 
  
  
• Esports is desperately looking for validation on a global scale in order to give the genre of competition the positive optics it needs to emerge from its current standing as a fringe entertainment property. If esports were able to shed the stigma that some hold that it isn’t a real sport, it would encourage growth and opportunity and the chance to scale more quickly.

• SBJ’s Olympic reporter Chris Smith sees the IOC’s reluctance to move forward on esports as a behavior not just reserved for that particular genre, but other traditional sports, too. “The addition of esports to Olympic competition would seem to be a match made in heaven," Smith said. "The esports industry would immediately garner both a global spotlight and a massive boost to its legitimacy. ... Despite that upside, there’s little reason to believe we’ll see esports in the Olympics any time soon."

• See more on this issue in today's edition of our SBJ Esports newsletter.

OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS: NEW TECH IMPACTING SPORTS INDUSTRY

• Tonight's op-ed contribution is from Lars Rensing, who is CEO and co-founder of enterprise blockchain services provider Protokol. Rensing writes under the header, "Top 5 Ways Blockchain Is Revolutionizing The Sports Industry."
  
  
• "With the rise of the digital-native fan, and the events of 2020 decimating ticket revenue for live events, both the sports and esports industries are being forced to explore alternative revenue streams and more creative ways of maintaining fan engagement, as well as combating existing issues of fraud and corruption. There is one technology in particular that’s catching teams’ eyes: blockchain."

• To read the full contribution, click here.

SPEED READS

• The NFL is averaging 14.8 million viewers through Week 8 of the 2020 regular season, according to SBJ's Austin Karp. That's down from around 16 million viewers at the same point last season, and down from 15 million two years ago. At 2017's midpoint, viewership was just under 15 million. The 2020 number is also below 2016's.

• The 49ers game against the Packers tomorrow night at Levi's Stadium is still on despite the 49ers having to "shut down their facility" today because of a positive COVID-19 test result, per the S.F. Chronicle. 49ers WR Kendrick Bourne went into "self-quarantine" today and "contact tracing began to determine any potential high-risk contacts to Bourne." The 49ers’ team functions were "conducted virtually."

• The SEC has "officially passed a new regulation" that all warm-up activities -- "both pregame and after suspension of play -- has to be either in the locker room or on the field," according to sources cited by Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel. They "cannot warm up in adjacent facilities, which Ole Miss did earlier this year."

• Alabama voters "elected first-time candidate" and former college football coach Tommy Tuberville (R) to the U.S. Senate, as he was declared the winner over incumbent Doug Jones at 9:10pm CT last night, according to the Birmingham News. Click here to see SBJ's full list of political races featuring sports figures.

• Check out the most recent editions of our SBJ Unpacks podcasts:
  
  
  
  • SBJ Research Director David Broughton joins Bill King to break down political campaign spending around sports broadcasts.
    
    
  • Religion Of Sports CEO Ameeth Sankaran breaks down the outfit’s content strategy and its projects past, present and futur

NEWS YOU NEED FROM SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY

• During this crisis impacting the sports business, we want everyone to be up-to-date on the latest news and information. Select stories from Sports Business Daily are free, outside the paywall, for the foreseeable future. Below are the headlines.
  
  
  • ACC Commissioner Search Slowed By Focus On Pandemic
  • NFL Faces New Challenges After Gameday Positive COVID Tests
  • Univ. Of Wisconsin Looking To Prevent Further COVID Outbreaks
  • PGA Tour Ready For Largest Pandemic-Era Crowds In Houston

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