Fallout From NBA’s New TV Contracts

The NBA’s new TV contracts will have broad effects on the league in the years to come, and commissioner Adam Silver addressed some of those in a press conference today. Other reports have also spoken to the scope of the media package, including its impact on the next collective bargaining agreement negotiations in 2017, and we’ll pass them along here, with the latest update on top:

4:56pm update:

4:06pm update:

  • Each team will receive between $70MM and $100MM annually thanks to the new TV deal, according to early projections, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Teams are set to see $35MM each of the next two seasons, the final years under the existing deal, Stein adds (on Twitter).

12:30pm update:

  • The TV deal guarantees the players will receive 51% of the league’s basketball-related income starting with the 2016/17 season, Beck notes (Twitter links). The collective bargaining agreement holds that the players will receive that percentage if revenue exceeds the projections made when the league and the players negotiated the CBA in 2011, at which time no one forecast quite so much TV money.

11:07am update:

  • It doesn’t appear as though there will be a significant jump in the cap for the 2015/16 season, Bontemps hears (Twitter link). It’s more likely that a phasing in of cap increases would limit the amount of the cap for 2016/17 and backload the rises into later years, as Bontemps adds in a second tweet.
  • Silver has ruled out making 2015/16 part of a phase-in, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck tweets.

10:30am update:

  • Some team executives are estimating the new TV revenue would allow the cap to rise to as much as $91.2MM for 2016/17, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Max contracts for veterans of 10 or more years would start at $28.2MM under that structure, up from $20.6444MM this year, Berger adds. The CBSSports.com columnist also notes that a “vocal component” among the field of NBA agents has long been pushing for the elimination of max salaries, just as LeBron reportedly is, as we passed along below.

10:01am update:

  • Silver acknowledged the idea of gradually phasing in the dramatic leap in the salary cap that the new TV money will prompt, citing what the National Football League has done as a precedent, as Tim Bontemps of the New York Post notes (via Twitter). The commissioner added that he’ll meet today with players association executive director Michele Roberts about the idea, Bontemps also tweets. Still, Silver suggested that the discussion isn’t too far along, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe observes (Twitter link). It’s unclear if gradual increases would mean a higher cap for next summer than there otherwise would be, a lower cap for 2016 than there otherwise would be, or both.
  • LeBron James is pushing for drastic increases to or the elimination of the maximum salary for players in the next collective bargaining agreement, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. The presence of Chris Paul, a friend of LeBron’s, as president of the players association could prompt the union to make it a point in negotiations come 2017, when both sides can opt out of the existing CBA, Windhorst adds. As it stands, veterans of 10 or more years are in line to see their maxes go up by more than $6MM come the summer of 2016, with vets of seven or more years in line for $4MM+ increases, according to Windhorst’s projections (Twitter link).
  • The new TV deal won’t kick in until after the current deal expires in the summer of 2016, but Silver said today that he was “determined” to finish negotiations before the season began, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets.
  • David Stern confided in owners during the last years of his tenure that he expected the new TV deal would double in value, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com, who notes that Stern’s estimate wound up low.
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