Who Do These Lockouts Really Affect???

Once again, in the span of less than a year, we are in the middle of another lockout of professional sports.  However, unlike the lockout of the NFL, the NBA lockout does not appear to be ending any time soon.  The players and owners cannot agree on how to split basketball related revenue.  Both want a bigger percentage than the other.  But while they sit in their fancy conference rooms and drive home in their fancy cars to their fancy houses, they are forgetting about the two groups of people who are truly going to be affected by this lockout:  the little people who's income depends on the NBA season and the fans.

 

The NBA is more than the players and owners.  It involves so many more people from the front office of the organization to the ticket takers to the ushers to the parking attendants to so many more people.  If there is no season, these people can't work.  People are depending on there to be a season in order to make a living.  And while the owners and players can support their families even if there isn't a season, a lot of these people can't.  These are the people the lockout should be focused on.

 

The other group of people this lockout is really going to affect is the fans.  While it probably will not affect their ability to make money (it could actually probably save some fans some money), it is going to affect how the fans see the sport.  They are going to lose trust in the NBA.  All they see in the media are a bunch of millionaires arguing about who is going to get a bigger percentage of billions of dollars.  That's not what the fans want to see.  And when a season finally does start, the fans aren't going to want to give their hard earned money to these greedy owners and players.  If it doesn't hurt viewership, it will definitely hurt attendance.

 

In no way is this lockout a good thing for anyone involved.  Games have already been cancelled.  The season is in serious jeopardy.  I agree that things should be fair for everyone involved, but let's clearly think about who everyone involved is.  Settle your differences and let's get this over with.