The NBA took a major hit last season, having to accommodate for COVID-19, empty stadiums, and a major drop in ratings during the Orlando restart.
With the league still feeling the impact of their financial losses, executives are examining new ways to increase cash flow — which, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, would include expanded guidelines on thing slike betting, alcohol, and casinos.
The NBA is searching for ways to increase cash flow into teams, and sources said the league is hopeful to expand guidelines on sports betting, hard alcohol and casinos that could generate between $80 million and $100 million in revenue, sources said.
The NBA is searching for ways to increase cash flow into teams, and sources said the league is hopeful to expand guidelines on sports betting, hard alcohol and casinos that could generate between $80M and $100M in revenue. https://t.co/TDQIuQONvF
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 3, 2020
According to Woj, there are also talks of adding a play-in tourney for the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs.
NBA and NBPA talks continue to include the likelihood of a play-in tournament for both the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs, a mechanism designed to incentivize more teams to aggressively pursue the late season competitively — and an avenue for the league, players and television partners to create more lucrative revenue streams, sources said.
Obviously, the league is exploring all different kinds of ways they can recover from their losses, even if it means pulling back on some policies and traditions they’ve had in place for years.
Nothing is set in stone yet, and all propositions are nothing more than suggestions. But as Christmas Day draws ever closer, a sense of urgency is growing for the league, and we should expect many decisions to be made within the next few weeks.
