NBA Lockout 2011 the National Basketball Association

NBA Lockout 2011

The National Basketball Association (NBA) locked out NBA Players on July 2011. According to the U.S. Professional Sports Market & Franchise Value Report (12), this situation occurred when the owners and players were not able to create a new collective agreement (CBA) before the expiration of the old CBA (Sheridan). This fourth lockout in the history of the National Basketball Association was 161 days long. It started from July 1st 2011 and ended on December 8th 2011.

The reason behind this lockout was unsuccessful negotiations between the owners and players due to which they could not reach to an agreement. The owners claimed that their teams were losing, as a large part of the revenue, which they were, required paying as the salary to the players (Zegers). The problem was that the owners did not have enough proofs and evidence through which they could prove that they were losing money. They failed to convince the players and the decision delayed because the players refused to accept the new agreement.

As a result, the players locked out and the case was taken in to the court, calling it illegal boycott. However, after a battle of six months, finally both parties succeeded in making a tentative agreement on 26 November 2011 (Johnson). The training camps and other activities also started the next day from 8 December, after the final approval of the deal.

The effects of this lockout might not have been important for the Super stars like LeBron and Kobe or by other senior personals but they very much affected by the big circle that surrounds these people. It had a drastic affect on the people and businesses related with sports. According to a CNN report, this lockout affected businesses up to 30%. It not only affected individuals but big businesses like hotel and basketball arenas that faced lot of unexpected problems. The purpose of writing this paper is to show the cause- effect relationship between the NBA Lockout 2011 and the economy.

One of the main NBA lockout effect was of the dollars that the economy could get from the NBA. These tax dollars bring a big difference when distributed in the economy but it did not happen this time. Government paid less money due to which many employees were force to leave the jobs at NBA in order to balance the accounts. This resulted in unemployment, the most important negative impact of NBA lockout.

CEOs and other senior staff remained safe but the jobs of scouts, trainers, guards, and many others suffered. According to the several reports of the sports business journal, nearly four hundred people of NBA lost their jobs after the lockout. Although the NBA officials claim that, the moves were not because of the lockout but according to various news agencies, the reason is lockout. As there were, no games to play so no people needed to manage the stadium or do other jobs.

Similarly, employees that sell food and drinks in the stadium were also out. The old employees that remained with NBA were paid very less due to less income, which affected on the demand of other goods that normally purchased from stores and restaurants. Their entertainment and other activities were also affected as they had very less money to spend.

This lockout also decreased the spending of fans that did not spent for six months. When the fans come to stadium, they not only spent on ticket but also on snacks, dinner and beverages. Fans go to restaurants after the game and some stay in bars for watching the game. Due to lockout, fans did not stay late in bars as there were games to watch. Usually bars and restaurants earn thousands of dollars from fans in the game season.

Due to lockout, this money was not spent by the fans, causing a loss of thousands of dollars to the bars and restaurants. Less people at bars and restaurants resulted in less purchasing of food and drink items needed by restaurants and less number of waiters. This way the NBA lockout affected the entire economy of USA.