so this is just a thought experiment for obvious reasons ($$$) but I was talking to my friend the other night about the NBA's regular season being reduced to 43 games (home and away for conference games, and one home/away alternating game for non-conference). obviously there's a lot of talk about 70 or 75 games, but I'm curious if we're in agreement that even less would be far better for the fan.

the basic concept is that Saturdays and Tuesdays are NBA days, with the bulk of the games occurring. Every other night of the week would have a primetime doubleheader made up of ten of the best games of that week. regular season would run Nov-March and playoffs continue more or less as we've had them (start a little earlier, space the games out a little more)

advantages:
-doubles the stakes/interest in every game (more or less closer to an EPL level of import)
-level of basketball is much higher (obvious at this point that players really benefit with the rest)
-longer playing careers for superstars
-volatile and fascinating end to the regular season seeding race
-much more of a reason to watch bad teams
-additional practice time

disadvantages:
-money
-stats

so I'm curious, would you prefer this product? I think there's a ton of NBA fans like my friend who follow the league pretty closely and watch a ton of playoff games, but really don't watch the actual games in the regular season. And for the regular audience - would fans who watch, say 50% of their teams games be comfortable with now watching 90%? would the best games of the week featured as nightly doubleheaders be enough for you guys?

money is going to destroy this idea quickly. unless ticket prices double or ticket prices * attendance account for the loss this idea is a disaster and then you already have the TV deals locked in. i like it as a fan, i just don't buy it from a business perspective.

my first instinct is to agree but I think there's some room here to combat 41 games of lost attendance and local TV revenue.

-increased ticket prices
-increased nightly attendance
-increased local ratings (massive increase?)
-increased primetime ratings (massive increase?)

I think this is the long game that the NBA should be looking at. Even in 2017 Peak NBA, your average NBA fan doesn't watch the regular season. and I don't think younger people are going to trend towards wanting to spend 82 games a year watching their team.

I think this works better as a 4 day/week schedule with 7-8 games a night. You could do something like Tues/Wed and Fri/Sat games with each team playing twice per week. You don't want to cram too many games on a single night for the serious fans who want to watch as many games as possible. Keeping track of 10+ games on a given night becomes very difficult.

Are people just going to start watching a few games over time? The issue is most stadiums the tickets are sold so even if you increased attendance it won't double the bottom line which is what you need.

Prime time ratings for basketball during the regular season was never high and NBA fandom pails in comparison to NFL especially with females. Obviously it could work but I'm not sure if all your assumptions are correct.

yeah I don't if there's a cogent fiscal argument. it's just interesting to me that 16 NFL games feels right and that's what we have. 162 MLB games fits that model. even the NHL which is more based on attendance (and less physically taxing) feels right at 82.

they came up with 82 NBA games when TV didn't exist and they needed maximum attendance revenue. it seems plausible that there's a less-is-more argument here.

mostly I'm curious if there's any NBA fans who would prefer 82 to 43 games.

Can happen if NBA get rid of TV, only get a deal for thursday night or whatever with ESPN, and sell league pass worldwide getting all the money directly in their pockets

Won't happen because NBA can't fix league pass who has been awarded first prize by ****ty Service magazine

How many games into the season are we when we get to Christmas? I've always said that the season should just start then.

Only way this make sense is if NBA is failing. Right now they're flush with cash and get enough interest but if the warriors ruin the NBA and viewership and attendance are hit dramatically then a change makes sense.

58 games with home and home vs. everyone is much much much better than 43 games

Abolish conferences and then let the top 16 make the playoffs

Continue playing every night (or have one scheduled off day per week) but with a goal of each team playing 5 games every 2 weeks (with no back to backs or 3 games in 5 days stretches) which has you at a 24 week regular season with a week off for the ASG (same as now)

Get out of my head please. Thanks.

Top 16 teams make playoffs should be instituted immediately.

When did it become common to complain about how long the NBA regular season was?

I don't remember this happening decades ago.

Getting to watch my wolves half as much seems awful. Would prefer adding 40 more games to taking them away.

58 game season

Every team plays each team twice. Once home once away.

No divisions or conferences.

At the end there's a 16 team playoff bracket.

Interesting. Seems like pure greed on the owners side but it definitely should help players make more money as well.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...xplained_.html