Report: NBA Wants to Extend Regular Season Into Late April

According to the NY Times, the League is determined to have a full 82-game regular season once a labor deal is reached, and thus working with arenas to ensure this happens: “League officials, anticipating a resolution, are quietly preparing for an 82-game season. The N.B.A. has begun calling arenas across the league, asking them to keep dates open in late April, according to arena officials. Each team would lose about 12 to 15 games with a Dec. 1 start. But they could reclaim a half-dozen or so games by extending the season through the end of April, two weeks past its usual conclusion. The rest of the games could be made up by adding an extra two to three games per month. Although the preseason is gone, there is still a chance to generate most of the projected $4 billion the N.B.A. expected for the 2011-12 season. But the window for achieving that goal is narrowing, and that pressure could spur a deal.”