Shane Battier: ‘We Can’t Afford to Lose the Fans’


Shane Battier cautions about the dangers of the NBA canceling games during the lockout. From WFAN (via SRI): “If he thinks a new deal will get done in the NBA: ‘I’m cautiously optimistic that we will get something done before missing any games. We all know what’s at stake. We can’t afford to go through what the NFL is going through and we can’t afford to lose the fans. I just think we have a perspective after going through this in ’99 that it’s in the best interest of everybody to hammer out a fair deal.’ On the things that are becoming an issue in the labor talks: ‘I don’t know the ins and outs of the flex cap. I think it’s a pretty clever term by Commissioner Stern. The main issues for us are the revenue sharing amongst the big market teams and the small market teams. That will really lead the discussion to what share the players will share with the owners. The league maintains that the revenue sharing is an internal matter and they will take care of it themselves. We think it’s a huge part of the bigger picture, the big collective bargaining discussion. Once we sort of see how the revenues are going to be split amongst the teams I think that will be a huge, huge advantage to getting a deal done.'”