Re: No luxury tax in 2005 or 2006?

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:19 PM 8/25/03 -0400, Mark Piotrowski wrote:
>NO TAX?
>...Many of those 16 teams will likely pay tax in 2004 as well, but 2005 
>and 2006 look to be easier to hit providing salaries stay in check. The 
>biggest reason for this change is the structure of the NBAs current TV 
>contract. While the dollars and cents of the current deal are larger than 
>the previous
>deal with Turner and NBC, the current deal has more money in the backend 
>than the front end, and significant revenue is tied to the deployment and 
>development of NBA TV, as a stand-alone revenue source.  NBA commissioner 
>David Stern commented to media during this summers playoffs that the NBA 
>was in significant talks with several major cable systems about including 
>the NBATV offering into their systems. Stern joked that if NBATV was not 
>in twice as many homes by the playoffs in
>2004, he should be fired. It seems if Stern does not hit his goal, the 
>owners may pay the price for it in luxury tax.

Interesting.  This essentially forces the NBA teams to fall in line with 
supporting NBA TV or literally paying for their lack of support.  Given 
that no NBA team has issued a press release of their televised games that 
detail the games on NBA TV, I'd say the support isn't yet there.  After 
all, I'm sure that TNT, ESPN and ABC pay more for commentators than NBA TV 
ever will.  Not to mention that a lot more people can actually get the 
other channels.

As far as the "significant talks" with cable operators, apparently, Cox 
Cable is not among that happy group, since they have unequivocally stated 
that they will not carry NBA TV.  Hence my increasing happiness about 
getting a good deal on satellite that costs less for more channels than Cox 
Cable ever gave me.  Including, at no extra charge, NBA TV.

I just wish someone would talk to their graphics department.  Some of us 
actually are able to read the scores in smaller type, and very few of us 
have 60" television sets.  :>)

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website