The NBA calendar
With every basketball-less day that passes by, the 2020-21 calendar is affected more and more. And at this point, it will be nearly impossible for the NBA to resume without significantly altering next season’s schedule.
That’s a good thing.
A new league calendar is the best potential option that the NBA has to make a significant permanent change to the sport.
A typical NBA season starts in October and runs through mid-June, with the draft, free agency, etc. all being done during the summer months. But with May finishing up and no basketball being played, it would be nearly impossible to finish the playoffs, complete the offseason events, and get everyone back for an October start to the 2021 season.
The solution – a permanent calendar change that starts the season in December and runs through August, completing the offseason events during the fall.
A December-August season allows the NBA to take away two months (October & November) where they are forced to compete with football for viewership and adds those months to the end of the season where they can dominate the summer ratings. Nothing against baseball, but the NBA isn’t going to lose a lot of viewership to a Braves vs. Nationals Sunday night game while the Finals are running. And that’s assuming baseball can end their players vs owners civil war long enough to get back on the field some time this decade. But that’s a whole other thing.
But there is a reason that the NBA has never made this change and it doesn’t come without risk. The NBA has always known they can dominate T.V. ratings in the summer, but what is the value in dominating the months where people don’t typically watch as much television? Is it better to just play second fiddle to the NFL for a couple of months during the time of year where ratings are higher across the board?
It’s really impossible to know the answer to that until they try it, but what better time to find out? The regular fans of the NBA will watch no matter when it’s on, so the fear is that they won’t get as many casual fans to tune in during the Summer. But were those fans really tuning in that often in October and November when the games don’t mean as much?
Sure, there is always going to be a risk when you try to change something that’s worked for decades. But the NBA fancies themselves as the league that’s most willing to take a chance. Well, now is the time to prove it. And really, what other choice do they have?