HEAT Schedule Released

[Dave Gray]

http://www.nba.com/heat/schedule/

I'm not too thrilled, as a ticket holder.

Opening night on the road.
Christmas Day on the road.
Lakers too early in the season to really pack a punch.
The stretch has very no exciting home game.

Thoughts?

[Sunstroke]

Lopsided toward home games early, and away games late. March/April only has the Heat at home 11 games (16 on the road), which is definitely on the skimpy side for "when the games matter most."

I kind of want to agree with you on the stretch not having any exciting games, except they do face Dallas at home down the stretch. Plus, there's always the standard prognostication fallback position that we're basing matchup quality on the strength of teams this "past" season, and the only constant in the universe is change. Teams that may not look exciting right now, could look like great matchups a few months into the new season.

And I'm thinking a lot of this will change though...I am convinced that the NBA's labor dispute will draw out a whole lot longer than the NFL's, and I would not be surprised at all if the NBA season regular season is 30-40 games, tops, and maybe no games at all.

[MikeO]

Don't worry about opening night or Christmas. Those games won't be played.

You will see a re-vamped schedule if they come back after the all star break. Probably won't see any eastern vs western conference matchups at all if they only play half a season.

[Phishfan]

I'm on the same page as Mike. The story has been the NBA lockout is in much worse shape than the NFL one. I expect this schedule is meaningless.

[fyo]

I'm not exactly an avid NBA fan, but considering how far apart the sides are (more than 10 percentage points on the revenue split, guaranteed contracts, etc), someone has to give in big time in order for a deal to be reached.

The frustrating thing about the NFL dispute was that the two sides were never really that far apart.

[Dave Gray]

Don't worry about opening night or Christmas. Those games won't be played.

You will see a re-vamped schedule if they come back after the all star break. Probably won't see any eastern vs western conference matchups at all if they only play half a season.

I suspect you may be right, but I really hope you're wrong.  ...not only the half season thing, but moreso, the interconference matchups.  Those are the most exciting throughout the year.  I wonder why all these deals take so long.  Everyone knew this was coming.

[MikeO]

I'm not exactly an avid NBA fan, but considering how far apart the sides are (more than 10 percentage points on the revenue split, guaranteed contracts, etc), someone has to give in big time in order for a deal to be reached.

The frustrating thing about the NFL dispute was that the two sides were never really that far apart.

NFL issue was never player vs owner. It was Big Market Owner vs Small Market Owner. Once a few of the powerful owners said enough is enough, the deal esentially got done in a couple weeks.

NBA is more like the NHL a few years ago. They could miss a season or 75% of it to prove a point to the other side.

Not to mention NFL coming off RECORD PROFITS and RECORD REVENUES!! Tough to cry poor. The NBA isn't and is hurting financially.

[Dave Gray]

Hurting financially for small markets, yes, but the overall popularity is pretty high, I think.  It's like a 2nd Renaissance in terms of superstars.  They're very marketable.  It's a shame to throw it away.

[MikeO]

Hurting financially for small markets, yes, but the overall popularity is pretty high, I think.  It's like a 2nd Renaissance in terms of superstars.  They're very marketable.  It's a shame to throw it away.

Too many teams, too many empty arenas. Too many "dead" teams. You can't have players all flocking to one place and holding owners and city's hostage. And its not just the Heat. Its something that has become common place in the NBA.

Get rid of the Larry Bird rule, lower the salary cap, and get rid of at least 1 team probably 2. That fixes 75% of the NBA's problems.

The popularity isn't as high as you think. The NBA has been chased away to Cable TV in recent years. It's main games for basically everything except the Finals are on TNT and ESPN. NFL and MLB are on NETWORKS for their main games! Getting mainstream coverage. The NBA is popular on cable. Two different ways to gauge things. The Finals did a huge rating this year on a network, yes. But that hardly makes the NBA popular these days and riding a wave of financial fortune. It just gave the NBA a good 10 days or so.

[Phishfan]

. NFL and MLB are on NETWORKS for their main games!

Pretty much all the MLB games are on cable where I live. ESPN, local sports stations (Sunshine here in FL), etc. Very few games appear on network TV here.

[MikeO]

Pretty much all the MLB games are on cable where I live. ESPN, local sports stations (Sunshine here in FL), etc. Very few games appear on network TV here.

playoffs, world series...etc MAIN games I am talking about, not the 6 month never ending regular season