NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The ugly scene at the Pistons/Pacers game Friday night will do more than shake up the National Basketball Association and the well-heeled fans who sit courtside.

For those of you who spent the weekend in a cave and didn't see the nearly non-stop coverage of the fight, here's what you need to know:

An on-court shoving matching involving Pistons player Ben Wallace and the Pacers' Ron Artest escalated when a fan hit Artest in the face with a cold drink. Artest responded by charging into the stands to attack the fan he thought responsible, and the situation got worse and worse from there.

Nine players have been hit with suspensions, the most severe for Artest, who will sit out the rest of the year unless he wins a reduction on appeal.

But the fight will do more than simply reduce the pay of the players involved, with Artest's estimated $5.3 million leading the pack. It will mean real dollar-and-cent changes for the NBA, and perhaps some other leagues, too.

The most immediate change from a business perspective is a new league policy on beer sales

"That's an issue that we are going to examine with respect to alcohol service," said NBA Commissioner David Stern at his press conference Sunday. "If that requires us to have a uniform policy on when beer sales are cut off, that's something that's going to be part of the mix."

Some teams already cut off beer sales at the 10-minute mark in the third quarter. The Pistons were not immediately available for comment on their policy.

The fight between fans and players Friday night could bring beer sales limits at sporting events.

But truth be told, cutoffs don't reduce beer consumption much. Chris Bigelow, a concessions consultant to vendors and teams, says that food and beer sales generally tail off near the end of the game anyway.

"If the rule was no sales after the start of the fourth quarter that wouldn't be a major issue," said Bigelow. "If it's prior to halftime, it'd be a major issue. Halftime is the critical period for sales."

Bigelow said that Major League Baseball has guidelines, but not firm rules, on cutoffs after the 7th inning. The National Football League prohibits sales after the third quarter, and a league spokesman said it's happy with its policy. Don't be surprised if other sports follow the NBA's lead in creating new, hard-and-fast regulations.

Artest probably won't lose so many endorsements because of the fight. But that's only because he didn't have so many. His primary contracts were just a shoe deal with niche brand L.A. Gear and an endorsement agreement with D-Band headbands.

CNN's Jack Cafferty explains why NBA players deserve to lose their money over the Friday's brawl in Detroit. Play video (Real or Windows Media)

Even before the fight, Artest had a bad boy reputation. Coke or McDonald's weren't exactly knocking on his door.

The brawl may, however, help Artest's hip-hop career (he's already been in hot water for asking for time off to record an album). And don't be surprised if he becomes more popular with some segments, if not mainstream advertisers.

Latrell Sprewell was known by about 35 percent of sports fans, and considered a favorite by about 6 percent, before he was suspended for choking his coach P.J. Carlesimo in 1997, according to a survey by Marketing Evaluations, which does the Q-scores used by sponsors to rank celebrity endorsers. (It has never bothered to put Artest in the survey before this incident).

Three years later when Sprewell was next on the survey, he was known by 60 percent of fans and considered a favorite by 10 percent.

Some of that increased visibility came from moving to a larger market, New York. But most of it was the result of the choking's publicity. Those with negative opinions of him soared from 2 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2000, which was enough to keep advertisers away.

As for the impact on the endorsement potential of NBA stars as a group, there could be fallout even for players who were nowhere near Detroit on Friday.

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Henry Schafer of Marketing Evaluation says stars like LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal won't feel a direct impact. But he thinks the incident will give advertisers further pause in using any sport star in a campaign.

"It's going to have a reverberating effect on the whole sport. No question about it," said Schafer.

The Pacers and Pistons are set to meet next, in Indianapolis this time, on Christmas Day at 12:30 p.m. ET. That game is set to be broadcast on ESPN, while its network partner ABC is set to air the 3 p.m. ET match up between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, led by former Lakers star Shaquille O'Neill.

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"We've been promoting that game, I know of no plans to change," said ABC spokesman Adam Freifeld.

Even if the scheduling doesn't change to give broadcast network play to the Pistons and Pacers, there will certainly be a lot of promotion of the rematch over the next month.

Don't be shocked to see Disney juggling the TV lineup to show both the Pistons-Pacers and the Lakers-Heat games on ABC. The non-stop coverage that Friday's game has received for the last three days may end up being too great an opportunity to pass up.