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End of basketball averted
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January 6, 1999: 2:46 p.m. ET
Players union agrees to latest deal; basketball will have shortened season
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - As fans rejoiced at the end of the pro basketball lockout Wednesday, analysts already were gauging the damage done to the sport's image and business side.
Neal Pilson, chief executive of sports business consultants Pilson Communications, was heartened by news that the National Basketball Association and the NBA Players Association had agreed to play a shortened season.
If not for the deal, he said, it would have been "the end of professional basketball. . . . We would have lost the NBA as an entity and lost professional basketball as we know it."
Ticket windows open, but lines are short
However, the season couldn't have come too soon for some fans, who shifted their attention to college basketball and other sports.
According to David Nagel of sports network ESPN, the lockout probably was a factor in higher ratings for men's college basketball games, which earned a ratings average of 1.2 through Jan. 3, up 26 percent.
College basketball aired on ESPN2 in the same period scored 0.44, up 33 percent, while ESPN's football telecasts are up 15 percent from last year.
Pilson was sanguine about the sport's shot at recovering its momentum and its place in the hearts of fans.
"There's going to be relief," he said. "I think the fans do care. . . . I would see the sport recover in six months to a year, I don't think any permanent damage has occurred."
He compared the rebound to the recovery of professional baseball, saying that he doubted it would take basketball nearly as long to get back on the winning track.
Players, owners suffered most
Pilson said the lockout's biggest impact was in the realm of subsidiary marketing, at least in the short term.
"The public did turn its back on the NBA, there was some slippage," he said. "But basketball has a way of developing personalities."
As for damage outside the sports world, Pilson noted that while network sports - particularly NBC and Turner Sports - had lost ratings, they would recoup all money advanced to the NBA over the course of the current 4-year contract.
Overall, he said, the players and owners had lost the most.
"Damage was equal on both sides," he said. "I think that helped in reaching a settlement."
The lockout, in effect since July 1, caused players to lose about $500 million in salaries and undetermined sums in licensing fees from corporate sponsors like Nike Inc.
Nike had suspended payments to teams and most NBA players in December, blaming the lockout for "disappointing fans and inflicting harm on the sport of basketball."
"We're thrilled," said Nike spokeswoman Vizhier Mooney. "We're thrilled that the lockout is over and to say 'thrilled' is an understatement."
Mooney said that Nike had immediately begun working with the 230 players and 10 teams it outfits and that all payments had resumed. 
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