The NBA, TNT, and ESPN have reached a new deal for the league’s TV rights, and it is a doozy. New York Times TV Sports columnist Richard Sandomir reported on the details:
NBA to announce $24 billion/9 year deal w/ ESPN and TNT on Monday. Annual average value nearly 3x current deal.
— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) October 6, 2014
Annual avg value of new NBA deal soars from about $930M to $2.66B. New deal starts after 2015-16 season.
— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) October 6, 2014This huge new deal means that the salary cap and player salaries are both likely to skyrocket when the next collective bargaining agreement is signed, which will (hopefully) occur during the summer of 2017. It also validates why players like LeBron James signed such short contracts during this offseason, as they now will probably have the chance to enter free agency with a lot of money available to be spent.
For ESPN NBA editor Adam Reisinger has done a nice breakdown of how all of this will translate into actual dollars:
This is just a quick and dirty calculation, that doesn't account for benefits adjustments before the cap, other BRI moves, etc...
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014
OK, so if this year's salary cap was $63.065M, the means a projected BRI of $4.2B (give or take)...
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014
If the annual national TV revenue jumps from $930M to $2.66B, that takes BRI to approx $5.9B...
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014
And based on the current cap formula, the salary cap for a $5.9B BRI would be around $88M per team...
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014
But an $88M cap means the max salary for a 10-year vet is $30.99M
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014
...And IF the 10-year vet max was $30.99M, a 5-year deal for a max player re-signing with his current team could be worth $178.1M
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014
The final year of that hypothetical 5-year max contract would be for approx. $40.3M. For one season of basketball.
— Adam Reisinger (@AdamReisinger) October 6, 2014[via Twitter]
