The Philadelphia 76ers are now officially under new ownership after the NBA approved sale of the franchise on Oct. 18. Joshua Harris and his ownership group put the final touches on their purchase of the famous basketball team from Comcast-Spectacor

The new owners got to work right away and it was announced that Ed Stefanski is no longer the club’s general manager and Rod Thorn, the team’s president, will be getting more involved with the day-to-day operations of the team. However, Doug Collins is staying on as the team’s coach.

What may be of the most interest to the fans was the announcement that ticket prices were going to be cut by quite a bit. CEO Adam Aron said that the cost of about 9,000 seats would be slashed. Some of the $101 seats have been reduced to $54 and some of the $54 tickets have been dropped to $29.

Slashing ticket prices could help revitalize the ailing franchise since there are usually quite a few empty seats at their home games and they haven’t won a series in the postseason since back in 2003. They’ve also gone several years without making any money.

The ownership group is quite large and includes Hollywood couple Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. However, Harris is the head honcho of the group and has the final say on all 76er-related matters. Harris, who’s just 46 years old, is reportedly worth about $1.5 billion. Along with two others, he founded Apollo Global Management back in 1990 and also has a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School of Business, as well as a master’s degree which he earned from the Harvard Business School.

Ed Snider, who ran the club for the past 15 years for Comcast-Spectacor, said he decided to sell the franchise in July because it was simply costing too much money to operate. It’s been reported that the club lost about $15 last year and haven’t made any money since the 2001-02 season.

Comcast-Spectacor has owned the franchise since 1996 when they bought it off of Harold Katz. The company still owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL as well as the Wells Fargo Center. Snider, who still owns the Flyers, said selling the 76ers was an emotional decision because he loves the organization, but business-wise, it was time to let them go.

The basketball team will now become a tenant at the Wells Fargo Center and it looks like they’ll probably be there for quite some time since Harris said he doesn’t plan on building a basketball-only arena. He is looking to build a new practice venue though. With Snider as owner, the club was beaten in the 2001 Finals by the Los Angeles Lakers and have only won a single playoff series since then. Their last winning season came back in 2004-05 with their last championship being won in 1983.

Forbes valued the franchise at $330 million this year, which is 17th in the league and the club also has a good television broadcasting deal with Comcast SportsNet until 2029. It was reported that Harris and his group got a pretty good deal on the franchise and paid $280 million for it.

Harris has a lot of work to do though as the 76ers have to compete with the city’s other sports franchises, such as the Flyers, Phillies, and Eagles. They had a decent season last year with 41 wins and a five-game playoff run against Miami. The lockout will obviously slow things down, but the main objective is to fill the arena with fans and build on the team’s strong player core.

It shouldn’t have surprised anybody when NBA Commissioner David Stern announced on Oct. 10 that the league was cancelling the first two weeks of the 2011/12 season. This could just be the tip of the iceberg though since the players and owners are still miles apart over a new collective bargaining agreement.

Stern cancelled a total of 100 games. These are contests that were scheduled between Nov. 1 and 14. He didn’t really have a choice after both sides met for more than seven hours and still couldn’t come to an agreement. It’s the first time the NBA has cancelled games due to a stoppage in work since they played a 50-game season back in 1998-99.

There’s a wide gap in thinking between the players and owners still when it comes to economics and the way the salary cap is to be structured. Obviously both sides feel they’re right and nobody’s budging on the issues. But Derek Fisher, the players’ union boss, wanted to stress to the public that it was the owners’ choice to cancel part of the season since they’re the ones locking the players out. It’s not a strike.

The season was scheduled to tip off on Nov. 1 and since the games have been scrapped many arenas will now be trying to book other events during that time period. The NBA’s average attendance last season was about 17,300 a game. With 100 games being cancelled it means that about $83 million worth of ticket sales will be lost.

In addition, millions more will go missing when you consider souvenir and concession sales as well as parking etc. Fans that possess season tickets, which have to be paid for in advance, will have their money refunded for the cancelled games and interest will be added to the checks.

It will now become a test of wills to see who’ll blink first. The union has been advising players for the last couple of years to put some money away since a lockout was a distinct possibility. We’ll just have to wait and see if the majority of players start missing their paychecks while they try to continue living their lavish lifestyles. Some players have already jumped ship and signed with basketball clubs overseas.

The NBA’s revenues and television ratings rose considerably last season, meaning the lockout comes at a bad time as momentum was rapidly building. Both sides are going to lose hundreds of millions and it’s money that will likely never be made up. But there are thousands of other people who will be affected by cancelled games.

These include security personnel, arena ushers and concession workers, restaurant employees and parking lot attendants. Those who depend on NBA games to make a living will likely have their hours reduced or will have to join the unemployment line, which is getting longer every day. The teams’ staffs and office people will also be affected.

With the league being on a roll financially, it could be suicide to lose the entire season. It’s hard to say if the fans would welcome them back with open arms or will just find something else to do with their time and money.

The league has offered the players guaranteed contracts, no salary roll backs, and the option of shortening a collective bargaining deal to seven years while players have offered to shorten contract lengths. They can’t agree over annual raises and luxury taxes though. The league wants all clubs to have equal footing and be competitive so are looking at a stricter luxury tax.

The other major issue is the split of revenues. The league wants the players to take 47 per cent while the union wants 53 per cent. However, for the first two weeks of the season at least, both sides are going to have to settle for 0 per cent.

According to NBA Commissioner David Stern, time is now of the essence in the league’s lockout situation and if a deal isn’t reached by Mon. Oct. 10 then the first two weeks of the season will be cancelled. Stern made the announcement after the league and players met for about four hours on Oct. 4. He also cancelled the remainder of the preseason. Stern said the league proposed a 50-50 split on revenues, but the union refused to accept the offer.

This means the two sides are more or less on a tight deadline to get something worked out if the entire season is to be saved, but no new meetings were scheduled. As each day passes by it looks more and more likely the NBA will lose regular season games for the first time since a work stoppage interrupted the league back in the 1998/99 season. That season was played, but a 50-game schedule was implemented.

The players were guaranteed a 57 per cent share of revenues in the previous collective bargaining agreement and union officials said the league then offered them a 47 per cent share. The owners said they lost a combined total of about $300 million last season since 22 out of the 30 clubs lost money, but both players and owners stand to lose millions if any games are wiped out.

The players said they’d lower their share of revenues to 53 per cent as that would put about $1 billion back in the owners’ pockets over the next six years. They say they won’t go any lower than that because they claim a 50-50 split isn’t exactly half of the revenues since the league wants to take $350 million right off the top.

Derek Fisher, the players’ association president, said there’s still a gap that needs to be closed before anything will get settled. Billy Hunter, the union’s executive director, said if the players went as low as 53 per cent it would have given the owners an extra $200 million each season, which would nearly make up for the money they lost last year in just one season.

The league and players are also on different sides of the fence when it comes to a salary cap. Stern claims that the owners will back down on a hard salary cap and will also back off on salary reductions. He added that the players would also be offered the option to pull out of a new 10-year deal after just seven years. However, the major issue is still the revenue split.

After raising their offer from 46 per cent to 47 and then finally 50 per cent of revenues, the NBA is disappointed that the players didn’t accept the deal. It appears that neither side is going to budge any time soon and the players union will hold meetings among itself to help players out if they need it.

In the meantime, several NBA players are temporarily jumping ship and signing with teams overseas. There’s a good chance that Kobe Bryant may join them as he’s thinking about signing a deal in Italy.

Things could also end up in the courts and the union is considering decertification. A hearing has already been scheduled for Nov. 2^nd concerning the NBA’s suit against the players concerning the lockout and violation of antitrust laws.

When it comes to the NBA’s negotiations with the players’ association, the adage, “No news is good news” doesn’t really apply, not if you’re a basketball fan that is. The league and players got together again on Sept. 22 to try and find some common ground and put an end to the lockout by agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement. But like all of their previous meetings, nothing significant was accomplished.

This led to the league announcing on Sept. 23 that it was going to cancel or at least postpone this year’s training camps, which were to open on Oct. 3, as well as a total of 43 preseason contests. According to the league, all of the games that were originally scheduled to be played between Oct. 9 and 15 have been called off.

Adam Silver, the Deputy Commissioner of the NBA, said in a prepared statement that the league regrets it has had to cancel the training camps and first week of preseason games because it’s too late to save them now. He added that the NBA will decide soon if any more preseason games will be cancelled.

Over on the NBA’s official website the schedule page shows that there are no games scheduled for each day between now and Oct. 15. However, there are four games listed to be played on Oct. 16. The way things are going though it’s doubtful that those games will be played either unless there’s a deal made by the beginning of October at the latest.

Back in 1998, when the NBA went through its last work stoppage, the league waited until Oct. 6 before it cancelled the entire preseason schedule. The players finally made it back to the ball courts that year, but ended up playing a shortened 50-game schedule. It was the only time in league history that games were missed due to a work stoppage.

This season is supposed to get underway on Nov. 1. There’s still hope, things aren’t looking too good at the moment, at least not to save the whole season. The players reportedly said they’d take a lower percentage of league revenues as a way to get the ball rolling, but the two sides are still miles apart in negotiations.

The players have been locked out since July 1 following the June 30 expiry date of the previous collective bargaining agreement. The players received 57 per cent of revenues in the last deal and are willing to go down to about 54 per cent or perhaps even lower, but they’re looking for a soft salary cap while the league wants a harder one in place to try and keep the teams on an even playing field.

The two sides will likely get together again soon to try and iron something out because time is of the essence now. In the meantime though, it’s possible that more NBA players might end up signing contracts with teams overseas as a way to keep the money rolling in.

Even to the most optimistic of people, it doesn’t look likely that the 2011-12 NBA season is going to get underway on time. Things looked pretty gloomy after talks were held between the league and players association on Sept. 13 and there wasn’t any progress made during them. Training camps are scheduled to start in three weeks time, but it’s going to take a miracle for that to happen.

The way the salary cap is structured is still the biggest stumbling block and the players and owners don’t have any other meetings scheduled in the near future. NBA Commissioner David Stern admitted that the talks were unproductive and opening night on Nov. 1 seems to be nothing but a dream at this moment.

Stern said the players union won’t discuss anything else until the salary cap issue is solved first and it’s becoming frustrating. He felt it was better for the two sides to meet among themselves after the meeting than to try and work out a deal again just a day or two later.

Franchise owners said they lost a total of $300 million this past season and hundreds of millions in previous years and they’re looking for the NBA’s financial system to be overhauled because of it. The present salary cap system enables clubs to go over the limit as long as they pay what is known as a luxury tax. This means the rich clubs, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, can pay more for their players and have a decided edge over clubs that aren’t as well of financially.

This is known as a soft salary cap and the league is pushing for a hard cap. The players don’t agree, but all of the owners say it’s needed if all 30 of the league’s teams are to be competitive and they feel it should also be the goal of the players.

While the recent meetings were pretty cordial, the players who were present looked dejected as they realized they may now have to find jobs elsewhere this season. It became apparent to them that a deal is going to be reached later rather than sooner.

Along with the salary cap issue, there are still some other things that need to be ironed out, including the splitting of revenues. Under the old collective bargaining agreement the player’s share was 57 per cent and they offered to lower it to 54.3 per cent, but the owners locked them out on July 1 instead as they were thinking of a percentage in the high 40s. The players association say if they are given 65 per cent of the revenues then they’ll settle on the hard salary cap issue.

It looks like there’s too large of a gap right now and unless somebody has a change of heart, literally overnight, don’t count on watching any NBA basketball games anytime soon, unless you happen to catch a classic on TV.

Basketball’s Euroleague doesn’t think it’s clubs will be signing any players who are currently under contract to NBA teams. The league’s president Jordi Bertomeu said the European teams need to have stable rosters and know how long their players will be staying for. They don’t want to sign guys for just a couple of months who will be taking off back to America as soon as the lockout is over.

Even though you may have never heard of the Euroleague its actually the second best-paid basketball league in the world behind the NBA. Some of the most successful teams are Panathinaikos of Greece, Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona of Spain, Montepaschi Siena of Italy, and CSKA Moscow of Russia.

Because these teams pay pretty decent salaries a lot of NBA stars figured they could play for them and recoup some of their losses. But it seems the Euroleague clubs don’t really need to inject their game with them as their league is doing fine just the way it is.

A recent ruling by FIBA, the governing body for basketball, said players would be able to leave their European teams and head back to the U.S. as soon as the NBA starts up. But European teams aren’t high on the idea of losing players halfway through the season.

Bertomeu said that FIBA’s ruling was odd, because and he believes the organization struck up a deal with the NBA before announcing it on July 29, which was about a month after the NBA locked its players out. Bertomeu said the Euroleague asked FIBA what the rules were and they should have announced them right after the lockout started, not waited a month and then coming out with them.

The NBA denies striking a deal with FIBA though and said the David Stern, the league’s commissioner, said that NBA players are free to play wherever they want when locked out. The ruling seems to make sense though as things could get messy if NBA players were still in Europe when the lockout ends and could lead to potential lawsuits. Bertomeu was adamant that FIBA made a deal with the NBA.

Bertomeu said that Euroleague teams would be interested in free agents from the NBA if they can commit to playing the full season with them. So far, Maccabi has signed Nets guard Jordan Farmar because they feel if he suddenly leaves they won’t be affected too much and Besiktas made a deal with Nets guard Deron Williams. Besiktas, based in Istanbul, Turkey, was also interested in Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson played there for a brief spell last season. However, the team doesn’t belong to the Euroleague, it’s a second-tier franchise.

Because the Euroleague is cool to the idea of signing players, some of them are considering playing in China during the lockout. However, the Chinese League isn’t as competitive as Europe and doesn’t pay anywhere near the same salaries. The European clubs are often associated with huge, money-making soccer clubs and have pretty big budgets.

Bertomeu feels his Euroleague will ultimately benefit from the NBA lockout even if it doesn’t sign many players simply because all basketball eyes will be focused on Europe. He said the league wants to broaden its European market and make American fans aware of its presence.

If the NBA lockout continues into the regular season and the pay checks are halted at least the players will have something to fall back on as they’ll be given their escrow money back this off-season for the first time ever. This means about $160 million will be on their way to players’ bank accounts to help tide them over until the lockout ends.

The money is withheld from all players’ checks each season and represents about eight per cent of each player’s earnings. The money is deducted from their pay stubs to make sure they don’t earn more than the agreed upon total of 57 per cent of all basketball revenue.

The system was brought in with the collective bargaining agreement that followed the lockout in 1998-99. However, the players’ total earnings fell short of the 57 per cent this season and that’s why they’re going to get their money back.

The league and players’ association are just waiting for an audit to be done to make it official, and the full amount of the escrow will then be returned to them. Everybody likes getting money back, especially when they’re out of work.

It’s believed the average NBA salary is $5.7 million and the escrow refund on this amount would be a total of $456,000. Players who make the minimum league salary of $473,604 would get $37,888 back and anybody lucky enough to be making $16 million a year would get a total of $1.28 million back.

Most NBA players receive their paychecks between November and April. However some of them are on a 12-month plan and they are paid throughout the summer as well for the season that just ended. The league estimated that 22 of its 30 teams lost money this season to a total tune of about $300 million and is looking to reduce the players’ cut of 57 per cent

The owners are also looking to put in a hard salary cap or a flex one instead of the soft cap that’s been in use. The soft cap system saw some teams like the Los Angeles Lakers’ with a $110 million in salaries while others such as the Sacramento Kings’ only dished out $45 million in wages.

The owners feel this is making the league uncompetitive. The players said they’d go as low as 54.3 per cent of total basketball revenue, which would see their salaries cut by about $500 million over the life of a new five-year collective bargaining agreement.

Some modern-day athletes are used to getting locked up, but now they have to deal with getting locked out thanks to the NBA shutting down the league for the time being. It didn’t really come as a surprise to millions of basketball fans after billionaire owners and millionaire players had been airing their dirty laundry in public for the last several months, but nothing was actually being done about it.

The lockout became official just after the clock struck 10 on June 30 and this could be a long one as there’s not really any urgency to get things done right now. Two months could fly by and there would still be time to hold training camps and get the season underway. But until that sense of urgency strikes the owners and/or players, don’t expect much to happen in the way of a new collective bargaining agreement.

The owners are looking for a new 10-year deal as they believe the economic structure in the league has broken down and a stricter salary cap needs to be introduced to keep things in order. But this comes after signing players to years of ridiculous salaries in the past. Owners are also looking for a higher percentage of basketball-related revenue as well as shorter guaranteed contracts. However, the players association isn’t willing to take a step backwards when it comes to money. The players are getting 57 per cent of revenue at the moment.

So while the games may be off the fight’s still on as the two sides will try to work out a deal if at all possible. But the stakes probably won’t get higher until the players start missing their paychecks and the owners are stuck with empty arenas. Until then, there’s not much incentive on either side to really dig in their heels and get something done.

The free agency season, which was to open on July 1 has been put on hold and all player movement will be ceased until a deal’s reached. In addition all player photos and information has been taken off of the league’s and clubs’ websites as if they don’t exist until this thing gets settled.

The last time the league went through a work stoppage was back in the 1998-99 season and like then this matter will eventually get solved. But at who’s cost? It’s likely that when the two sides kiss and make up it’ll be the fans who end up getting the shaft as ticket prices will almost certainly rise as the league can’t get by now on its yearly revenue of about $4 billion.

It’s believed that more negotiations will be held in the next couple of weeks and it’s possible they might just start from square one again, but there’s a huge gap in financial numbers that needs to be bridged and that’s not going to happen overnight. The league is serious though as the plug has been pulled while it was on a roll.

This past season was one of the best in recent memory and television ratings were strong, especially during the six-game final series between Miami and Dallas. But despite the pros there were quite a few cons as the league claimed that 22 of its 30 franchises lost money.

The money to succeed is obviously there, it’s just that nobody knows where the scales should be positioned so there’s an equal balance for the owners and players to both make money. But it’s the fans who will have the final say when they decide if they should continue spending their hard-earned cash to line the pockets of NBA owners and players following the lockout.

The Portland Trail Blazers announced on June 29 that they have offered injury-prone Greg Oden, their former number-one draft pick, a qualifying offer of $8.8 million for next season if there is one. The offer means that Oden is now a restricted free agent and Portland has the right to match any other offers that are made to the seven-foot center.

The 23-year-year-old former star for Ohio State has been a major bust so far in the NBA, but not because of his play. He’s been hit by a string of injuries since day one and has only played a total of 82 games in parts of two seasons so far.

He sat out his rookie season back in 2007/08 due to microfracture surgery to his right knee and didn’t play last season either because of the same type of surgery on his left knee. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also broke his left kneecap two years ago. When Oden has had the chance to play he’s been scoring an average of 9.4 points to go along with his 7.3 rebounds.

Larry Miller, the president of the Trail blazers, said the club has stood behind Oden since the day they drafted him and they’ll continue to do so. He said that Oden has worked as hard as possible to rehabilitate his injuries and has shown the club that he’s dedicated and committed to the team despite his constant setbacks. He added that the Trail Blazers are encouraged by his progress and are confident he’ll be able to return to the court soon.

The Blazers offered Oden the new deal just before the June 30^th deadline. If they hadn’t offered him a deal he would have been an unrestricted free agent on July 1^st. He will also be eligible for unrestricted free agency for the 2012/13 season if he doesn’t receive any other offers and he stays with Portland this season.

The last time Oden played was during 2009/10 when he was scoring an average of 11.7 points a game along with 8.8 rebounds as a starter and 2.4 blocks. He was having a good season until December when he broke his kneecap. Oden figured he’d be able to return last season, but found out in November that his right knee needed microfracture surgery.

It has been a disappointing few years for the club and its fans as Oden was seen as the club’s saviour after being taken first in the draft in 2007 ahead of Kevin Durant. But Oden never played a minute as a rookie due to knee surgery.

It seems that $8.8 million is a lot of money for a guy who’s forever injured. However, at just 23 years old Oden could still end up enjoying a fine career in the NBA. If there is a lockout, it would also give him more time to recover and prepare himself for a return to the court.

The show must go on. But for how long nobody knows when it comes to the NBA. The league’s draft took place as scheduled on June 23, but a work stoppage still seems a real possibility as owners and players have a wide gap that needs to be narrowed. It’s believed the owners and players are still almost $7 billion apart in their dealings over a new 10-year agreement.

Billy Hunter, the executive director of the Players’ Association said the players wouldn’t even get back to where they stand now financially until the last year of a 10-year collective bargaining agreement. The present agreement runs out on June 30, so time is limited if they want to get a deal done.

The NBA recently proposed something they called a flex salary cap to the players. But the players’ union said it’s a hard cap not a flexible one and they’re not interested in it. So at the moment, the salary cap issue seems to be the biggest hurdling point.

NBA boss David Stern said the flex cap places a limit on spending, but teams would still be able to go over it up to a certain point. However, the players say there’s still a spending limit that eventually comes into play. Stern added that the players would be guaranteed at least $2 billion every year of a 10-year agreement, which is a little less than what they made this year.

Stern said a player’s average wage would be approximately $5 million and the players and owners would eventually split revenues 50-50. Right now the players are raking in 57 per cent of them and the league wants to reduce that to 54.3 per cent over the first five years of a new deal by reducing salaries by more than $500 million. This includes an eight per cent cut in pay in the first year. Stern didn’t say this was the league’s final offer, but did admit it’s getting close.

The NBA wants to introduce a salary cap of about $62 million and teams could spend more than that before reaching a limit that they can’t go over. At the moment, there’s a soft salary cap in place and clubs can exceed it as long as they pay a luxury tax when reaching the limit. This year’s cap was set at $58 million, but some teams, such as Dallas, spent more than that with the Mavericks shelling out well over $70 million.

The league also wanted to introduce non-guaranteed contracts, but later dropped the issue and said they’d leave things the way they are now. But the players said they’ve had guaranteed contracts for 40 years, so the league isn’t really making any concession by dropping the issue.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel though as Hunter feels the owners are interested in coming to an agreement and is hoping the NBA won’t see its first stoppage since back in 1998. But the union and the league said they’re still far apart and more meetings will need to take place soon to get things done in time.

The two sides have exchanged a total of 10 proposals since negotiations began and there’s likely to be a couple more before this thing gets settled.