It wasn’t hard to see that things weren’t exactly as an owner would hope. We walked into the newer arena welcomed by attentive staff and thousands of people dressed a seats. Not the ideal game for a team, owner, fan, or for that matter league. In fact, according to NBA Commissioner David Stern, last year more than half of the teams lost money and this year revenues are expected to drop another 5 percent, so now the NBA and its teams seem to be in a full court press to control costs.

During a conference call with reporters recently, Stern said, “we have to face the reality that joblessness has increased, mortgage foreclosures have increased, various markets are in difficult space. But I think we will be viewed as relatively recession resistant.”

He speaks the truth thanks to TV and multi media money, but there are still a number of small market teams struggling to put people in the seats and the threat remains that moving a team or two could be a serious option.
To get more opinion on the subject we headed across town to the Fox Sports Radio studio’s where we met up with
Matt “Money” Smith. “You need to sell tickets, you need to be supported in your community and I’d say over half the franchises right now do not have the support they need in the NBA”, says Smith. He has covered the NBA and specifically the Lakers for some time now and he believes that the best way for the NBA to improve would be contraction.

Yep, even he agrees that likelihood is about as possible as snow outside the Staples Center. Smith continues, “The real problem in the nba is single game sales merchandise sales, that’s where they are really taking their hits and that’s where owners are having problems in a number of these franchises.

Our live reports for this story are here at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to the Lakers and the Clippers. These two teams give you an idea of the haves and the have nots of the N-B-A. The storied Lakers are always a hot ticket in town, while the struggling Clippers can’t sell out, leaving them to find other ways to economize.
The Clippers have the advantage of being in a strong TV money and advertising town, something teams in Charlotte, New Orleans and Memphis for example do not.

So what are teams and the league doing? The NBA closed its league office in LA and cut about 80 jobs. The Cleveland Cavaliers are saving 40-thousand dollars by sending electronic Christmas Cards instead of the old fashioned way.
The Bobcats and other teams cut staff and in some cases scouts, while some teams are only carrying 12 or 13 players on the roster instead of the allowed 15. Front office execs say that while the economy is tough on everyone, much of these changes are part of normal cost cutting moves to improve efficiency. What do you think? You can also watch some behind the scenes video on our Kyte Player above.