While the NHL Snoozes the NBA Cruises To The Future

If there were a handicapping contest on who has the best handle on the future between the major sports leagues in North America there is little doubt that the title would go to the NBA under its dynamic commissioner Adam Silver. When it comes to innovation, it’s Hi-Ho Silver away.

Silver, who replaced David Stern in 2014, has embraced the legalization of gambling in the U.S., purged recidivist owners and made huge inroads into Asia under his watch. But definitive evidence of why the NBA is the league to watch came this week as Silver announced that the league is proposing a 78-game schedule, cutting down from the current 82-game slog it has employed since 1965. 

There are a number of reasons for the shift as Silver tries to re-sculpt the endless regular-season model. First is reducing the inventory of useless Tuesday-in-January schedule stuffers that neither players, networks nor advertisers are craving. The dollar amounts being paid now by both conventional networks and new broadcast partners such as Disney or Google will more than make up for the lost revenues from regional games.

But the new sugar daddies also want a streamlining of teams. If they’re got to fork over tens of billions for NBA rights they want super teams, appointment viewing and a global spectacle. The 32-team model reduces the likelihood of that. The process of super teams has already taken hold as LeBron James, Steph Curry and now Kawhi Leonard have assembled teams of other stars to win the NBA title.

But Silver has also been watching other sports to see how they are maximizing revenues globally, and his eye has set on soccer. He’s seen the in-season tournaments and playdowns such as the FA Cup, Champions League and World/ Euro Cup qualifiers that spice up the long eight-month trail to the championship.  And that, as I show in my book Cap In Hand bring in billions of Euros to soccer.

The 78-game schedule is just the start as Silver plans to create midseason competitions and other promotions to relieve the tedium of the regular season. The All Star game format will be adapted or allowed to die off.  Playoffs will be streamlined with play-in games and favourable schedules.

If these ideas sound familiar it’s because they’re the same notions I discussed— and reported on—with a former NHL executive seven or eight years ago. Even then, he was proposing that the NHL examine how the competition was thriving and adapting it to their business model. Well, this exec is gone and the Gary Bettman league remains immune to changing a business model that was designed for expansion in the 1980s.

Here's former NHL employee and broadcast executive John Shannon on the NHL’s willingness to change. He tweeted: “Lots of discussion around the NBA of changes to the regular season, in season tournament, play-in games… Don’t expect the NHL to change right now.  A competitive regular season and the hardest postseason in North America are tough to beat.” You can be sure this is from Gary’s lips to John’s ear.

In fact, nothing will change until Bettman’s expected retirement in 2050 (cough). The league that never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity will sit back and let others get the gravy, confident that the Millennial market’s tastes are just like its predecessor Boomers. 

Making the NHL’s stagnation even more pronounced are moves to revamp other sports. We learned that as party of its new contract with umpires, MLB is moving toward automated calling on balls and strikes. As well, it is radically reducing the number of minor-league affiliates it supports to lower overhead. (While many of the cities affected are protesting, this may yet produce a surge in independent leagues where winning, not player development, actually matter.) 

The NFL, too, is likely to adapt a 17-game regular season shortly, removing the useless preseason soaking of its season ticket holders. As well, the NFL is expanding its international footprint with more games and possible franchises in England and Mexico. It will also fully integrate with the gamling industry, allowing onsite and in-game wagering.

But watch Adam Silver’s league for the clues on how you’ll be watching sports in 20 years. And see the NHL lament how it missed all the obvious tells on what to do next.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the publisher of  (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). He’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he is also a best-selling author whose new book Cap In Hand: How Salary Caps Are Killing Pro Sports And Why The Free Market Could Save Them is now available on brucedowbigginbooks.ca.