Managing a Heavy Load: NBA Schedule, Sports Science and Resting for the Playoffs

Most NBA experts acknowledge the 82-game season is too long. The season is a grind: September training camp through mid-June NBA Finals. For those teams that don’t make the playoffs, the off-season begins in mid-April, but the NBA’s superstars, who drive revenue and general fan interest, usually make it at least as far as the second round of the playoffs, which end in mid-May.

This past June, NBA commissioner Adam Silver agreed to consider future changes to the schedule. Whether this means a minor reduction in games, from 82 to 70, and a soccer-style mid-season cup tournament among the top 4 teams, or whether it means a more significant change remains to be seen.

Fewer games means owners would lose ticket revenue, arena revenue (losing several home games) and possibly television revenue — cable deals might decrease, though scarcity would make each game inherently more important. The NBA and the players union would have to agree upon these changes to revenue and player salary.

An average NBA regular season ticket on the secondary market is $89. Season-tickets, multi-game packs, and presale tickets account for a huge portion of available tickets, which drives up the secondary market demand.

The NBA’s popularity has grown to the point where Forbes recently estimated the average value of an NBA team (1.9 billion) to exceed that of a major league baseball team (1.7 billion).