To Play or Not to Play?

To pay or not to pay? That could also be the question.

At this moment in time the NFL and NBA (that's American Football and Basketball for anyone in doubt) find themselves in a 'lockout' situation where the owners and players can't agree on how to carve up the money. These sports don't have transfer fees and pool revenue so the collective agreement of how to divide up the revenue between players and owners is a massive deal.

Unless a new agreement is reached, the NFL and NBA will not play next season. Both sports are currently in their off season so this isn't an immediate problem. However, contact between team officials and the players is strictly forbidden during the lockout. That's everything from coaches not being allowed to talk to their players to players not being allowed on their team's training facilities. This has seen some teams, such as the New Orleans Saints, organising player only training sessions. Marc Spears at Yahoo reports that things have gone even further than this with an assistant NBA coach having ask for special permission for a player to go to his wedding (the whole article by Spears is worth a read and can be found here - http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AsGup5PjI9whicPsTIa8uX28vLYF?slug=mc-spears_nba_players_lockout_impact_063011).

I think the most interesting part of the lockout is the 'us against them' mentality adopted by both sides. In the NBA the players are said to have been preparing financially for the lockout for several years and are ready to dig their trenches and sit out the entire season. The key problem is that reaching an agreement is ultimately in the interest of both sides. While there's talk of some NBA players playing in Europe or China while there continues to be a lockout, the fact of the matter is that the NFL and NBA are clearly the elite league in the world when it comes to their respective sports. Realistically they're going to have to kiss and make up at some point so why not do it sooner rather than later? I think that they're getting too caught up in their two way battle for money and are forgetting the effect they're having on their fans and others that benefit from the leagues indirectly such as bars close to the arenas which get match day drinkers.

PS For any of those confused what I'm on about, the lovely Gilbert Arenas has kindly explained the lockout in simple terms which can be found here - http://boston.sbnation.com/boston-celtics/2011/7/2/2256540/nba-lockout-2011-gilbert-arenas. Still confused? Me too.