考研阅读精选：篮球中的薪资等级
Labor relations in basketballSpring comes early
missioner, deemed the impasse a “nuclear winter” for the league. Assuch deep freezes go, the 12 days that passed before the two sidesannounced on November 26th that they had reached a deal to save the2011-12 season were downright balmy. The details of the newcollective-bargaining agreement (CBA) are still being finalized. But anabbreviated 66-game season will start on Christmas Day, and the pactensures labor peace for at least the next six years.
Comparedwith the status quo, the new CBA is far more favorable to the owners.Their guaranteed share of the league’s basketball-related income willincrease from 43% in 2010-11 to 49% next season, and then move to arange of 49-51%, depending on the league’s overall revenues. The maximumindividual contract length will be shortened from six years to five.The “luxury tax” imposed on teams that exceed the formal maximum payrollby a given amount will become far more punitive, and a number ofexceptions that allow clubs to spend over the cap will be curtailed.
Yet the players extracted some significant concessions that were notincluded in the November 14th offer. If their share of the league’sincome exceeds the agreed-upon limit, the owners cannot reduce theirsalaries in subsequent years, as the league had previously demanded. Theowners also wanted to prevent clubs that pay the luxury tax from usingsalary-cap loopholes and from receiving players in “sign-and-trade”deals. Sign-and-trades will now continue unfettered for two years, andwill subsequently remain available to teams whose payrolls are within$4m of the luxury-tax threshold, as will one frequently used capexception. The players also got an increase in the minimum team payroll,a higher salary limit for young stars and an increase in the amount ofrevenue that big-market clubs will share with their rivals in smallercities—a means of bridging the gap between the league’s haves andhave-nots without further reducing salaries.
The parties took justfive days to hammer out the agreement, after the lockout was 144 daysold. Neither side has said what changed in such a short time. The ownersmay have decided to give a bit more ground once the players showed theywere willing to take their chances with an antitrust suit, even if itmeant a prolonged work stoppage. Or they may have felt extra pressureafter Major League Baseball announced its new CBA, which was reachedwithout any public acrimony, on November 22nd. In hindsight, thecontours of the eventual deal were already evident when Mr. Stern firstcancelled games on October 10th. But the loss of a mere 20% of theseason falls far short of the pessimistic forecasts made earlier thismonth. The lockout will probably be all but forgotten by playoff time.
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