Rockets: Why the NBA can’t afford to cancel the season

McHale speaks

McHale was on Houston’s ESPN 97.5 The Game and recently explained the financial consequences the league would face, and why they must crown a champion.

“I think they have to get it done. ESPN, ABC, and TNT will lose hundreds of millions of dollars if there aren’t any playoffs. I they’ll have to do it, I really do. There’s hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. And the league took a hit from the whole Hong Kong thing.”

McHale makes an interesting point regarding the Hong Kong incident, which stems from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s unintended tweet prior to the start of the season. Morey certainly couldn’t have expected or anticipated the financial ramifications of that tweet, and we’ve heard that China is still not backing off their stance of not airing NBA games, even if the season were to resume.

Although McHale made sure to state that this wasn’t Morey’s fault, he did mention the impact the fiasco had on the league’s revenue stream.

“The league lost a ton of dough on that, and now all of a sudden, add another couple hundred million being lost in revenue with no TV? And does ABC/ESPN say ‘we want our money back’ or ‘we’re not paying you because there was no playoffs?’

Does TNT say ‘we’re not paying you?’ All of a sudden now you’re looking at a $2.4 billion business losing a billion dollars.”

Next: Financial consequences