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The article, about the proposed Historical Basketball League, is published on "The Athletic" but I will quote a few pieces here. This is the big one:
"First, there’s more money while players wait for the NBA Draft, even for those players who don’t get drafted. The HBL pay scale is $50,000-$150,000 for as long as players are college students, better than the G League 2018-19 minimum of just $35,000. In addition, HBL players receive full scholarship for five years of college, taken at their own pace, consecutively, or is more likely to be the case, non-consecutively over their lifetimes if they so chose."
"The Historical Basketball League, however, intends to make the term a reality and conventional wisdom. If the HBL can raise $15-20 million in venture financing – it has a good start already — it plans to launch play next summer in eight mid-Atlantic cities: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Norfolk, Raleigh and Atlanta. If successful there, the league plans to expand as many as 24-32 sites across the rest of the country."
"The league itself (not individual owners) will own all the “teams†in the various cities, will pay salaries to coaches and players, and have its games played during the summer and thus not in competition with either NCAA or NBA games. The games will be held in venues with capacities of 3,000 to 8,000 which now largely sit empty (except for the occasional concert) and which could give the games a “Hoosiersâ€-like atmosphere. Broadcast rights will be sold to digital media now hungry for live content and not already aligned with either the NCAA or NBA broadcasts, when the only other professional sport routinely on television is baseball. Gambling, on-site and online, will be allowed, thus providing an additional revenue sources, along with live gate receipts.
"So why would four- or five-star high school athletes want to give up potential NCAA careers – which for the best players is just one or two years anyhow – to take the risk of playing in a new league in which financial prospects are not guaranteed, at least this point? The HBL would not prevent its players also from playing during the academic year for the NCAA colleges, but under current rules, the NCAA would prohibit that from happening."
"Schwarz and Volante point out the financial and other downsides of the NCAA one-or- two-and-done options, however: players can only collect the “full cost of attending†their schools (with not much for spending money), but nothing else because the NCAA currently prohibits college athletes from making any money tied to their collegiate sports on endorsement deals, individually or for their teams through “group licenses†for rights to their “names, images, and likenesses†(NIL). They lose their college scholarships if they declare for the NBA Draft and get agents, which can mean they’re stuck if they don’t realize their NBA dreams, or have short stints in the NBA or overseas."
The one or two years the top basketball players may spend in college, meanwhile, are unlikely to prepare them for a post-basketball career if they want one, as many of them may not realize until only after their basketball careers are over. The former UCLA basketball star and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that prompted the NCAA to raise its scholarship limit to the full cost of attendance, Ed O’Bannon, confirms what readers of The Athletic probably already know, in his recent book “Court Justice†(co-authored by Michael McCann). He writes that top schools encourage “if not, for all practical purposes, require their players to take less-than-challenging classes that are scheduled around games and practices,†so that scholarship athletes can maintain the minimum 2.0 grade point average necessary for eligibility."
I think this represents a real threat to NCAA ball, as it is currently constructed. A couple of seasons of the HBL and I see college sports caving in to pressure to institute fully paid athletic position on their revenue generating teams. Especially for non-top tier players
, who aren't ranked top 60 in their class. Declare for the draft, get an agent, lose your chance at a college education and then have to go the international route and hope you don't get injured? Or pick a good course and major in college, play professional ball all summer at $50K + instead of holding down some shitty part time job. Graduate with a degree and then declare, or declare after a couple of years if your draft stock has risen, all while learnign the NBA style game.
The fact that it offers an alternative to watching baseball is an unexpected bonus. :-)
"First, there’s more money while players wait for the NBA Draft, even for those players who don’t get drafted. The HBL pay scale is $50,000-$150,000 for as long as players are college students, better than the G League 2018-19 minimum of just $35,000. In addition, HBL players receive full scholarship for five years of college, taken at their own pace, consecutively, or is more likely to be the case, non-consecutively over their lifetimes if they so chose."
"The Historical Basketball League, however, intends to make the term a reality and conventional wisdom. If the HBL can raise $15-20 million in venture financing – it has a good start already — it plans to launch play next summer in eight mid-Atlantic cities: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Norfolk, Raleigh and Atlanta. If successful there, the league plans to expand as many as 24-32 sites across the rest of the country."
"The league itself (not individual owners) will own all the “teams†in the various cities, will pay salaries to coaches and players, and have its games played during the summer and thus not in competition with either NCAA or NBA games. The games will be held in venues with capacities of 3,000 to 8,000 which now largely sit empty (except for the occasional concert) and which could give the games a “Hoosiersâ€-like atmosphere. Broadcast rights will be sold to digital media now hungry for live content and not already aligned with either the NCAA or NBA broadcasts, when the only other professional sport routinely on television is baseball. Gambling, on-site and online, will be allowed, thus providing an additional revenue sources, along with live gate receipts.
"So why would four- or five-star high school athletes want to give up potential NCAA careers – which for the best players is just one or two years anyhow – to take the risk of playing in a new league in which financial prospects are not guaranteed, at least this point? The HBL would not prevent its players also from playing during the academic year for the NCAA colleges, but under current rules, the NCAA would prohibit that from happening."
"Schwarz and Volante point out the financial and other downsides of the NCAA one-or- two-and-done options, however: players can only collect the “full cost of attending†their schools (with not much for spending money), but nothing else because the NCAA currently prohibits college athletes from making any money tied to their collegiate sports on endorsement deals, individually or for their teams through “group licenses†for rights to their “names, images, and likenesses†(NIL). They lose their college scholarships if they declare for the NBA Draft and get agents, which can mean they’re stuck if they don’t realize their NBA dreams, or have short stints in the NBA or overseas."
The one or two years the top basketball players may spend in college, meanwhile, are unlikely to prepare them for a post-basketball career if they want one, as many of them may not realize until only after their basketball careers are over. The former UCLA basketball star and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that prompted the NCAA to raise its scholarship limit to the full cost of attendance, Ed O’Bannon, confirms what readers of The Athletic probably already know, in his recent book “Court Justice†(co-authored by Michael McCann). He writes that top schools encourage “if not, for all practical purposes, require their players to take less-than-challenging classes that are scheduled around games and practices,†so that scholarship athletes can maintain the minimum 2.0 grade point average necessary for eligibility."
I think this represents a real threat to NCAA ball, as it is currently constructed. A couple of seasons of the HBL and I see college sports caving in to pressure to institute fully paid athletic position on their revenue generating teams. Especially for non-top tier players
, who aren't ranked top 60 in their class. Declare for the draft, get an agent, lose your chance at a college education and then have to go the international route and hope you don't get injured? Or pick a good course and major in college, play professional ball all summer at $50K + instead of holding down some shitty part time job. Graduate with a degree and then declare, or declare after a couple of years if your draft stock has risen, all while learnign the NBA style game.
The fact that it offers an alternative to watching baseball is an unexpected bonus. :-)
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