Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes that the NBA should consider a permanent calendar change.
Since the 2019-20 season has been altered due to the coronavirus, Cuban believes that the NBA should adapt and always begin its season around Christmas Day.
“I’ve always been a proponent of starting on Christmas Day because that’s when we go to broadcast television,” Cuban said in an appearance on BaD Radio on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket [KTCK-AM]. “Whether it’s Christmas Day or possibly a little earlier, because part of the thought process is hopefully there’s a vaccine by then, and I’m one of these people that’s very confident that there will be, the science geek in me just reading it thinks that it’s highly likely that there will be.
“Now the question is the distribution of it and the more time we buy for distribution of the vaccine, the more likely when we start next season there’s an opportunity to not just have some fans but more fans than we otherwise might expect.”
As he is one of the more innovative owners in the NBA, Cuban may be onto something. If the NBA permanently alters its schedule, it would avoid having to shorten a future season to get back to the current format.
He also believes moving the schedule could allow for more fans to attend games next year if a COVID-19 vaccine is found.
“That’s part one,” Cuban said. “Part two, because of everything, schools are not going to have multiple breaks. Traditionally there’s a Thanksgiving break, there’s a Christmas break or some sort of winter break in between there, and then there’s an early in the year break and so a lot of schools are combining those into one so that when kids come to school they stay a little bit longer, but when they’re gone, they’re gone for both breaks combined.
“The importance of that is that means there’s a lot of kids who are going to be coming home back to Dallas from schools and that just always helps our attendance because kids coming back always want to go to games.”
It’s not a bad strategy for the NBA to consider.
Cuban recently made headlines for saying that he is hopeful that he would kneel with Mavericks players during the national anthem due to the social injustice plaguing the United States.
It will be interesting to see if Cuban’s ideas are considered by the league as it heads into the 2019-20 season’s resumption in late July.
