Since the beginning of the season, the NBA has had to face a drastic problem. The viewership decline has become an issue of serious concern in the league especially since their $76 billion media deal kicks in next year. In the opening month, games on ESPN saw a 28% decline. Analysts and media personnel have cited several reasons such as the style of play or the onset of injuries to be the cause of the same. However, the way Adam Silver sees it, the problem isn’t relevant to the game itself.

“If you look at other data points, in terms of our business, for example, we’ve just come off the last two years of the highest attendance in the history of this league. We’re at a point where our social media audience is at the highest of any league and continuing to grow exponentially. So, it’s not a lack of interest in this game,” Silver said before the NBA Cup Final.

The In-Season Tournament is one of the initiatives that Silver introduced to drive viewership in the dormant months of the league. It fetched great results in its first year, stimulating interest in not just fans but also a sense of heightened competition among the players. However, this year, even the group stage experienced a 10% in audience engagement.

In Silver’s view, it’s due to the downfall of traditional television and the preference of fans to switch to a streaming platform. Hence, rather than be concerned about the new deal, he sees the imminent agreement as the solution that will bring a fix. “It’s going to allow us from a production standpoint to do all kinds of things that you can’t do through traditional television,” the NBA commissioner told The Athletic.

Speaking of the NBA Cup, another interesting discussion has opened. Several teams want the concept of winning home advantage to remain rather than play the semifinals in Las Vegas. Silver too agrees with wanting to provide teams that perform with an upper hand. But he also exposed the set of problems that come along with it.

“It’s complicated enough scheduling on a neutral site… I think the question … is if we want to seriously consider that, how would that work from a scheduling standpoint?” he posed the question. Silver sees the Vegas destination as a friendly and happening destination where fans can do more than just basketball.

“I think here (in Las Vegas), when you sort of build in tradition, you have a lot of fans who can circle these dates on their calendar and plan to come to Las Vegas, plan a holiday around it,” he mentioned. But is everyone on the same page with him?

NBA analyst urges Adam Silver to provide home games for the NBA Cup

The discussion of having the semifinals in a home arena isn’t related to the viewership. However, when the Hoop Collective crew discussed it, they compared it with soccer. In Europe, all knockout stages aside from the Final feature a home and away game. While that’s not the format in the NBA, Tim Bontempts strongly feels having the semifinal in a home venue will amplify the “atmosphere”.

“Another part of European cup competitions thats different than this is that the semifinals of the competition are played in home competitions. And I think there is a real possibility, I wrote about this Tuesday on our site. I think there’s a real possibility that at some point in the future whether it’s next ear or beyond that the semifinals of this tournament are played at home sites like quarterfinals are and you have the atmosphere that you saw in these quarterfinals games,” Bontemps said.

The revered analyst experienced the buzz and animosity at Madison Square Garden when the Knicks hosted the Hawks. That made him wonder how a semifinal game, with all the stakes, would set a ravishing environment in any arena. “Can you imagine the Garden hosting the semifinal game? The place would be crazy,” he noted on Hoop Collective.

Adam Silver has let the thought graze through his mind as well. He expressed “I’m not against playing in home markets”. The only complexity that comes with such a structure is as mentioned above scheduling. Silver wonders “I think they like the idea of winning that opportunity to play at home. But then you’ve got to move tickets very short term”.

With most teams renting their home arenas, they would have to go through vigorous logistic hazards. In case of prior bookings, teams may have to negotiate moving events or worst case find an arena that can house a charged-up fanbase with ticketing sales also kept in mind. Having empty dates for any arena remains a tough ask.

Yet, there is no denying that the atmosphere if such a scenario is made possible would be beyond the roof. The management is the only tricky part in the entire puzzle, and unfortunately the most hectic.