But lets say they make it a billion dollars per player.
Ok.
How does that drive fan engagement?
Why do I care if these guys get filthy rich?
They already make more money than any of us will see in 10 lifetimes.
Now theyre supposed to get MORE money for playing regular season games that count for absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things?
It's like... let me put this in NFL terms for why that league would NEVER do this shyt.
Let's start by imagining a team like the Steelers. Currently at 5-3 halfway through the season, with middling qb play. If they had two options in front of them for their next, lets say 4 regular season games:
Play 2 group play games, win them both, and enter a knockout tournament where they'll be seeded against the chiefs, dolphins and eagles of the league, or go 1-1 in the group play game and fall into the "consolation" bracket where they will get 2 regular season games against the titans, bears and panthers of the league.
Such a tournament incentivizes middle of the road performances in the group play phase, to actually AVOID the knockout phase.
That's easy to imagine on a micro scale, because the NFL has a smaller sample size of games.
But give it time, and that same understanding will seap into league circles, once they do the math on the cost/benefit to the tournament as it pertains to the goal of winning a championship. Because ultimately, fan engagement is highest when teams are winning, so once the reddits of the world get crunching the numbers and finding the "optimal" path through the regular season, this tournament is going to devolve into "avoiding the knockout bracket at all costs."
This might literally be, all things considered, the worst logistical proposal I have ever seen in a professional sporting league.
How this idea made it through so many rounds of approvals and green lights is beyond me.
It is mathematically devaluing their regular season. I don't care about "lets give it a chance," "it might be interesting", etc. Once the marketing push dies down and people look at this shyt objectively, theyll see they have created a formula that--once again, like tanking--incentivizes LOSING BASKETBALL GAMES and exacerbates load management conditions.
Insane. Absolutely insane they're doing this.
. When more than half the teams make the playoffs aftet 82 games you automatically de-emphasize the regular season. At least they would be going all out for the tournament. And its still just one team. I think it should serve as a boost/tie-breaker. You win 50 games and the tournament you get treated like you won 55 and if another team actually won 55 you get whatever playoff spot over them.
