NBA To Consider Earlier Finals Start Time So It’ll End Before Skinemax Starts To Get Good

As a currently east coast fraternity, we at MachoChip really miss our Los Angeles upbringing (except the new guy–he’s from Queens). But we’re not talking about late-night Jack In The Box here. No, it’s the fact that the games start and end so damn late, especially the NBA Finals. A cause to call the Whaaa-mbulance? Sure. But when you have to turn off the game because your team is down by 24 and it’s like 11 and you have to be at work by 9–thus missing an amazing comeback–you tend to get kind of angry. David Stern has heard the east-coast snores and is considering moving the times up, but those PST yahoos keep mucking it up.

“We struggle with it,” Stern said, because the networks consistently report their best ratings in the later part of the night. “There’s no doubt that at 11:30 Eastern, that’s when the largest audience is gathered in.”

OK, on the weekdays we understand getting home from work would be a hassle if games started at 5 PST, but what about the weekends?

“It wouldn’t be a terrible thing to have a Sunday night game at 7 o’clock, but our network partners tell us that your ratings will be lower,” Stern said. “And to me, that isn’t just about selling air time; that means that you’ll have a lower audience count, and why would you want to have a lower audience count?”

Goodwill, my man, that’s why. If people (and kids, the future as Whitney once told us) don’t watch Kobe and KG play for four quarters at least once, then they don’t buy jerseys. No jerseys, no fans, no money, no league. Pretty easy chain to follow there.
Stern Ponders Moving Start Times Earlier [NY Times]
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