Why the NFL and NBA Lockouts Can't Happen

I will start out by saying this.......I am tired.

I am tired of hearing about how the owners of teams in these leagues are losing money while not opeing up their books to prove it. I am tired of hearing the players complain about how they are being unfairly treated by the owners when these guys are getting paid MILLIONS of dollars to play a GAME. I realize that in the grand scheme of things both sides in both leagues have a little substance to back up their stances but both groups need to realize the how much they have to lose if they let a lockout occur.

Take the NBA, Game 7 of this years NBA Finals between the Celtics and the Lakers was the most watched NBA Finals game since 1998. This momentum was carried into the offseason with much attention being paid to the free agent class which was heralded as the best ever and culminated by what we all know as "The Decision" featuring LeBron.
With the NBA's popularity spiking, the owners and players cannot afford to voluntarily stop this. The fans will not forgive them. The fans should not forgive them if they choose to do this. When the MLB season was stopped short 1994 it took a single season home-run chase by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 to start to repair the damage that had been done and some even say that MLB still hasn't fully recovered from the damage that was done by the stoppage.

With the NFL, the potential damage to could be done is even more extreme because of the current state of their league. The NFL is the absolute powerhouse among professional leagues in the United States. The NFL's estimated annual income is around $8 billion. I will say it again....$8 BILLION. I realize the owners are wanting to add on two regular season games while at the same time lowering players salaries to try to cover supposedly lowering ticket revenues, but the answer to the problem is not a lockout. If the owners think they are losing money now they should try operating an organization with no games to bring in money and angry sponsors who will then be trying to take their advertising dollars elsewhere.

The bottom line is that these lockouts can't happen. This would be bad for the owners, the players, the league's, the sports, and most of all...the fans.