SECAUCUS AND BEYOND — The N.B.A. plans to shut down its Secaucus, N.J., studio, where the draft lottery is staged each year, according to the New York Times. This follows after the company froze operations and locked out its players at the start of July, shut down the Paris and Tokyo offices, and laid off 114 employees last week. The league has not identified a new home for the lottery, but it will likely be held at an ESPN or ABC studio in Manhattan.
“The layoffs are not a direct result of the lockout but rather a response to the same underlying issue — that is, the league’s expenses far outpace our revenues,” said N.B.A. spokesman Mike Bass as quoted in the Times.
The NBA has undertaken a company-wide effort to cut expenses by $50 million. As of October 2008, the N.B.A eliminated 275 positions at the team and league level and moved most of the operations to Atlanta. Commercial shoots and other programming that had been done in Secaucus will be moved to Atlanta.