Assessing economic impact of shortened NBA season

With Laker and Clipper games representing nearly a third of Staples Center's annual bookings, a prolonged lockout would obviously become a big financial deal for AEG, which has a controlling interest in the venue. Losing an entire season seems unlikely, but even assuming that an agreement is reached at the end of the year, you're still looking at 30 canceled games. Blogdowntown's Eric Richardson checked in with economist John Blank on how the numbers pencil out:

Assuming 30 games are lost, and that each would have pulled in roughly 20,000 fans, the lockout would cost Staples Center 600,000 ticketed fans in 2011. That would equal perhaps $30 million in ticket sales, but Blank considers that money--much of which would go toward player salaries and other team expenses--a sunk cost that would not necessarily have gone back into Downtown. Outside the arena, those 600,000 fans might have spent an average of $20 on food and drinks, totaling $12 million. Another $4 million might have gone toward parking, and $6 million may have been spent on concessions inside the arena. That $20 million is then given a 2x multiplier to account for the effect of funds that are re-spent in the Downtown area. That leaves a total number for induced and indirect expenditures outside of ticket sales of $40 million.

These are not huge numbers for an economy as large as L.A.'s. As Matt DeBord notes at his KPCC blog:

There's plenty going on in L.A. at any given time. It's important to remember that in a properly diversified economy, every entertainment option -- from pro sports to fine dining to miniature golf courses to movie theaters -- is competing for consumer dollars. If something goes offline for a while, something else is ready and willing to fill the gap.

And what about the regional sports channels, like Fox Sports West? From the LAT:

"There is probably a lot more at stake at the regional sports network level than the national level," said Chris Bevilacqua, who heads Bevilacqua Media, a sports and media consulting firm. While the networks are protected against a lengthy disruption of games, their ratings and ad revenue will be adversely affected and there will be a scramble to find programming to fill holes left by the loss of the NBA.