Giannotto
It means the Grizzlies can afford to go through some lean years on the court, but Grizzlies fans can’t anymore. Whenever this pandemic ends, whenever fans are allowed back in arenas, Memphis needs to fill Fedexforum for Grizzlies games. Whether that’s fair to expect or not.
That’s the burden of being in the smallest market in the NBA. Grizzlies fans don’t have the same luxury as Lakers fans or Bulls fans or Knicks fans. Those franchises can field awful teams, and their fans can stay away until they’re not awful, and there’s still no danger of the NBA leaving Los Angeles or Chicago or New York.
That’s just not so in Memphis.
Even if reclusive owner Robert Pera previously said he does not intend to move the team. Even if the application of Section 31 in the coming months shouldn’t necessarily make you sweat.
It states that a shortfall season involves average paid attendance slipping below 14,900, the failure to sell the 64 largest suites at Fedexforum or fewer than 2,500 sold club level seats. The Grizzlies don’t publicly disclose their official attendance or season-ticket sales numbers.
Perhaps Shelby County and the city are willing to cover the shortfall for this year, even if their budgets are more strained than usual from the economic fallout of COVID-19. Perhaps some wealthy members of the community will be willing to cover the shortfall, which is allowed under the lease agreement. Perhaps the shortfall doesn’t matter much to Pera, whose net worth has exploded to more than $9 billion, according to Forbes.
In the short term, all sides seem to want to make this arrangement work. A deal should get done.
But what about long term?
NBA basketball in Memphis should not be subsidized by government money if Memphis can’t fill up 80% of Fedexforum on a consistent basis. No matter how important Fedexforum and the NBA have been for the resurgence of downtown Memphis. No matter how much harder it is to fill arenas and stadiums than when this agreement was reached in the infancy of high-definition TV and NBA League Pass.
So there needs to be more wonderful moments like what happened organically during the playoff runs of the Grit and Grind era. When Memphians who went to the University of Memphis and Memphians who went to the University of Tennessee and Memphians who went to Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Arkansas, spilled onto Beale Street for weeks at a time to support the Grizzlies together.
This is, of course, a double standard. To keep the team in Memphis long term, Grizzlies fans must show up even if the Grizzlies don’t.
Who can blame any Grizzlies fan for avoiding Fedexforum during the two seasons prior to this one? The team wasn’t very good, which was particularly heartbreaking because it became the wheezing conclusion to the first great era of Memphis pro basketball.
So this all would be a lot more concerning if not for the emergence of Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Brandon Clarke and the rest of the current Grizzlies. It shouldn’t be hard for Memphis to get behind this group.
The Grizzlies’ smart roster decisions last offseason and their ahead-ofschedule 2019-2020 campaign means the franchise skipped the hardest parts of a traditional rebuild.
Those parts typically involve poor attendance.
Instead, Memphis could be a playoff team again once the NBA season is scheduled to resume next month in Orlando. It has a rookie point guard who appears to be on a trajectory to become the biggest star the Grizzlies have ever had.
It has a young nucleus that’s as good or better than any young nucleus in the league. And it has a loyal fan base that’s proven capable of supporting the NBA over nearly 20 years.
All Section 31 means is they have to keep proving it.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto