Hawks CEO believes starting NBA season in December will help ratings

Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin believes he's got the remedy for the NBA's declining ratings.

The Hawks' front-office executive suggested pushing back the start of the NBA campaign from mid-October to mid-December to avoid competition from the NFL and college football.

"Relevance equals revenue," Koonin said Friday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "We've got to create the most relevance, and the revenue will fix itself."

Based on Koonin's plan, the Finals would shift to August and would be followed by two of the league's other marquee events - the NBA draft and free agency. He believes the league would be able to maximize its success if it was primarily pitted against Major League Baseball.

"A big piece is you don't have to reinvent the wheel to enhance ratings," Koonin said. "Sometimes, moving away from competition is a great way to grow ratings."

Koonin added: "Many times, at the start of the NBA season, we are competing with arguably the best Thursday Night Football game with the NBA on TNT, our marquee broadcast, and we get crushed and we wonder why?

"It's because at the beginning of the season, there's very little relevance for the NBA. The relevance is now. That's when people are talking about it."

The Association's viewership is down at both the national and local level, according to Sports Business Journals' John Ourand. The NBA has taken notice, flexing some teams out of national television slots, including the Golden State Warriors, who've struggled mightily without stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.