Without the actual market segment numbers broken up by demographic, neither you nor I can make that claim. I personally don't believe the numbers are as lopsided in favor of clean-cut as you're implying. But it's an argument that can go on endlessly without factual proof.

 

To clarify, I'm not saying that NBA fans would prefer ghetto-looking players. I'm saying that I don't think the majority of fans cared what players dressed like until the NBA made a fuss over it. This, of course, is an unprovable assumption just like many others in this thread.

 

Actually I think part of the point is that it WILL change the way players behave off the court. People are less likely to behave like thugs if they're not dressed like thugs. That's the theory, anyway. It's sort of the same thing as school uniforms...appearance does affect one's behavior.

I for one am a big fan of anything that will get selfish, spoiled, prima donna thugs to behave like grownups. The Detroit-Indiana brawl and the previous Olympic team just made me shake my head in wonder.

 

That is where you and I disagree. I don't feel that the two are related in anyway, as Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, and others have shown. But I respect where you're coming from. Understanding your assumptions at least lets me understand your viewpoint.

[QUOTE]I for one am a big fan of anything that will get selfish, spoiled, prima donna thugs to behave like grownups. The Detroit-Indiana brawl and the previous Olympic team just made me shake my head in wonder.

 

Something are so obvious you don't need numbers to back up. Just observe the people who are in the crowd of a game. They are of your avg middle-class up guys that can get turned off by ghetto-ness.

Common sense, really. Do you honestly believe having a ghetto image will help the sport than hurt it? Whenever you curb a mainstream product in a niche image, you loose more audience than you gain. It's not like selling rap albums where it is a relatively niche product.

Just to be clear, I don't think the dress code requires the players to wear suits, but casual work stuff. Meaning a collar polo t-shirt and khakis is just fine. Incidentally, that's generally how the game-goers dress as well.

 

oh great they are wearing suits.
now i can watch again.

 

[QUOTE]Common sense, really.

 

Sounds like you are on a defense team of a court case looking for reasonable doubts.

 

Well I'm not convinced it'll work either, but I think it's a step in the right direction...short of actually trying to legislate a code of conduct, which would never work.

As for your second point, the fans are not employees of the NBA. They are paying customers, and the NBA has no "jurisdiction." An unruly fan should be dealt with by stadium security and/or local authorities. The players are a different matter...they are professionals, and should be expected to at least look (and preferably behave) as such.

 

I guess I have three points.

First, I like some sort of dress code and it is just fine for them to implement one. Any employer can have a dress code for the employees on the clock, plain and simple.

Second, this dress code is all about perception. Stern wants the fan that just paid a couple hundred bucks for good seats to not be looking over at somebody dressed like a thug with hundreds of carrots of diamons sticking out. Especially in a league where most of the players put in very little effort during the regular season, they save all of it for the playoffs. If too many of these ticket buyers at you average tuesday night game in november see players half-assing it and sitting on the bench covered in gold and diamonds, a good percentage will decide that their money is better spent somewhere else.

Third, this may do something to change perception but it will not change reality. The players, in many cases will still act like pampered thugs who could give a rats about the fans that support them. They will still beat their wives and girlfriends, smoke tons of weed, and get arrested for countless crimes large and small.

The policy is not racist, it would be foolish for someone to call a league that allows minority players that can't read or speak clearly to make hundreds of millions of dollars racist. That is just another intellectually lazy argument made by athletes who want all the spoils but no rules or codes of conduct to live by.