No Peace for Lakers as Mental Metta Will Cost Himself and Team Millions

This was no Brawl at The Palace.

But Metta World Peace (a.k.a. Ron Artest) did nothing to promote world peace on Sunday afternoon at Staples Center in what was otherwise a spectacular comeback victory by the Lakers in a double-overtime thriller against the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder.

While his elbow to the head of Thunder forward James Harden is still reverberating across the league, what will reverberate further still are the financial impacts his likely suspension will impose upon not only himself but his Lakers franchise.

First of all, the size of these costs will ultimately rest on the length of his impending suspension.  My sense is that he could receive between 5-15 games for his elbow which concussed Harden.

According to Basketball Reference, Metta’s 2011-12 salary is $6,790,640.  For this season, that amounts to roughly $102,888 per game.

Therefore, in terms of lost income from missed game checks, he stands to lose between $514,440 and $1.54 million…and that’s not including an additional fine that will almost certainly accompany the suspension.  Perhaps in the range of $100,000-$250,000.

In terms of endorsements, the taint of Metta’s past upon his reputation along with his sometimes unusual behavior makes him a liability as a product endorser.  So I don’t know how marketable he was in the first place.  That said, he has been on much better behavior since arriving in L.A.  Had he continued to rehabilitate his image and not allowed himself to be involved with such an ugly incident, he at least stood a chance to salvage some additional earnings through product endorsements.

Kiss that good-bye now.

Lastly, how about the potential financial impact upon the Lakers franchise?

Well, it would be no worse than a short-run impact.  However, if his absence as a defensive stalwart hinders the Lakers from advancing past the first round of the playoffs, then that’s at least 2 playoff home games.

With an Fan Cost Index of $514 for a group of 4 fans and assuming sellout playoff crowds amounting to 19,282 fans, this means at least $2.47 million per game or nearly $5 million for 2 games.  And this is likely an understatement since the FCI estimates provided by Team Marketing Reports are based on regular season games where ticket prices are less expensive (though the league gets a larger share of playoff gate revenues).