The Slanch Report

The economy is hitting hard everywhere, the NBA isn’t immune to it, with teams forced to cut back costs wherever possible. Of course, part of the NBA’s problem is that they overpay non-superstars by about $40-50 million each, so they are forced to cut back on the other entertainment available at the game. For instance, the Denver Nuggets have been forced to cut back on having their cheerleader team at all their home games. Instead of being at every game, now the cheerleader squad–made up of 36 male and female “college-types” who provide college-type cheers during pauses in the action–are being only used for weekend games.

Don’t worry though, the Denver Nuggets Dancers, the all-girl dance team will continue to perform at all the games. The cheerleaders, who make about $100 a game though are being semi-kicked to the curb.

“I can’t quite speak about it as much as I would like to, but it’s one of the things that we’re glad to still be part of the organization,’’ said cheerleading coach Stephanie John, who said her team will perform at all Nuggets postseason home games. “I can tell you that the Denver Nuggets cheerleaders have been proud to be a part of game entertainment for the last five years. And now we are happy that we still get to interact with the fans, and we’re excited to be part of the playoff games.’’

The apparent savings from cutting the team for the remaining weekday games is about $17,000, or the equivalent of 5 minutes of play from Kenyon Martin.

[Denver Times]