updated 9:37 p.m. ET July 14, 2009

LAS VEGAS - NBA commissioner David Stern said Tuesday he hopes the league can come up with a plan to return itself to profitability as it grapples with decreasing revenues.

“The losses that are being shown by the league and the decrease in business, although our decreases are less than many other businesses, are going to be delivered in some detail to the players with an understanding that whatever further details they need they’ll have,” Stern said after a Board of Governor’s meeting in Las Vegas.

The commissioner said less than half the teams in the league made a profit this past season.

Stern said the board spent a fair amount of the meeting going over the finances for all 30 teams and appointed a 10-member labor relations committee that will be charged with negotiating the next collective-bargaining agreement with the players.

Stern said that group would meet with the NBA players’ association for the first time on Aug. 4 to begin talking about a new deal. The current deal runs through the 2010-11 season.

“We believe that our players as a group are very interested in the future of the league and in their futures,” Stern said.

“We all have a collective interest in making sure it continues to thrive, and so we would very much like to begin these negotiations on a positive note of complete disclosure of financials and the readiness to provide more,” Stern said. “That will lead us together in looking for a good agreement going forward.”

The league already has announced a lower salary cap for next year and is projecting further reductions for the 2010-11 season with possible revenue decreases of 5 percent.

Stern said there was an agreement among owners about the kinds of solutions the league needs to turn things around.

“There’s a complete agreement that we need to look for a system that keeps our players as well paid as they are — at the top of the heap — but on the other hand returns the league to profitability at the same time.”

Stern said each team had a chance to express its concerns to the labor relations committee.

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Stern said revenue would decrease in large part because of lower ticket prices and scaled back sponsorship deals.

“We’re comfortable with our projections and in fact, some of our owners thought we might have been too optimistic,” Stern said.

“In this new normal with the great recession, most businesses would sign on immediately for a 5 percent decrease in revenues,” he said. “In fact, some businesses would sign on for any revenues.”

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