With the NFL and NBA both under player lockouts, fans have to wonder if owners care about the fans at all. They seem to assume the fans will be there, even if the seasons are shortened from a lack of games.

Sports experts last week were noting that sports franchise owners had witnessed cancelled NHL season of 2004-05, which produced short-term pain but long-term gain for the NHL team owners. They say the NBA owners in particular think that model might work well for them.

What’s that? A canceled season is a good thing? Such talk among the owners reveals how they disregard what fans want, which for the most part is to see the best players play these cherished American sports.

The NBA owners recently have claimed the high-paid players are resulting team losses, which many sports experts say is fuzzy math. They note — and we agree — that the problem really is a lack of revenue sharing among the teams, something that the NHL accomplished after its canceled season and the NFL has had for decades. Revenue sharing also levels the playing field so teams have more of an equal shot at championships.

But don’t place the failure of NBA owners to share revenue on the back of the players, especially for a league with fixed labor costs since 2005.

Now if owners wanted to argue that reducing player salaries would reduce ticket prices, that would sound more in the interest of fans.

What’s the truth? Well, it was not that hard last week to find sports writers at newspapers across America who pinned the true cause for NBA woes on teams with bad management — overspending, failure to secure corporate sponsors and other questionable non-basketball operations.

One more point: Wouldn’t be nice if alternative leagues cropped up in American cities when the mainstream leagues failed to play ball? That surely would change the setting at the negotiation tables.