With the current NFL Collective Bargaining agreement set to expire at 12:00 AM on Friday morning both the NFL Player's association and the NFL owners have continued their ongoing negotiations under federal mediation. When the CBA expires the owners have the ability to exercise their option to lockout the players, preventing them from having any contact with their NFL teams or signing with a new team through free agency. As one of the millions of frustrated fans who want nothing more than a deal to get done so they can return to business as usual I want to take the opportunity to describe the situation as best I understand it.
The NFL owners opted out of the current CBA several years ago because they felt that the players were receiving too large a percentage of revenue while most teams were experiencing a decline in profits. The players seemed to back this idea up as they have demanded nothing more than the existing CBA to remain in place. One of the biggest issues the players have voiced with the owners demand for a is CBA is that the owners have refused to disclose their financial numbers that would prove the financial peril they are claiming (with the exception of the Green Bay Packers who are the only publicly owned franchise).
As negotiations have proceeded we keep hearing that the two sides are not close on any of the issues they are discussing. The 4 major issues they are discussing are as follows:
1) How to divide the $9 Billion in revenue generated by the NFL each year. Under the old CBA the players were entitled to about 60% of revenue and the owners would like to diminish that percentage.
2) Expanding the length of the regular season from 16 to 18 games. The owners are pretty unanimous is their support of adding to regular season games to the schedule in order to increase revenue. Players have voiced their concerns about extra injury and compensation and this expansion is tied closely to the net issue.
3) Improving benefits for retired players. As the longterm health effects that go along with an NFL career are being discovered combined with an ever-expanding understanding of concussions it has become clear that the NFL has failed to provide adequate support to its retired players who suffer from a litany of medical concerns related to their playing days. The conundrum here is that the owners maintain they need to decrease the players' share of aforementioned revenue to support former players.
4) The institution of a rookie wage scale. The owners are concerned that the top draft picks every year are signing massive guaranteed contracts before ever playing a down (which they are correct about, see JaMarcus Russell). The NBA has a successful model for rookie wages and I agree with the owners on this one.
The only development that has happened in the labor talks recently happened to today when the federal mediator ruled in favor of the players' union claim that $4 Billion paid to the owners from TV contracts should be held by a third party until a new CBA has been agreed upon. The NFLPA has successfully argued that the owners should be investigated because they believe that the owners constructed their TV contracts that would entitle them to the $4 Billion despite the lockout in return for not generating the highest possible revenue. This move was clearly done to guarantee the owners a "war chest" that would give them a significant advantage over the union in surviving the lockout.
If the owners are prevented from getting this money during a lockout we could see the CBA deadline delayed which would prevent a lockout for the time being.
No comments:
Post a Comment