King: CBA negotiations "couldn't be going any worse"

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Read Kings column today and this little blurb is what we need to know about the future of this team and the league...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/01/17/mmqb/1.html

The negotiations for a new labor agreement couldn't be going any worse.

If the past few days, I've spoken to sources on both sides of the labor talks, and I've come to the conclusion that it'll be an upset if there isn't a work stoppage that either delays or cancels the 2011 season. Many of us in the media have speculated about the chances for a lockout and predicted one is coming, but the total lack of progress over the nut issue in 11 bargaining sessions tells me unless there's a sea-change by one side or the other, you'd better savor the 2010 season because it could be the last football we see for a while.

At the core of the problem is ownership's demand for players to bear an equal part of the cost for stadium construction, debt service and upkeep -- and the players saying it's not their problem. In NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith's recent e-mail to player representatives, he startled player leaders by saying ownership wanted to cut player compensation by 18 percent per year in the new CBA.

I thought the 18 percent number might be an exaggeration, a scare tactic to get players' attention. It's not. The owners, one management source said, have asked that the players' pool of revenue against which the salary cap is calculated be reduced by 18 percent.

The players' response, a union source told me, is that they're not prepared to take a penny, or a percentage point, less. While Smith, in his letter to players, didn't dismiss the possibility of negotiating on the issue, he wrote that there has been no compelling information presented to players to justify such a major reduction in what players make.

You wonder what 18 percent means. So did I. The management source said the owners want $1 billion a year credited to ownership and not subject to being part of the pie that the players divide. "There's obviously been an enormous shift from public financing of stadiums to private funding,'' the management source said. "Those costs are not recognized in the current CBA, and we feel that has to change.''

The league has beat this drum for several years. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some give-and-take in the owners' demands, because this is collective bargaining, but I would be surprised if the owners drop this as a demand altogether. They're just too dug-in on it.

But from the players' perspective, it's got to be a tough sell to union leaders. Imagine Smith going into a union meeting at a team and telling the players that the average compensation to the men in this room is about $1.8 million this year in salary and bonus payments, and explaining to them in a time of bountiful success for the NFL, each of the players is going to have to take, on average, a $324,000 pay cut. The players will never go for that, absent the owners being able to prove they're losing money in a time of unparalleled wealth in the league.

At some point, serious talks will start, with each side compromising. But I can't see the two sides bridging this chasm anytime soon.

...

This could affect us either way this year.. We may not sign long term deals,but its not good news...

 

[TheComeback]

Re: OT: Well not really, but pretty sombering news...

If I were a pro athlete, I'd stick to baseball. You'll make a lot more money and put your body at less risk. The owners are ridiculous asking the players to take a pay cut. Maybe they should stop wasting land and disgusting amounts of public money building these "high-tech" stadiums that do little for anyone other than them.

The market value of the NFL is far higher than any other American sports league, and the players, who literally are the product, deserve their share of it. That's what the free market is all about. After all, it's their dedication and willingness to put their bodies on the line that makes the NFL as profitable as it is. But just wait for some miser to argue that the elites deserve to have literally everything achieved on the backs of the people who do the real work.

 

[SanAngeloState]

It would be funny if there weren't a union or a draft at all. Just let owners pay what they want and players are free to sign wherever for whatever they can get.

I wonder if they have a lockout if that does long term damage. You could lose a lot of money in a year of not playing.

Owners should have some way of deducting operating costs from the revenues, otherwise they might not even be turning a profit. Depreciation on a stadium (if they have to finance it themselves) is a cost of some kind.

 

[pheenix11]

The NFL is making a huge mistake. They are all swimming in so much money with their outrageous ticket prices and tv deals they have totally lost touch with their customers. The greed is becoming ridiculous. They have the best sports product in America and they are going to run it into the ground if they do this, especially in the middle of a depression when millions of Americans are out of work.

 

[Brarrell]

I hope the networks have a clause in their contracts that don't pay a dime to the owners if this goes through. I suspect many teams will spend about 75 mil this year and the owners will pocket the difference about 50 mil.

 

[BelichickFan]

The NFL is making a huge mistake. They are all swimming in so much money with their outrageous ticket prices and tv deals they have totally lost touch with their customers. The greed is becoming ridiculous. They have the best sports product in America and they are going to run it into the ground if they do this, especially in the middle of a depression when millions of Americans are out of work.

I wish that were true but we'll come crawling back, we always do.

 

[Zeus]

Expansion of the regular season to 18 games looms large as a potential way to increase revenue without proportionately increasing costs, provided the players are willing to do this. I'm not saying the players will or that they should agree, but this is bound to become part of the negotiations.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I hope the networks have a clause in their contracts that don't pay a dime to the owners if this goes through. I suspect many teams will spend about 75 mil this year and the owners will pocket the difference about 50 mil.

That's the best part for the owners; the contracts in fact specify that the payments must continue even if there is a lockout or strike.

OTOH, it's not free money: for every week of football cancelled as the result of a strike or lockout, they get a free week tacked on at the end of the contract (i.e., if three weeks were cancelled in 2011, they'd get three weeks free in the first season after the current contracts expire).

 

[mgteich]

11 whole sessions and no agreement. They should all give up!

Writers need to have some perspective on negotiations. As it get closer to a decision point, 11 negotiation sessions are take place over a couple of weeks.

It is ridiculous to think that there will be lockout because 11 negotiations sessions haven't produced anything. There are 13 MONTHS of negoatiations before the 2011 season starts and over 20 months until the first game of the 2011 would be cancelled.

My 2 cents is that the owners want to try to put a line in the sand with regard to increases in the percentage of revenues allocated to compensation and to stop cold any increases in the types of revenue covered. In any case, these are just initial negotiating positions.

If we talking about the 2010 season, I would think that contingencies for lockouts might be relevant. 2011 is long time off.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I wish that were true but we'll come crawling back, we always do.

Yes, but it'll take time; it took baseball a few years to recover from its strike.

 

[BelichickFan]

Expansion of the regular season to 18 games looms large as a potential way to increase revenue without proportionately increasing costs, provided the players are willing to do this. I'm not saying the players will or that they should agree, but this is bound to become part of the negotiations.

They're going to have little choice unless further expansion of the fan base (read : Europe) continues. Until/unless the economy turns around the money to raise prices both for tickets and TV just isn't going to be there.

 

[Miguel]

I only hope that in 2011 owners extend the deadline to pay for season tickets.

 

[pheenix11]

Yes, but it'll take time; it took baseball a few years to recover from its strike.

I still don't think MLB has fully recovered. I know attendance may say otherwise but I attribute that more to the numerous shiny new stadiums that pump up attendance for a couple years until the novelty wears off. There are still some fans like myself that harbor a grudge against MLB. We may still enjoy the product but it's just not quite the same.

The NFL has clearly overtaken MLB as America's past time and that is a big deal. I think the MLB strike had something to do with it. That and the NFL is just a superior product in every way (games, playoffs, draft, salary cap).

 

[pheenix11]

I only hope that in 2011 owners extend the deadline to pay for season tickets.

That would be cute huh? Hurry up and pay for a season that never comes. Meanwhile they collect interest on your money.

 

[upstater1]

I could easily understand the owners asking for huge reduction if the revenue from luxury boxes and all the other side deals like stadium names etc. were added into the pot.

Only ticket sales and TV money is currently included.

It makes total sense to me that a huge reduction is warranted if you took the total amount that owners make, accounting for the total amount that owners owe, and then you decided to give the players an amount which would not at all reduce current salary levels.

In other words, if the players are getting 60% now, and say the average contract is $2 million a year, you can add up all revenue, offset loan interest, reduce their % by a significant amount, and you can still end up at that $2 million a year average.

As usual, I'm confident that Peter King is missing the big picture.

 

[Rob0729]

Yawn! Who really cares? The NFL players have been on strike since 2007 anyway when CBA negotiations were at a point of no resolution in January 2006 and talks broke off. We have been living without football for three years now, what is another few years.

Oh, wait! For all the talk in 2006 in January and February of 2006 that there was no chance of getting a CBA done and a players strike was inevitable, there was an agreement done in early March. In fact, the owners agreed on the new CBA within days of the start of free agency (three days before) and the hard cutoff point of negotiations. Before that, all the talk was that the two sides were so far apart that a strike was inevitable.

Sorry, all the talk now is positioning and grandstanding. I still think there is a very good chance that there will be a new CBA before the start of the offseason. As the deadline looms closer, both sides will give. This is how negotiations go. Neither side wants to stop football in 2011.

 

[upstater1]

Then I read this in King's piece:

b. An interesting scene in the bowels of Qualcomm Stadium. Roger Goodell, ready to leave San Diego to fly back to New York near the end of the game, was watching a small TV, not wanting to leave until the game was decided. And when Thomas Jones made two yards on the fourth-and-one call in the final two minutes, Goodell knew the outcome was decided and he could go. He's got big fish to fry, but he wasn't leaving the stadium without seeing what he came to see.

What the hell does that mean?

That Goodell is openly rooting for his former employer?

When the Patriots lost to the Jets last year, the NFL's Ray Anderson was standing outside the Jets locker room telling Jets management, "I told you so, I told you you were going to beat them!"

 

[Deus Irae]

I wish that were true but we'll come crawling back, we always do.

Some of us don't. Other than a random inning here and there, I haven't watched any baseball at all since they stole the World Series from the fans. It's just a matter of realizing that professional sports is nothing more than a past time. If you can't count on football, there are plenty of other things to do.

 

[mgteich]

There are millions of fickle fans. And then there are some that have watched the nfl for their whole lives and will coime back immediately. Of course, lots of folks would "punish" the owners by not buying tickets or not watching the nfl and go watch NASCAR or hockey.

Some of us don't. Other than a random inning here and there, I haven't watched any baseball at all since they stole the World Series from the fans. It's just a matter of realizing that professional sports is nothing more than a past time. If you can't count on football, there are plenty of other things to do.

 

[Jimke]

That would be cute huh? Hurry up and pay for a season that never comes. Meanwhile they collect interest on your money.

This is exactly what will happen.