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Lonestar
06-03-2009, 10:27 PM
Posted: June 3, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) -- The NFL and its players' union opened talks Wednesday in a bid to avoid a work stoppage in 2011, when the current labor contract expires.

Commissioner Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, the new executive director of the NFL Players Association, were both present at the meeting.


"We had a good meeting and agreed to meet again," the NFL said in a statement.

These meetings were mainly about procedural issues rather than substantive ones. One early subject of contention: the union's demand the NFL teams open their books and the league's position that the union already has all the relevant financial information.

"We are focused on getting an agreement that works for the long term," Goodell said Monday during a function at Giants Stadium.

"We're not specifically setting any deadlines or dates. Our issue is we know we have two more years of football. We would like to have an agreement that works for everybody in that period of time. If it takes up to the final moment, it takes up to the final moment."

The original agreement was to last through 2013, but the owners opted out in May 2008, citing economic problems that make the nearly 60 percent of revenues that go to the players excessive. Many teams as well as the league office have since laid off employees.

While there are indications that ticket sales for 2009 are off for some teams, the league recently signed a two-year television extension through 2013 that is reported to contain increases of from three to five percent.

If there is no agreement by March, the 2010 season will be the first without a salary cap since 1993, when the first deal containing free agency and the cap was signed. That followed more than five years without a contract following the 1987 strike, when the union decertified and took their case to federal court.

The late Gene Upshaw, the union's executive director, said before his unexpected death last August that if the cap went away, there would not be another. Smith has agreed with his predecessor's stand.

"If we move to an uncapped scenario, we will not go back," Smith said during a conference call with reporters in March, days after being elected as executive director.

If there is no cap, teams would spend as much as they want for star players. However, free agency would be extended from four to six years and there would be no minimum for spending, meaning some teams could spend far less on salaries than they are now.

"I don't think every team is going to start being like the Yankees and start throwing money around," Sean O'Hara, the New York Giants' player representative, said this week. "Some teams will do that, but on the flip side, others will say since we don't have to spend $102 million, we'll spend $80 million. The landscape will definitely change and it won't be a windfall for everybody."



http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=556160

anton...
06-03-2009, 10:55 PM
i really hope the nfl doesnt become an uncapped league...

the salary cap is THE reason why each season, EVERY team has a chance to win...

without it, small market teams will never close the gap...

horsepig
06-03-2009, 11:40 PM
I agree Anton. No cap would make the dumbass 'Boys just like the Lakers. I don't want to see the damn Yankees and Red Sox every year. In the NFL it would be the 'Boys, 'Skins, G-Men and maybe the 'Pats every year.

NameUsedBefore
06-03-2009, 11:44 PM
Small markets would be buried. #1 example I think would be Buffalo.

I don't think those doing the deals will screw up a good thing, but you never know. I think there already being a little history on breakdown in negotiations they can come to a nice conclusion, though.

Lonestar
06-04-2009, 12:07 AM
Small markets would be buried. #1 example I think would be Buffalo.

I don't think those doing the deals will screw up a good thing, but you never know. I think there already being a little history on breakdown in negotiations they can come to a nice conclusion, though.


add GB to the list as well as INDY, PITT, San, KC, STL. .. the teams that would make out are WAS, DAL, NYG, maybe Jets, bears, NE, SFO, if they ever get a good team going again..

the big city markets with lots of fan in good economic areas are going to charge more for their product and those team will get the prime time slots on TV and more advertising dollars..

Fan in Exile
06-04-2009, 07:18 AM
It's not just the cap that lets all the teams be competitive it's the revenue sharing which wouldn't go away. The deals are negotiated as a league and the revenue is split evenly by all 32 teams.

I think even teams like the Giants realize that their slice of the entire NFL pie is bigger than their slice of just the New York pie, because it gives them a national audience, which attracts more and better advertisers. It also smooths out the bumps of the normal buisness cycle. No owner really wants to have to deal with the loss of profits if they make the wrong choice in hiring a coach, or drafting a first round QB.

titan
06-04-2009, 12:39 PM
I hope the nfl keeps the cap, but if it goes away it won't be as bad as baseball. The main source of revenue for the NFL is the huge TV contract split evenly among all teams. Part of baseball's inequity is that teams like the Yankees have huge tv contracts where they keep it all.

I do wonder if in an uncapped NFL if Bowlen can keep up with the big boys. I think an uncapped NFL would be bad for the Broncos.