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In approximately 87 days, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the team owners of the NFL and the NFL’s Player Union will officially expire, giving the NFLPA two options if a new CBA isn’t reached within that time period: One, play the 2011 season without a CBA which would result in total chaos; leaving out a salary cap, a salary floor, free agency or veteran minimum salary; or two, lockout the season.
The CBA is just an agreement between the owners of the NFL and the NFLPA. The NFL itself is actually a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization and serves as a mediator between the two powering groups.
Talk of a 2011 lockout began back in May 2008 after NFL owners voted to opt out of their labor contract with the NFLPA at the end of the 2010 season. Since 1993, the NFL’s revenue has increased every year despite going through the world’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Although this may sound great for the owners, it ultimately increased player salaries each year, which left less money for owners to pay off other expenses and led to protests in constructing a new CBA.
Under the original CBA, NFL players as a whole were paid 62 percent of total revenue that owners collectively made. Owners now want that percentage to be around 42 percent, which is more realistic seeming how they still must pay off coaches, stadium personnel and NFL employees.
The waters continue to get murkier as NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith not only announced that players should, “protect yourself and your family,” advising players to save game checks in case of a lockout.
In addition, the NFLPA is close to filing a collusion charge against the NFL owners, based on the fact that only one of 216 restricted free agents were signed to an offer sheet.
Few facts have been released, but the union has gathered what it believes as similar dialogue that a variety of teams conveyed when communicating with agents who represented players, a source reported to ESPN.com
The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced last Tuesday that fans will be refunded for any league-wide tickets that have been purchased for next season’s potential preseason and regular-season games.
Goodell stated that, “Our fans are entitled to know now that they would receive refunds if any games are canceled.”
A player lockout is expected to cost the U.S. nearly $5 billion if the entire season is cancelled.
