Oakland Raiders and the countdown to 2011: The coming labor war

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.examiner.com/x-514-Oakland-Raiders-Examiner~y2009m2d14-Oakland-Raiders-and-the-countdown-to-2011-The-coming-labor-war


February 14, 3:07 AM
by Patrick Patterson, Oakland Raiders Examiner



With the NFL owners opting out of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL Players Association prior to the 2008 season, the die has been cast for what could become a protracted labor battle between the NFL owners and the NFL players with the fans being caught in the middle. It appears that this battle is drawing inexorably towards the owners initiating a "lockout" of the players prior to the 2011 season.

What this means is that if no deal is reached, 2010 is the last guaranteed season of NFL football. The 2011 season could end up canceled, abbreviated, or the league could bring in scabs to masquerade as real NFL players. None of those possibilities are appealing to fans, as it would be a definite degradation of a favorite Sunday activity.

On the surface, it is easy to chalk this up as a dispute between greedy millionaires and greedier billionaires. However, this is a classic dispute where management is looking to cut compensation to labor. Many NFL players do make obscene amounts of money, but for every JaMarcus Russell who has a $60 million contract, there are three or four marginal guys who are making the league minimum with no guarantees they will see any of it if cut.

The world wide recession is hitting the NFL, and causing a down-tick in their revenue. There can be no doubts about that, as it has wreaked havoc all across the economy. The NFL does have their mega-contracts in place with the television networks which guarantees that none of the franchises will be in danger of folding any time soon. The NFL is a cash cow for the franchises, and they will continue to be profitable as long as people are buying tickets, merchandise, etc.

As the outgoing CBA stands, the players compensation is based on a certain percentage of the shared revenue. That way, if the pool of shared revenue goes down, then the salary cap will go down. But, as the revenues have increased since the CBA was signed in 2006 so has the salary cap. With the owners opting out of the CBA, 2009 is the last year of a salary cap, and with it the salary floor will disappear as well. This means that through 2009 the players were assured of sharing in a fixed percentage of the shared revenue. Starting in 2010, teams will not be required to have a minimum or maximum amount of salary going to the players.

FULL story at link.