As It Heads For Labor Showdown, NFL Shows Collective Bargaining Leads To Shared Prosperity

[Omaha Steve]

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/07/nfl-labor/



Another National Football League season ended yesterday — with a 31-25 Green Bay Packers victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV — and it’s a distinct possibility that next year will be a year without professional football. The NFL’s owners have opted out of their collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association, in the first step toward a labor lockout.

In 2006, the collective bargaining agreement was extended for six years by the owners, but they used their opt-out option just two years later, in a gambit to have the deal renegotiated. The owners’ beef is that NFL players currently receive 59 percent of the league’s revenue, which is slightly higher than players in other major professional sports.

“Clubs must spend significant and growing amounts on stadium construction, operations, and improvements to respond to the interests and demands of our fans,” the owners wrote on the league website, in an attempt to justify their desire to renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement . “As a result, under the terms of the current agreement, the clubs’ incentive to invest in the game is threatened.”

FULL story at link.

[nykym]

1. From what I have read

most of the money used for construction etc comes from us the taxpayers, so what are these fat cats talking about? Or are they just pissed that the players are getting 59%?