NFL Lockout Looming Large And Ugly

Here now is the claim filed.

[url=http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81dc2f3f/article/union-league-confirm-that-collusion-claim-has-been-filed]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... been-filed[/url]

Paola- your my NFL insider on this cause I'm always confused on it. My understanding orriginally was the tv networks claimed to be luzing money on the current deal... And some owners wanted to end profit sharing. So will wages be cut, go up, rosters expand? I got the games will now 18 a year like the CFL. Clairity is what I need. When the ne agreement happens, will it be easier, harder, or the same for CFL teams to get good talent?

Yes the TV networks lose money for 2011 after record ratings for 2010. However the lure and draw of the NFL is so strong that the media networks will pay beyond just to play but to stay on the bench for a season! And as explained in the article about the collusion case, the owners will will make money with or without replacement players or even scabs if the union re-instates itself!

Mind you the likes of QB’s who bring in grander ratings like Brett Favre are treated special all the time. For Favre it was even after harassing a Jets contractor in the workplace largely due to his draw though he sucked the last two seasons overall. That was one hell of a drawn out long investigation was it not? I am of the opinion it was along racial lines as well, but that’s another thread and look up OchoCinco’s comments in that regard in the meantime.

It’s the same in the NFL for example for Tom Brady who has the distinction of being the first player to have TWO rules altered due to what happened to him on the field.

The NFL is a QB-driven marketing machine without question, and the mainstream media all based also out of New York are willing to pay to more than play because without it they have jack …

Basically without the NFL, television ratings and ad rates for ALL programming goes way down and also there is no remaining reason for those still with a paid cable or satellite TV subscription to keep it either (and like me screw cable!).

Wages are likely to be cut in my opinion with a rookie salary cap to be put in place, and with any extension of the season to 18 games rosters will expand as well.

I think in the meantime until an agreement is signed, CFL teams will have an easier time. After an agreement, it’ll be back to business as about usual given the remaining pay differential between leagues.

What really would be interesting though is to see what the rates for the practise rosters will be, as right now many of even those guys who never play in games are making more than many a CFL player even on a roster. If those rates for practise rosters are slashed, I say the CFL has an easier time.

Thanx for the insight Paola. I agree If the practice roster salary goes down it could be a little better for CFL teams. Is there any talk of ending profit sharing, or retraction of the number of teams? I gears on the radio the owners want to cut over a billion dollars.

Canadianhothead here is a prior post on the previous page. The players just want the same percentage of revenue sharing as now and not more, but the owners just want for the most part for 1) the players to take a cut on revenue sharing 2) the players to play more games with hardly any addition to roster spots and 3) to institute a rookie salary cap but put the savings in their pockets and not to fund retirement or other player health costs.

All that of course is desired by the greedy owners with record revenues and television ratings and unprecedented public subsidies as they cry a river about escalating overhead yet, except for the publicly-owned Packers, refuse to open their books.

:roll:

If there were a score for the end of the 3rd quarter for this very long game, on those three counts it would be NFL Players 21 NFL Owners 0.

any word on retraction of the amount of teams

Absolutely no reduction! All 32 teams are profitable with the possible exception of Jacksonville as far as we know.

Furthermore as discussed in the other thread, the proposal to move a team to LA has a lot of private money behind it as well.

I think the only way there would be a new team in LA, with the ultimate required blessing of state politicians in California, is for California to steal a team from another state.

Jacksonville is the lowest hanging fruit in that regard given that the NFL wants to keep a team in MN and one in Buffalo for strategic reasons.

[url=http://gridironfans.com/forums/latest-nfl-headlines/150773-nflpa-president-kevin-mawae-owners-bringing-revenge.html]http://gridironfans.com/forums/latest-n ... venge.html[/url]

I find myself hoping for just one morsel of actual good news (not hype) on the situation any day now after months of the same 'ol same 'ol, but here we go with more of the same. :roll:

Great article there Paola. Taking the healthcare thing away is strange. But 1 billion over all the players in the NFL... That can't be very much per player. Especially if that includes practice roster guys.

Leaving out the 8 practise roster players as would skew the calculation and given their heavy turnover anyway, it works out an average of almost $590K per player including 53 on roster per team. $1B/(32*53)

That amount is not chump change for most NFL players and even most of the starters, but then again for the latter far more would be at risk financially through no deal anyway.

The average is prolly 2 million a year per player I'm guessing ?

Just googled average NFL salary. Wasn't near as high as I thought. If CFL raises the salary cAp continuealy and NFL lowers salaries, leagues could ve more comptitive with each other for players

It seems like now the owners are using the proposal for 18 games just for leverage, for even without a season they are in position to profit. In this way, the owners push to get what they want as part of the deal if a deal gets done at all.

Many in the media and former NFL players are reporting that the players will probably end up caving in at some point once too many players start missing big game checks given that too many of these guys have no idea how to scale back spending of such high incomes on houses, cars, women, professional services, and of course all the folks asking them for hand-outs, favours, or to attend one of their parties who knew them at some point en route to the NFL.

[url=http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81e3b1a2/article/nfl-union-meet-in-dc-cancel-thursdays-bargaining-session?module=HP_headlines]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... _headlines[/url]

After the talks on Saturday, they talked at length yesterday and planned for also today but then cancelled.

Neither side is talking about what was said any more. My take is that no news is not good news. They have three weeks left now with no progress made at all.

Who really cares.
As they say its billionaires fighting off against millionaires.
Everything that is wrong with business and has no connection to sport.
It's seems like any "sport" the US touches eventually turns ugly.
Good riddence and give me our CFL any day of the week, great top notch entertainment and for a decent wage that we can all relate to.

How ugly? It's so ugly that the owner of the Carolina Panthers, and lead negotiator, got personal with Peyton Manning and Drew Brees!

[url=http://andy-benoit.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22475988/27503438?source=rss_blogs_NFL]http://andy-benoit.blogs.cbssports.com/ ... _blogs_NFL[/url]

I'm still taking the side of the players on this matter and as for Goodell, if he endorses this kind of conduct down with his glib butt too!

Equal not for profit status for CFL as NFL(recently disclosed on these forums) and MLB!! CFL is facing unfair competition and has still survived and prospered inspite of. How big could it be with some Government help?

[url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/niners/notes.htm]http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football ... /notes.htm[/url]

This report is written as specific to only one team the 49ers, but in fact the situation as explained would apply to all teams.

Sure plenty of interaction could go on undercover as usual, but such interaction will only go so far.

Without an agreement by 3 March next Thursday, I think even with an agreement by August and season starting somehow on time that we are in for some bad football.

In fact I doubt the next NFL season without such an agreement will come even close to matching the last four years at the end of the "NFL Prime Era" since 1978.

Most players will still be in shape of course but many not in "game shape" as training camps build in addition to fitness level.

Even so, at such point most players will not have had near enough time to prepare for the season with the new playbooks.

To go along with some other recent threads, just how big is football down here?

[url=http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81e9a6e6/article/sides-to-resume-talks-monday-as-cba-deadline-extended-a-week?module=HP_headlines]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... _headlines[/url]

Note the following excerpt:

Even President Barack Obama weighed in Thursday when asked if he would intervene in the dispute.

“I’m a big football fan,” Obama said, “but I also think that for an industry that’s making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way and be true to their fans, who are the ones who obviously allow for all the money that they’re making. So my expectation and hope is that they will resolve it without me intervening, because it turns out I’ve got a lot of other stuff to do.”

Well we are here after all the hot air.

Essentially, about $600B was at stake and they could not figure out how to split it up.

One would think in the worst case the disparity would be split evenly 50-50 right?

Of course at the very least it is seldom that simple with big money at stake.