trickblue
Not Old School...Old Testament...
- Messages
- 31,439
- Reaction score
- 3,961
Link
NFL: Owners approve labor deal
Clifton Brown The New York Times
GRAPEVINE, Texas
The National Football League owners have voted to accept a players' union proposal to extend the collective bargaining agreement by six years, ensuring labor peace in the league through the 2011 season.
The vote Wednesday night was 30-2, with the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills voting against the offer.
The deal put an end to a labor dispute that had threatened the stability of the NFL, which is enjoying its greatest period of prosperity and has not had a strike since 1987. For a labor agreement to be reached, 24 of 32 owners must vote in favor of it. Without an agreement, the league faced playing the 2007 season without a salary cap and the possibility of a strike in 2008.
"I think it's great for the fans," Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said during a news conference after the agreement was announced. "It's a stretch from a financial standpoint for many of the teams, in terms of the cost."
The agreement raises the salary cap to $102 million this year and to $109 million in 2007. The cap currently is $94.5 million. The change will let many teams avoid cutting high-priced veterans, and some will also have more money to offer free agents when the free-agent signing period begins.
Tagliabue said that a decision still needed to be made whether to begin free agency on Friday or Saturday.
The union's proposal called for the players to receive 59.5 percent of total revenue over six years, which owners struggled to accept.
Another provision of the deal stipulates that contracts for players selected in the second through seventh rounds of the draft will not exceed four years.
Several times during the past few weeks, negotiations between league executives and Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the players' union, appeared at a standstill.
But the union's proposal was finally brought to the owners, who spent two days in a hotel ballroom debating, lobbying and negotiating intensely behind closed doors. Revenue sharing was the contentious point. High-revenue teams, like the Commanders, the Patriots and the Eagles, have been reluctant to share lucrative local money-making streams with low-revenue teams.
Under the new deal, the 15 highest- revenue teams will contribute $850 million to $900 million to a fund that the lower-revenue teams will draw from.
Although Jerry Jones, owner of the high-revenue Dallas Cowboys, voted for the deal, he said he found it difficult to accept.
"I don't want to look disingenuous, but more than the money, I believe the structure we had in place has really contributed a lot to the success that we've had in the NFL," he said. "It has brought capital into the NFL, it has built stadiums in the NFL. To move away from that was my biggest concern, fixing something that in my mind wasn't as broke as maybe others might try and want it to be. I had to get past my skepticism."
During the intense negotiations, the NFL's traditional spirit of cooperation was more difficult to find.
One owner who voted no, the Bills' Ralph Wilson, did not like the outcome or the process.
"To have to vote in 45 minutes on a very complicated proposal - I didn't think it was the right way to handle things," he said.
NFL: Owners approve labor deal
Clifton Brown The New York Times
GRAPEVINE, Texas
The National Football League owners have voted to accept a players' union proposal to extend the collective bargaining agreement by six years, ensuring labor peace in the league through the 2011 season.
The vote Wednesday night was 30-2, with the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills voting against the offer.
The deal put an end to a labor dispute that had threatened the stability of the NFL, which is enjoying its greatest period of prosperity and has not had a strike since 1987. For a labor agreement to be reached, 24 of 32 owners must vote in favor of it. Without an agreement, the league faced playing the 2007 season without a salary cap and the possibility of a strike in 2008.
"I think it's great for the fans," Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said during a news conference after the agreement was announced. "It's a stretch from a financial standpoint for many of the teams, in terms of the cost."
The agreement raises the salary cap to $102 million this year and to $109 million in 2007. The cap currently is $94.5 million. The change will let many teams avoid cutting high-priced veterans, and some will also have more money to offer free agents when the free-agent signing period begins.
Tagliabue said that a decision still needed to be made whether to begin free agency on Friday or Saturday.
The union's proposal called for the players to receive 59.5 percent of total revenue over six years, which owners struggled to accept.
Another provision of the deal stipulates that contracts for players selected in the second through seventh rounds of the draft will not exceed four years.
Several times during the past few weeks, negotiations between league executives and Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the players' union, appeared at a standstill.
But the union's proposal was finally brought to the owners, who spent two days in a hotel ballroom debating, lobbying and negotiating intensely behind closed doors. Revenue sharing was the contentious point. High-revenue teams, like the Commanders, the Patriots and the Eagles, have been reluctant to share lucrative local money-making streams with low-revenue teams.
Under the new deal, the 15 highest- revenue teams will contribute $850 million to $900 million to a fund that the lower-revenue teams will draw from.
Although Jerry Jones, owner of the high-revenue Dallas Cowboys, voted for the deal, he said he found it difficult to accept.
"I don't want to look disingenuous, but more than the money, I believe the structure we had in place has really contributed a lot to the success that we've had in the NFL," he said. "It has brought capital into the NFL, it has built stadiums in the NFL. To move away from that was my biggest concern, fixing something that in my mind wasn't as broke as maybe others might try and want it to be. I had to get past my skepticism."
During the intense negotiations, the NFL's traditional spirit of cooperation was more difficult to find.
One owner who voted no, the Bills' Ralph Wilson, did not like the outcome or the process.
"To have to vote in 45 minutes on a very complicated proposal - I didn't think it was the right way to handle things," he said.