NFL teams vote to opt out of labor agreement

By Greg A. Bedard
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

National Football League owners voted unanimously this morning in Atlanta to terminate the collective bargaining agreement with the players following the 2010 season.

As a result, the league’s much-celebrated parity, which allows for small cities such as Green Bay and Buffalo to compete on an annual basis, might be on a death march as well.

The 2008 and ’09 seasons will be unaffected by the owners’ decision. The 2010 season, if there is not a new agreement in place, will be played without a salary cap.

However, the players will feel a pinch as the service time needed to reach unrestricted free agency is increased from four to six years.

The NFL has had labor peace since the CBA was first ratified in 1993. Now, with a 32–0 vote by the owners, there is a very real possibility that 2011 could be interrupted by a lockout by the owners if the players don’t want to agree on several points. The biggest place of contention is how much of the revenue goes to the players. Under the current deal, the players receive 59 percent.

“The current labor agreement does not adequately recognize the costs of generating the revenues of which the players receive the largest share; nor does the agreement recognize that those costs have increased substantially — and at an ever increasing rate, in recent years during a difficult economic climate in our country,” the league said in a statement. “As a result, under the terms of the current agreement, the clubs’ incentive to invest in the game is threatened.

“There are substantial other elements of the deal that simply are not working. Our objective is to fix these problems in a new CBA, one that will provide adequate incentives to grow the game, ensure the unparalleled competitive balance that has sustained our fans’ interest, and afford the players fair and increasing compensation and benefits.”

NFL Players Association president Gene Upshaw has been briefing the players on the possible ramifications for months.

“We expected it,” Upshaw said on Sirius NFL Radio. “But it means that there is football through 2010, not through 2012. And it also means that, as they say during the draft, we’re on the clock. That’s basically what it means.”

The Packers have long been advocates of a salary cap and revenue sharing among all teams. While the Packers are in the top third in revenue at this time, they would be at a long-term disadvantage against teams from larger markets that have more abundant revenue streams if the salary cap were not in place.