One of the balances we routinely strike in these parts relates to keeping the audience informed and being unduly repetitive. Sometimes, we fail by mentioning things too often. (And we currently can hear some of you muttering, “Rooney Rule.”) Other times, it’s important to revisit a concept we’ve previously explained.
So here’s one that goes back more than nine months — and that has become more significant in the interim.
After DirecTV committed to paying the NFL $1 billion per year under a contract extension inked in March 2009, Peter King of SI.com explained that the league will receive that money in 2011, even if there’s no football.
Since then, the NFL has negotiated extensions with FOX, CBS, and NBC through 2013. We’re told that in each of those deals — and in the Monday Night Football contract with ESPN that already went through 2013 — the league gets to keep all television money in 2011, even if there are no televised games.
Based on our rough estimations, this gives the NFL a strike fund for 2011 in the neighborhood of $4 billion.
As of September 2008, the players were believed to have a strike fund of $128 million.
With no player costs, NFL owners will actually make more money in 2011 by not playing football. And guys like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will have no trouble making their periodic debt payments.
But here’s the catch. The networks would get their money back by paying less for the privilege of televising pro football in 2012 and beyond.
And that would serve only to complicate any financial deal that the ultimately gets done between the league and the NFLPA, since the NFL eventually would be paying back the $4 billion via reduced payouts in future years.
Regardless, the owners are far better prepared to absorb a work stoppage than the players, and hopefully the players will realize this before it’s too late, for everyone.
As of September 2008, the players were believed to have a strike fund of $128 million.
———
Just over a single team’s salary cap. Players take reduced pay during a strike, usually just a pittance, but any long term strike and the owners are going to bend the union over and have their way.
“The NFL eventually would be paying back the $4 billion via reduced payouts in future years.”
If a strike does occur then this will drop regardless, even if the strike only lasts through preseason.
Is this a surprise to anyone?
Rooney rule is a joke as it currently stands. Extra scrutiny on it and teams that make a mockery of it (Redskins) will lead to it actually getting some teeth or dropped completely.
So why won’t the Union do what it did last time? Decertify then a player anti-trust lawsuit, then the Owner’s settle – quickly.
Once again, the fans are the only ones without a seat at the table. Players, owners, the league office, the agents… They’re all swimming in money. And we shell out hundreds for tickets and merchandise to keep the money train chugging along. And if you refuse to but the tickets, they won’t let you watch the games on TV.
Until we band together and hit the NFL’s sponsors in the mouth, the league will never listen to the fans.
Just Imagine:
A no-loss season for Little Danny Snyder.
And he’ll have plenty of time to spend “managing” Six Flags and Johnny Rockets!
Whether or not they have the money to ride it out, the league would be fooling to assume a lockout won’t hurt them just as much as the players.
Fans will be mega pissed and it will take years for attendance to recover.
Please explain how the teams can withhold paychecks from players if the owners lockout the players vs the players striking. It seems if the owners lockout the players the contract are still enforceable and they must pay the players. If the players strike, the players are responsible to payback those huge signing bonuses.
Also, the owners win in the short term only. The reduced future revenue will certainly hurt and possibly bankrupt some franchises as salaries still escalate 20% a year as the owners take in 4 billion less.
As a football fan, I want my money to goto the veteran players; not the owners; not the rookies.
The owners are better businessmen than the players? I just never saw that one coming. Right.
“With no player costs, NFL owners will actually make more money in 2011 by not playing football. And guys like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will have no trouble making their periodic debt payments.”
You say that as if you had hoped that he’d have trouble. The Cowboys aren’t Jones’ only source of income anyway.
This is crazy! These poor NFL players are just struggling to make a buck!! Poor guys!!
FLORIO, your last comment about the players realizing the owners are “better prepared to absorb a work stoppage… hopefully the players willrealize this before it’s too late for everyone”… the OWNERS opted out of this agreement, right? the owners say they can’t live with this deal, yet you print stories about the Redskins OFFERING Mike Shanahan 10 Million a year, remember Green Bay offering Farve 20 Million over 10 years, to retire? How about the Raiders signing DeAngelo Hall to a big Free Agent deal, then cutting him by mid-season? You said the NFL Owners are getting TV money, even if there is no football in 2011 {which sounds a little shady, and if the NFL Owners don’t negoiate with the players in good faith, you can make a case that the networks are helping the owners break the union], YOU STATE THAT IT WOULD BE MORE PROFITABLE FOR THE OWNERS IF THERE IS NO FOOTBALL IN 2011, so given that FLORIO, shouldn’t the emphasis of your article be on the OWNERS to try and aviod a work stoppage?
The salary cap is necessary. Keep it as is. Develop a rookie pay scale, like the NBA has. If the current players don’t want to play for a measley couple million bucks a year, there are others that will. There, in 10 seconds I just settled the whole thing. These greedy whores aren’t able to do it in 2 years.
Dwarf player…
That gives me a good idea for a new football league that could really clean up during a lockout…
All I need is some start up funding and a few dozen dwarfs.
Who’s with me???!!!!
Notice to NFL players
WELCOME to the real world
Sell some cars and houses cut back on the dog fighting and find out how hard it is out here in the cold world
I think I am going to cry for the poor millionaires
hope the owners stick to the rich diva players and good
They are nothing with out the owner who shell out the money take the risk pay the players who then stub there little toe and get the year off with pay
Simple base pay for all big bonuses for performance
If you suck you dont get to buy the bling and have 4 kids with 4 different women its called life deal with it
I’ll try and wrap my head around this – a league is claiming that labor costs are preventing it from being profitable, and yet owners are paying 10 million per year to has-been coaches to essentially own and run their teams for them? How can Randy Lerner justify owners crying poverty with his throwing money at bad management, hand over fist. Let’s just skip over the Redskins for the time being.
I have a thought. If there’s another lockout – the league can kiss my ass (and my team loyalty, and my $) goodbye.
The networks have some explaining to do if they are going to try and pass off scabs as a football season. Let’s hope the UFL is ready to field a 12 team league in 2011 and the product is decent.
“Regardless, the owners are far better prepared to absorb a work stoppage than the players, and hopefully the players will realize this before it’s too late, for everyone. ”
I’m not picking sides since it’s a battle between the “haves” and the ” have more’s”
What about the Fans and all the people that rely on the games taking place for their living ?
Once again, it’s always the little guy that gets bent over and drilled like a virgin on prom night.
ENOUGH is ENOUGH.. To the NFL: You better not forget the fans this time or your entire league will be in jeapardy.
The Cowboys aren’t Jones’ only source of income anyway.
Wow vox, the owners have other sources of income?
Who knew…what a shocker.
It’s really strange with a weird sense of deja vu…1982 was a many moon ago. Marcus Allen’s rookie year…Raiders finish 8-1. Washington finishes 8-1.
The Raiders get bumped from the playoffs by Jets. Miami lead by David Woodley and Washington with Riggins and the hogs chew ‘em up in the Super Bowl. Strange year.
I don’t believe the NFL or the players will ever let it happen again…
Time is too short in this league for the players. And a strike takes away from all star players legacy with respects to career numbers (games missed that will not be replayed). And Owners recognize the importance of sustaining their revenue to pay for their investments…
I hope the owners stick it to their players! End all unions!!!! They were useful 100 years ago, but now they only serve to force more jobs overseas!
Bunch of dumb jocks taking on the suits with $$$$.
If history has shown anything it has proved that money men will always protect and shield their fortune….. money = real power.
So…the owners will not be out a cent or poorer by a possible shut out and only the players (who foolishly think they can power play with the rich guys) will suffer as well as the fans.
The one silver lining in this dark cloud is a shutout by the players would result in less money (due to pissed off fans, drop in attendance/viewership – like what happened in baseball year ago). ) coming in for the owners after the dust clears . Since men with money always want more money, they may try to settle this so as to keep the $$$$ train rolling.
The little guy always gets screwed; The tax payers will get screwed the most!
I have always been against the city/state in funding the NFL corporate buildings (Stadiums) but they have done so in great numbers recently. I have read the Irsay’s didn’t pay a dime for their stadium and even got out from under a $70 million dollar debt from the old, abandoned RCA dome. New Orleans bailed out the Saints with $180+ million. The Rooneys only paid $50 million for a $800 million plus stadium.
So the owners will lock out the players, the cities counting on the revenue from game day sales will be forced to raise taxes even more to pay for the loans on the new stadiums; Unemployment will increase slightly forcing more expenditure from the city in unemployment compensation.
I hope the city/state/federal governments get involved. For those of you who feel the government doesn’t belong in this fight, its the tax payers on the hook and the owners are forgoing their responsibility to utilize their public funded offices for generating income and bettering the city and the people. The owners had given up their private business rights when they ask the government to fund their offices. Don’t feel the government should intervene? They already have been for decades!
The “Double whammy” for the Union is that not only will management make more $ without football, and NOT have to share profits with the players, when an agreement is finally reached, the gross profits for management, in future, will be lessened by the credits given to the networks.
The idiots at the NFLPA should have seen this coming!
“reddog9 says:
January 2, 2010 12:14 PM
I hope the owners stick it to their players! End all unions!!!! They were useful 100 years ago, but now they only serve to force more jobs overseas!”
Reddog9 – Its the greed of corporate america that forces jobs overseas. The CEOs pocketing 10s of billions a year. Think they will take a pay cut to give the little guy a dollar raise? Hell NO! they send jobs overseas to put more money in their pocket.
like wise, reducing player salaries will NOT reduce ticket prices nor concession prices. The profits will go directly into the owners pockets. I’m for the veteran players on this one
So redamber
Are you saying they are going to take the NFL off shore
The Bengals are the only name that will work in India
Get a grib the idea is the rich get richer it has worked and has to work or the little guy does not have a job at all
Right on ! Redamber
These NFL owners are all so rich they use money as toilet paper, Im tired of hearing them whine that they aren’t making enough money. The only money issue I think needs attention is t he rookie pay. There needs to be a pay scale like in the NBA, this would end holdouts and would allow more money to be given to players who have earned it on the field.
I’ve said this before on here, and I’ll say it again; by 2011 football will be the last thing on anyone’s mind in this country, eating and living indoors will be just a tad more important.
There’s a storm coming………………
There’s a storm coming………………
So says a guy named braindead.
Go back down in the Basement,Light a candle and Watch some Glen Beck reruns, You’ll be OK.
I know that it’s hard to equate real life to the NFL fantasy land, but I’m going to try.
How many of you work for a wealthy person? Quite a few I’m assuming. And how many of those wealthy people make way more than you?
The players are in a no-win situation, and they’re clearly fighting for scraps. Just as most of us do if you don’t own the business. The owners hold the cards, and I’m sorry, capitalism dictates they make the money. Aren’t you supposed to make money owning a business? And people are upset that the owners want to turn a profit? Please.
We don’t see the owning an NFL team as a risk like other businesses, because of the NFL’s success. However, there is risk since fans like you and me could just stop going to games.
I feel the same way as a lot of others. Rookie pay scale, pay the vets, and make sure the retired players are not left out.
First, I believe the Owner’s don’t have to pay the players anything at all for playing games in 2011 if there are no games that year. The players may have “contracts”, but those contracts are for playing football games. If there are no games there is nothing due under the contracts. I would think that bonuses due would be owed if they were due before the season and are not related to playing time or “falling off a log” benchmarks.
The Owners are not “greedy”, they just want to make as much money as they can from their assets. Just like anybody else. If the Owners can make money in 2011, not pay the vast majority of the money otherwise due to players and coaches, and extract the best possible deal from the union/players by not having a season in 2011, why not do so? Do you really they really care about the fans? They could not care less about the fans. Bought any $8 beers or $5 hot dogs lately?
If the Owners have to repay, in effect, the money from 2011 in future years, don’t you think they are going to find a way to get this money back from the union/players by paying them less in future years. Does anybody remember the replacement/scab games? The Owners have no problem with going with “Option D”, the nuclear option.
The Owners need to remember what happened the last time they played hard ball with the union/players. The Owners thought they “won” because the union came crawling back after the owners put on the replacement games, but the end result of the 1987 season was a lawsuit brought by the players that ultimately resulted in free agency and a salary cap, but more importantly eventually led to a salary floor.
The Owners need to realize that if they play hard ball with the union/players that they risk an outcome full of unintended consequences. Remember that the USFL did win their lawsuit and that the NFL is a de facto monopoly. The Owners play hardball on this and they risk the future of the league and their assets, the teams themselves. What happens if the owners lock out the players in 2011, the union sues the NFL and each franchise, and a court nullifies every NFL contract? Don’t you think there are a few Billionaires out there who might sign a Manning or a Brady or a Brees to play in a “new” league? Don’t you think ESPN would be happy to sign a TV contract with a new league that had all of the old players? The Owners don’t realize that are playing Russian Roulette with their league and the revolver has five bullets in the cylinder.
Im glad you brought this up today b/c I was thinking about it yesterday.
How much do you have set aside Florio in a work stoppage fund?
I mean lets be realistic a work stoppage would kill this site maybe not forever but atleast for a year. The loyal fans will stay but what about all the followers you gained this year through NBC will they read you updating the labor strike/stoppage. How much material could you come up with about that, not much.
I mean you can only talk about the penguins so much before football fans get annoyed and leave.
This is hilarious! All you boys above have masters in economics and fully understand all the details that go into a collective bargining agreement. One guy solves it in 10 seconds only addressing 1 issue. Another guy claims its the owners fault because they implemented the opt out clause. A clause that the players agreed to include in the deal. Has anyone given thought to why the opt out clause was part of the deal? I can come up with about seven.
Do you really think $10 million for Shannahan can only be measured as well spent in terms of wins and losses? It could be a bad deal even if they win the Super Bowl win him. It could be a good deal if the never make the playoffs. Its not as simple as if they win the deal is good and if they lose the deal is bad.
For me the NBA and MLB have systems that perpetuate bad teams because a bad deal to a dud center or a mega contract to a pitcher who blows out his arm in the first season makes it impossible to quicky change directions as you must carry the salary. The NFL so far has managed to allow teams to remain flexible for the most part and adjust quickly. (unless the team keeps drafting WR in the first round year after year).
That’s what Iwant to see in this deal. Not the owners or the players screwing the other. I want to be able to see teams easily dump a Jamarcus Russel or Ryan Leaf. Maybe contracts where the big bonus kicks in after year 3. As for pensions and and the hundreds of other terms they need to negotiate. I’m willing to admit the details are too complex to generalize which side is overall out of line.
The only people who could state that are the few willing to study each issue and decide on each indivdually.