In our 10-segment look at the current labor situation, we devoted one of the topics to the issue of revenue sharing. Five years ago, it was a big deal when the NFL and the union were working out a renewed labor agreement.
Today, it rarely gets mentioned.
Literally today, it came up during our interview with NFLPA president Kevin Mawae, who pegged revenue sharing as the unspoken reason for the owners’ effort o take money back from the players.
Basically, the owners can avoid fighting about how to share revenues if less of the total revenues are going to the players via the salary cap and, more importantly as to the frugal teams, the salary floor.
Mawae sees the logic in the owners’ approach. But at a time when the union seems to be trying to conjure P.R. messages that will resonate with the general public, we think that an approach premised on players being caught in the quiet crossfire between billionaires could resonate with the average fan more effectively than the current strategies being employed.
In other words, instead of complaining about the NFL refusing to give the union financial information to support the need for a new labor deal, the union should say, “They’re not giving it to us because there really isn’t a need for a new labor deal. They just can’t figure out how to share their cut of the money so they want to take more from us.”
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