If boths sides are smart about it they will install an exemption of some sort. I'd just like to see the owners have to spend as much as possible. The product would be that much better...
You're not considering the small market owners, who cannot afford to do the same as others. Take a team like TB, who had a cap number of $63M last season, they are going to be hard pressed to even get up to the projected $102M (90%) cap figure. Who d they overpay?
I sure did consider them. When Tampa put out a very good product they sold out tons of games. If that, plus revenue sharing does not allow teams like that to spend and make a desirable profit then sell them, move them, or consolidate them OR raise revenue sharing between the owners. I've herd a ton of reports that say certain teams are losing money. You can bet that teams like the Cowboys do not want to see the league go down to 12 teams but it's certainly possible to have that great product with 26-28 teams. That might hurt the total of the TV deals but not by much. I've seen this all along as a rif between the owners, not the owners vs. players. btw: between 90 to 93 percent has been the number thrown out there not just 90 so I'm not far off
I gotta do some research again on what revenue was not being split. If I remember, it included local TV ads, a chuck of home ticket sales, parking, etc. Have you seen anything on if a pro-rated signing bonus would be included on this 90-93% cash floor? That would make a huge difference.
I strongly disagree with the premise of the sentence I underlined. Ticket prices are set through a process of supply and demand. Supply remains fixed, so the owners charge what the market will bear for tickets. They CLAIM it's based on costs, but this is a sham argument that they make in order to pander to the masses. They maximize revenue. That means increasing ticket costs according to what they believe the market will accept. And when they have signs that the market will not accept those new prices, they slash ticket prices thru "sales" and "special offers". The idea that getting a better deal for owners means better deals for the fans is a fallacy, IMO.
What I outlined is basically what the players are demanding, although there are reports that the lawyers are on the fringe and demanding more than that.
I for one am not worried at all about the consequences of a higher salary floor. As long as you eliminate various loopholes that have allowed teams to temporarily bypass/massage the salary floor (and in some cases salary cap) by means of accruals and incentive clauses, then teams will always be answerable to the salary floor and that is a good thing. If teams find themselves in a bind and needing to spend more money to get over the floor, so be it. They'll have to start paying their most valuable players more money. This is intended. Through the rookie wage scale, the NFLPA has given the owners the luxury of being better able to weed out situations where they're paying players far more than they're worth. So naturally in return, the higher salary floor guarantees that money slips back into the pockets of the most trustworthy veterans on team rosters. What do you think is going to happen when a team finds that after free agency and the Draft they're below the salary floor and need to spend more? Which players will get approached about pay raises and extensions? The most valuable, the most underpaid and the most trustworthy. No more playing games with a Cameron Wake, forcing him to play on a backup's salary just because of "team policy" of not revisiting a guy's contract if it has multiple years remaining on it. This would be a good thing. Any structural moves that get the league to pay players more along the lines of what they're worth rather than what they're not, is a good thing. These guys in the contract departments are nothing if not creative. They'll find ways to make it work...and I suspect those ways will be forced to be more equitable than the current environment.
How would that affect FA? And how do you put the tags into effect or, do you do away with them? I like what you are saying so far.
Oh yeah I know that is right. That's why I said a couple of times that I ackowledged myself to be dreaming.
I don't know that it would affect either of those. I think what would end up happening is teams would just amend their off season plans to where they have a list of players on their own roster approved for salary increases and/or contract extensions, along with a budget figure that would be depended upon who among their targets they can get hold of in free agency. Once free agency and the Draft are over, and they've spent what they've spent, there would be a wave of extensions/raises to be given out according with what's left (if anything). It's not really that onerous. The last salary cap proposed by the NFL prior to de-certification was $141 million. The players I believe wanted $151 million. Sounds like they're sort of splitting that down the middle (we'll see), so the salary floor would be $138.7 million and the salary cap would be $146 million. That's not really all THAT tight. In order to be competitive, teams are supposed to be shooting for as much talent as they can while getting crammed just under the salary cap. A cluster around that figure is what was intended.
I think that dollar amount includes benefits as well as salaries. I think salary-wise, we are looking at a cap closer to $125M.
For what it's worth Michael Silver writes that a new CBA deal is closer than people realize, and may be even closer than some of the people involved realize. The latter may mean the lawyers...who want to drag this out and collect more money. They may be thinking that a deal is still a ways away, and maybe some owners thing that as well, but it could be De Smith and Roger Goodell are taking control of this thing amongst themselves. Either way, we're hearing reports of teams bringing their coaching staffs back from vacation, and outright preparing for normal July 28th training camp starts. It makes me wonder if the reason the lawyers are the only ones involved in today's and tomorrow's sessions is because they're expected to draft all the legal language of the final CBA together and then have the heavy hitters approve it on Thursday. I'm going to venture a guess and say that free agency officially starts at 12:01am, July 11th. Or maybe now that I think about it, the 13th/14th, giving the NFL offices a few days to prepare for two weeks of free agent madness before camps start on the 28th. Full preseason.
The NFLPA has renegotiated their lawyer contracts into a flat free. This is an essence a payoff to the lawyers. Here's some money, so please stop pursuing the Tom Brady anti-trust case, and do as you're told with respect to the CBA contract. The lawyers now, I'm guessing, have absolutely no interest in the anti-trust case. They're not even billing hourly, so they just want to get this contract done. The owners will come in on Thursday for a walkthrough to see what the lawyers have drawn up, and they'll check it and make sure there are no hidden traps...and I'm guessing faxed copies of the new CBA will reach owners around the league Friday. The owners could ratify it without being in person over the weekend or they could do it on Monday. I'm guessing new league year will start at 12:01am on the 14th...which gives everyone a few days to prepare for chaos.
Yeah I believe that's part of the proposal that the players like. BTW owners have to approve with a vote of 24+ out of 32 owners.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6742544 Confirmation that the NFL owners hope to have the framework for a new CBA done by end of business Friday, according to ESPN. The mediator Arthur Boylan is scheduled to take a vacation on Saturday. I really think they were having the lawyers draw up the bulk of the paperwork and details yesterday and today, so that the heavy hitters could come in tomorrow, put the cherry on top, and then have something faxed to the other owners for review and approval this weekend. The owners would probably emergency re-schedule they're July 21st meeting to July 11th or 12th, get the approval, lift the lockout, and begin the new league year on like the 13th or 14th.
Understanding that this situation is fluid, you are right about most things. I don't think I've ever hoped you were right about anything is much as this!
One NFL General Manager now says that negotiations are on the 5 yard line, but he's seen Jerome Bettis fumble on the 1 yard line before so let's hope they don't fumble the ball or if they do, that there's a Ben Roethlisberger there to make up for it. The lawyers were working overtime yesterday ironing out all the specifics and language...11 hour session.
That was pretty hilarious. Excited about when this thing starts. I wonder if I was even too conservative with my July 13th/14th target dates. I'd still stand by them but an AFC General Manager just said that he expects the lockout to be lifted within 24 hours of an agreement being reached. I was thinking they might take a few days to prepare. So many things on the docket the moment the lockout is lifted: 1. Re-signing your own free agents 2. Signing marquee free agents 3. Trade discussions and execution 4. Cutting deadweight players 5. Extensions for players still under contract 6. Signing undrafted free agents 7. Supplemental (Terrelle Pryor) Draft 8. Signing rookies under new wage scale All that in just about two weeks, and then you'll have an inflow of training camp reports focusing on: 1. How Chad Henne looks 2. How the free agents look 3. How the rookies look 4. Injury progress of guys off reserve 5. Progress of 2nd and 3rd year players 6. How the new offense looks It's not just front offices that have to bring their A games, the media had better buckle their chin straps too. It's going to be a frenzy.
