NFL lockout for 2011 grows more likely

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/2010/09/04/20100904nfl-lockout-2011-likely.html

by Kent Somers - Sept. 4, 2010 04:47 PM
The Arizona Republic

Enjoy this NFL season. Savor every sack, touchdown pass and a punt return, because a year from now the only NFL news might include fun words such as lockout, financial transparency and debt service.

Representatives from the NFL and the players association continue to negotiate a new collective-bargaining agreement. So far, both sides have gone three-and-out, and the overwhelming sentiment within the league is that there will be a lockout in 2011.

"Fans have reason to be worried," said Kevin Mawae, president of the players association. "I'm not going to sit here and tell the fans everything is going to be good when I tell my players to prepare for a lockout. The sad thing about it is the fans are the ones who are going to suffer."

This is the last season under the current agreement. The owners exercised an opt-out clause in 2008, saying the agreement no longer worked because their costs of doing business had risen, because of increasing players costs and the faltering economy.

The players have asked them to prove it by opening their books, and ownership representatives have countered by saying the union already knows financial details because the CBA gives the union some audit powers.

In a recent opinion column written for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Pash, the owners' lead negotiator, said the league has shown the union why the current system doesn't work.

FULL story at link.

[blue sky at night]

1. funny how the "public" are always the ones that suffer....

we pay and pay and pay...and still life sucks and usually "our" team sucks worse.

The owners and players get millions and still it is not enough, we build them a stadium with public money that gets used 10 times in a year, but our bridges are falling apart?

hey, don't forget people are living under those bridges and those poor, poor, poor little owners, they just can't survive when they only make...think about it, and go help the homeless on Sunday afternoons, it will make you a winner like no football team ever did.

[leveymg]

2. I don't care what they make - just tax them at 80 precent . . . and the owners at 90 percent.

I might start paying attention again if it were going to a good cause.