WASHINGTON (AP) — Let the countdown begin.
Less than 72
hours before the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement expires, the
league and the players’ union were scheduled to resume negotiations in
front of a federal mediator.
There was no telling whether the
sides would fare any better Tuesday than they did over seven consecutive
days of talks that wrapped up last week — and left the league’s owners
and the NFL Players Association far apart on the major issues.
When it comes to the NFL, it’s all one big guessing game at the moment.
"Everything
is hypothetical right now," new San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh
said. "I’m just optimistic we can get something done."
The CBA
expires at midnight as Thursday becomes Friday on the East Coast, and
the owners could lock out the players immediately. Even before that,
though, the union could decertify — essentially, declare itself out of
the business of representing players — and let the players take their
chances in court.
Not far away from the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service, where director George Cohen will attempt to help
the parties make more progress, the 32 teams’ owners are slated to meet
Wednesday and Thursday at a hotel in Chantilly, Va., for updates on the
status of negotiations.
And then they will need to determine their next step.
Whatever
happens between now and Friday could eventually wind up causing the
country’s most popular sport to lose regular-season games to a work
stoppage for the first time since 1987. Or everything could be resolved
by management and labor in an industry with revenues topping $9 billion
annually.
The biggest sticking point all along has been how to
divide those revenues, including what cut team owners should get up
front to help cover certain costs, such as stadium construction.
Among
the other significant topics in negotiations: a rookie wage scale; the
owners’ push to expand the regular season from 16 games to 18 while
reducing the preseason by two games; and benefits for retired players.
In
many respects, this boils down to money, of course. And there is plenty
of money at risk the longer it takes for the league and NFLPA to work
together again.
"Players have a lot of risk; clubs have a lot of
risk," Jeff Pash, the NFL’s lead labor negotiator, said in January. "We
know that the financial consequences of no agreement — of a significant
delay in reaching an agreement — will be significant and will be shared.
It does not fall on one party."
The league estimates there would
be a cut in gross revenues of $350 million if there’s no new CBA by
August, before the preseason starts, and a loss of revenues totaling $1
billion if no new contract is in place until September. And if
regular-season games are lost in 2011, the NFL figures that revenue
losses would amount to about $400 million per week.
If the league
locks out the players, everything would stop except the NFL draft on
April 28-30, and any interviews or workouts teams hold for college
players leading up to the draft. After that, though, teams wouldn’t be
able to contact their picks or sign undrafted rookies.
