Posted on 04/25/2011 9:12:40 PM PDT by Palter
There would be no draft. Incoming players would sell their services to the richest teams.
Late Monday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued a ruling that may significantly alter professional football as we know it.
For six weeks, there has been a work stoppage in the National Football League as the league has sought to negotiate a new collective-bargaining agreement with the players. But Judge Nelson ordered the end of the stoppage and recognized the players' right to dissolve their union. By blessing this negotiating tactic, the decision may endanger one of the most popular and successful sports leagues in history.
What would the NFL look like without a collectively bargained compromise? For many years, the collectively bargained system—which has given the players union enhanced free agency and capped the amount that owners spend on salaries—has worked enormously well for the NFL, for NFL players, and for NFL fans.
For players, the system allowed player compensation to skyrocket—pay and benefits doubled in the last 10 years alone. The system also offered players comparable economic opportunities throughout the league, from Green Bay and New Orleans to San Francisco and New York. In addition, it fostered conditions that allowed the NFL to expand by four teams, extending careers and creating jobs for hundreds of additional players.
For clubs and fans, the trade-off afforded each team a genuine opportunity to compete for the Super Bowl, greater cost certainty, and incentives to invest in the game. Those incentives translated into two dozen new and renovated stadiums and technological innovations such as the NFL Network and nfl.com.
Under the union lawyers' plan, reflected in the complaint that they filed in federal court, the NFL would be forced to operate in a dramatically different way.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I thought decertifying their union was the standard first step everytime the players are negotiating a new contract.
The left drones on endlessly about executive compensation but is silent on outrageous compensation of professional athletes and entertainers. I have nothing against anyone negotiating for compensation. However, big time professional sports involve two groups of cartels with consumers caught in the vice. The owners’ cartel battles against the players’ cartel while taxpayer subsidies for stadiums and enormous market power of cable/satellite providers gouge consumers. Cable providers are attempting to stop more efficient dissemination of digital programming by controlling both programming and critical bandwidth. We have become a nation of cartels and enabling government.
We need taxpayer protection from cartels with rent seeking behavior. We need to control politicians and cartels who put taxpayer interests last.
So in other words, the NFL would start looking like a game I used to watch a lot... drawing a blank here — I remember you had to hit a ball with a stick, get on base... OH THAT’s IT — BASEBALL! Well, hey having 6 teams with all the great players and another couple of dozen AAAA teams sure has worked well there, right?
I enjoy watching the NFL, but couldn’t afford to take my family of 4 to a game. We’re talking $500 minimum for the cheap seats. Prices will only climb higher if this goes through.
Why do I feel like when the players throw their fans over for what they think is more money the players will become like the Christians being thrown to the lions for pure sport of the elites? Who wants to see lop sided teams?
In a 16 game season, players can get badly injured just because the techniques taught today are much better than 40 years ago.
That means that a 300 pound lineman or 250 pound linebacker can hit a player hard enough to ruin his career.
18 games makes it harder for players to survive the regular season -- let alone make it through the playoffs.
The current proposal is only a 2 game preseason and an 18 game regular season.
Keep the 4 game preseason to find out what good new players a team has. And keep the 16 game regular season.
The playoffs can mean another 4 games (if a team goes to the Superbowl without a bye, 3 games with a bye. That means 4 preseason games plus 16 regular season games plus potentially 3 to 4 more games...
And these idiots want me to build THEM a stadium in Minnesota?
Are they out of their minds? oh wait. they are.
I think it would be interesting to see the effects of a more free labor market. Drafts, minimum salary, salary caps - it all sounds very collectivist to me.
I say let them play 18 games in the regular season. The NFL has been screwing season ticket holders for years by forcing them to pay full price tickets for 2 worthless preseason home games where starters barely see the field.
Unions would be forgotten.
Well, Mr. Goodell, if you liked the old system so much why did you lock the players out in order to change it?
I have no sympathy for the owners’ position. If they are losing money, open the books and show the world. If they want to play games and torpedo the former structure that has worked very well for everyone, then quit whining about the consequences of opening the Pandora’s box.
It may be nice to see what would happen if the whole thing
(NFL) didn’t function for a year or so...some folks would
be lost...we might have to talk to other people since our
eyes wouldn’t be glued to the TV.
I always think of those Superbowl numbers. How long can they go on? Superbowl C ? Seems chancy. Superbowl M ? Hard to imagine. How about Superbowl L ???
You had the best stadium in the league. Now it's a shopping mall.
Forsooth!!!! Mike Brown would actually have to open his wallet and spend some of his vast fortune (his profit margin year-i and year-out exceeds $40 million) to actually get players to come to Cincinnati and play for his semi-pro team.
It’s his worst nightmare!
Perhaps. But it snows here and the sissy players wanted to play indoors. Now they all want to play outdoors. but not when it’s raining or snowing or cold out so put a removable roof on it would you?
Wheres my 3 million dollar check for running around on a field?
F um. They can leave Minnesota.
It seems we have a situation where Management desires a union and Labor does not. I don’t think I’ve seen this before.
Don’t go looking for something you’re not going to be glad you found. This is hilarious.
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