Expired contracts could mean big changes
Now that Super Bowl XLV in Dallas has ended and the Green Bay Packers have been crowned NFL champions, the attention has turned to Indianapolis. Plans are being made, hotels constructed, practice sites named —including the University of Indianapolis ARC facility, the official NFC practice site—and everyone is preparing for the event.
Well, except for the NFL.
While thousands of Americans count down the days until Feb. 5, 2012, the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) are stuck feuding over a new collective bargaining agreement that could end in a lockout.
Among other things, the NFL proposed a cut in player salaries and an extension of the regular season from 16 to 18 games, a response to the current contract expiring in March. The NFLPA is adamantly against the ridiculous proposal.
According to the players’ case posted by ESPN, the NFLPA claims that the bargain is unjust and unnecessary, saying “the players haven’t asked for anything more and literally don’t want anything more. They have asked simply to play under the existing agreement.”
In fact, the players have even proposed extending the current deal, so there is more time to work out the bargain and league play won’t be interrupted.
The NFL counters by saying “The system does not work as well as it could from the standpoint of the teams…the NFL wants to improve and secure the future of the game for the benefit of the fans and the players.”
The fans and the players? As a fan, I was unaware that the current system was jeopardizing the league’s future, and apparently the players agree that a salary cut won’t benefit them. So who is this really working out for?
Furthermore, the NFL has hidden little pockets of information about this “bargain” that are rarely mentioned. For example, with this proposal, NFL owners would get an additional $1 billion on top of the $1 billion they already get from the NFL’s annual revenue. I don’t see how this would benefit the fans or the players.
The NFL also outlines that the money is needed to address league costs because “companies with far more revenue than the NFL have gone bankrupt because they did not properly manage their costs.” However, some of the things they are proposing include new stadium development in L.A. and international games. Last I checked, there weren’t any NFL teams in L.A. or internationally, so I don’t see how this falls under the category of properly managing costs. Besides this, there is no further explanation about which league costs need to be addressed. The NFL never outlines exactly where all this extra money would go, they just say it is needed. It’s not fair to cut someone’s salary without a clear reason.
This issue is about more than just the players. All the cities that rely on NFL profit and all the people they employ will be hurt if this feud results in a lockout.
ESPN reported that revenue losses would amount to $400 million per week without regular season games, 150,000 jobs would be impacted and more than $160 million in revenue would be lost in every city with an NFL team if the lockout happens. Still, the NFL has the audacity to use the argument that it is unfair players are paid so much when there is an unemployment rate of almost 10 percent. If a lockout happens, the NFL will be directly responsible for adding to the unemployment rate.
Indianapolis would be one of the affected cities. What would we do if there were no Colts games next year? Airports, hotels, restaurants, ticket sales, merchandise sales…the list of places that make money from Colts games is endless, not to mention that Indianapolis is the 2012 Super Bowl host. The city has undergone construction to support the traffic that comes with the Super Bowl, and Indianapolis would take a huge hit in cost revenue if the Super Bowl were not to happen due to the lockout.
Even further down the chain is UIndy. The plans for the new ARC facility were interrupted, changed and delayed specifically to make it the 2012 Super Bowl NFC practice site. The NFL’s deal with the university would need to be modified to address not having a Super Bowl in Indy for possibly another three years, likely affecting our athletic teams’ and students’ use of the ARC.
The NFL needs to stop being greedy. The organization already has a $9 billion annual revenue. If the NFL can’t figure out how to make its $4.5 billion half work, maybe it needs to look at cutting back expenses in different places.
This proposal will not benefit the players or the fans, and a lockout would only hurt the players, franchises, fans and thousands of employees who are invested in the league. The players want to play, and the fans want to watch them play. So let them.
