The NFL Owners are unwilling to open up their books to the players union.
The current chip under negotiation is an $800,000,000 one that the owners want off the top of league revenue without giving the NFLPA their cut. That number is down from the previously requested $1B.
All the players are asking for in return is total transparency. When there’s transparency both groups can determine what is fair. The NFL Team Owners however would rather operate in secrecy.
This aura of secrecy is an ominous one, as it usually comes down to the fans footing the bill for the higher profits of owners and players alike. It’s truly a case of trickle up economics.
When it comes down to it, both sides need to agree to less money and pass the savings on down to the consumer.
$89 for a jersey that costs teams 25 cents to make and ship over here from one of many countries? The fans need a union themselves demanding a cap on commercial time, a cap on ticket prices, a cap on merchandise.
Who is protecting the fan from these corporate raiders? It seems in a tough economic time that prices and profits are going up, and yet still the richest among us meet together and plot against the public.
The NFL Owners operate on lies and deceit. Look no further than the extra commercials fans have to sit through in recent years, as the late Sunday games have all been pushed back 15 minutes to make room on the schedule.
The NFL claims they have so many commercials so the players can have rests because the sport’s so brutal on their bodies. That’s what they’d want you to believe. The dirty little secret is that they just want more money, and the faces that they show the public, as well as the words they use are all lies.
All the players are asking for is transparency so they can make an informed decision on whether or not the teams truly are in need of this nearly billion dollar concession.
Basically the Union is calling the NFL’s bluff.
Than the NFL comes back with, ‘well that information isn’t important.’
My question is: If it’s not important, than why not give it to them!?
If the NFL’s response is, ‘we don’t see how that would help you,’ than what is the harm in turning it over?
The truth. The truth is actually the biggest harm in the owners’ eyes.
The NFL doesn’t want the truth to come out because if it does, they know that their request for 800 Million Dollars off the top of their already hefty $9.3 Billlion is baseless, and that public knowledge of the actual profit and loss sheets would cause a negative stir.
The Union is willing to give the owners a huge chunk of change if it is shown that the teams themselves are in need of the money.
All the Players Union is asking for is the proper information necessary to do their jobs as negotiators.
We’ll see if the recent $4B judgment the NFLPA won over the NFL will put an end to the NFL’s stalling in this matter.
Without that money, the NFL Owner’s will surely be more apt to find a way to get this season on the road, and more boatloads of our money into their pockets.