NFL owners probably will vote on labor pact issue

ATLANTA -- For the NFL, today could be labor day.

At their annual May meeting today, team owners are likely to vote on whether to continue with their labor agreement with the players’ union or exercise the league’s early-termination clause.

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn., says he thinks the league will opt out. If no new labor agreement is reached, that could eventually result in a player work stoppage, something the league hasn’t encountered since the 1987 season. But it would take three seasons for that type of doomsday scenario to take shape.

If the owners opt out of the current agreement and no new deal is struck, the 2009 season would be the last played with the salary cap. The 2010 season would be a so-called “stub year,” meaning there would be no salary cap. It would also be more difficult for players to switch teams; to be a free agent, a player would have to have six seasons in the league as opposed to the current four. The system would also limit the free-agency moves of teams that made the playoffs the previous season.

NFL owners have indicated for years that they have issues with the current system of revenue sharing, in which players receive about 60% of virtually all revenue.

The least wealthy of the clubs say player costs take up too much of their gross revenue, while some of the richest teams believe they could do better without a salary cap as long as they did not have to engage in aggressive revenue sharing with the rest of the league.

Owners also are scheduled to vote today on awarding the 2012 Super Bowl to one of three finalists: Indianapolis, Houston or Arizona.

Although his stadium concept is not on the agenda, Los Angeles developer Ed Roski had planned to be on hand to answer questions about the venue he hopes to build in City of Industry. Roski decided not to make the trip, however, and instead plans to meet with league officials in New York in early June.

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