Today’s questions about the Broncos come from Fred Waiss. Send your questions via e-mail to jlegwold@denverpost.com.
Q: Everything I have read about the NFL labor negotiations indicates that the lack of a new collective bargaining agreement means a lockout. Why? What would be the legal and economic ramifications of not locking out the players? Couldn’t team owners allow players and coaches to continue working together and keep their facilities open while negotiations continue?
A: The current collective bargaining agreement expires at 10 p.m. MST on Thursday.
Representatives of the NFL and its 32 franchises as well as representatives of the NFL Players Association have been negotiating for much of the last two weeks — with federal mediators also at the table.
Both sides could continue to allow contact between players and team officials. But both sides desire some type of tool in the negotiations to help them get what they want. For the owners, that tool has been the threat of a lockout that would start Friday. A lockout would shut down most football-related operations with no contact allowed between players under contract and their respective teams in that scenario. No free agency would take place and the players’ medical benefits would be suspended. The players and their families would seek medical benefits similar to COBRA coverage.
Some teams will pay their employees only a percentage of their salaries if a lockout is imposed. Most teams would use a pay scale that would decrease employee salaries the longer the lockout went on.
The people immediately affected the most by a lockout would be team employees neither side is talking about — the people in the front office, in the ticketing and marketing departments, etc.
The players’ biggest tool would be to decertify the union and make players individual contractors of sorts to take the matter to court and let the two sides pay attorneys to fight it out.
The NFL hasn’t had a work stoppage since 1987. League revenues annually top $9 billion now. Both sides begin to lose the most money if regular-season games aren’t played. All involved have said if they see enough progress in negotiations, they could extend Thursday night’s deadline to give them more time to reach an agreement.
The biggest issue continues to be how to split the revenue between players and team owners. The owners want more money up front to cover expenses, including stadium construction. In the deal set to expire Thursday night, the owners receive $1 billion off the top and the remainder of the revenue is split.
The owners want to receive $2 billion off the top. A rookie wage scale, an 18-game regular season for each team and increased benefits for retired players are among the others issues on the table.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
