Looks like that both sides (ahem *cough* the owners) are trying to make things work since they extended the deadline again, this time for a week. To me, it looks like the owners have been plotting against the PA for at least a year in order to force it into agreeing to their terms during these negotiations. I can't honestly say that that is a bad decision - employees, whether they be players or trainers or whatever - are "costs" and the point of any businessman is to limit the amount of costs in his company/corporation to increase profits.
From the owners' perspective, I believe that they expect league revenue will increase based on the quality of the marketing of the product. I tell people to look at hockey - the NHL still hasn't fully recovered from the lockout, and just this year got an all-access, R-rated show to cover its product, something for which Jeremy Roenick was pleading back in 1999. The NHL has changed dramatically - scoring is up since the rules changes during the lockout - and yet it's the 5th most watched pro sport in the US, behind the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, NBA (the Final Four gets better ratings than the Stanley Cup, so that's an extra issue). The NFL knows that it is watched so much that it can prime time its draft and still get solid ratings - while the MLB draft (the real one - the Rule IV draft - not the Rule V) isn't even televised. The American Idol final rated out higher this year than Game 5 of the World Series, whereas the Super Bowl was the highest rated program ever in US television history (for the 2nd year in a row)
Goodell has been quoted saying that the "statuts quo" is no longer acceptable - that the owners want to keep increasing their cut and believe that they can pigeon hole the players into relenting their positions, since the owners have more money than the players. The players keep sticking to their strong position, but they're obviously just publicly promoting their position, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment