[bigboydan]

gene upshaw tells agents no more cap at the end of this contract.

Upshaw tells agents to prepare for uncapped '07

NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw told a seminar of agents Friday morning to prepare for a 2006 season without a collective bargaining extension, setting up an uncapped year in 2007.

"March 3 will be the beginning of a new league year and we are just not there yet," Upshaw said. "I'm taking the position now that it won't get done."

No negotiating sessions are scheduled although Upshaw said he is willing to talk. He told agents the issues are so far apart that there is virtually no way a deal could be set before next Thursday, the eve of the start of free agency. Under no circumstance, Upshaw said, will the union agree to delay the start of free agency to accommodate a deal.


Three major issues were cited by Upshaw as the reason for no collective bargaining agreement extension.

• Neither side can agree on the percentage of total revenues that will go to the players. Upshaw wouldn't elaborate on where the numbers were in the negotiations, but he has publicly said he wants a percentage number in the sixties. Reportedly, the sides are four percent apart but that number wasn't discussed by Upshaw.

"We want to have a higher percentage," Upshaw said. "We want more dollars to come into the system."

How significant is the percentage differential?

Upshaw said each percentage point is worth $2 million of cap room per team early in any CBA agreement, $2.5 million in the middle and $2.9 million in the end.

• The NFLPA won't agree to any type of CBA extension that doesn't have a new revenue sharing plan in the future. The differences between the high and lower revenue sharing teams have grown as much as $100 million dollars. The league owners aren't close on any revenue sharing deal among themselves, and Upshaw considers that something the union would never accept in a new deal without revised revenue sharing.

• Upshaw's third difference is the league's "G-3" program in which money is loaned to teams by the league to finance new stadium construction. The union has to sign off on any "G-3" plan because it comes out of the gross revenue pool. Upshaw is asking for a "flip tax" in which the union gets a return on the investment. The NFLPA hasn't signed off on new stadium "G-3" deals for the Cowboys, Colts and Giants.

With nothing on the horizon that gives him optimism of any breakthroughs, Upshaw set a soft deadline of Friday for getting a CBA extension. According to him, the sides are so far apart that a six-year extension would be hard to settle before the hard deadline of March 3.

To give agents guidance, Upshaw told the room that the 2006 cap should be between $92 million and $95 million but he thinks the realistic number will be $96 million. That number should be settled within in the next day or so. He said the benefits package paid by teams is $13.8 million.

Though he will be available by phone, Upshaw planned to leave Indianapolis on Friday afternoon and return to Washington, D.C.

"I'm leaving," Upshaw said. "We're running out of time. You might as well prepare as if we are heading for an upcapped year."

[BigD]

The NFL and the player have the best sports going the would be so dumb to strike

[Illusion]

I hope they strike. The league makes way too much money.

[Seattle Slew]

NFL players deserve more money, with the risks they take playing the game.

[Illusion]

NFL players deserve more money, with the risks they take playing the game.

As much money as the league makes they deserve 6x what they make now. f\*\*k the league and the owners.

[bigboydan]

if wellington mara was still around, we would have this settled already. he was the one that kept the old guard in check all those years. ralph wilson is not a leader like mara was.

[bigboydan]

looks like progress is being made.

Amid indications that there has been some progress in talks aimed at extending the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, league owners are scheduled to meet Tuesday via conference call to discuss the status of negotiations.
Two owners said Monday afternoon that they have delayed their departures from Indianapolis, site of the NFL scouting combine since Wednesday, to accommodate the 6 p.m. ET timing of the conference call.

"In this case," one AFC owner said, "any news would be good news."

A league source confirmed late Monday that representatives from the NFL and the NFL Players' Association met face-to-face earlier in the day. The source declined to say who was present for the meeting, which was held in Washington.

The scheduling of the conference call might be the most concrete sign yet to substantiate whispers that the NFL and NFL Players' Association, who have been discussing the proposed extension for more than a year, have finally made some headway in breaking the inertia that has marked negotiations. Without the add-on, the 2007 season would become a so-called uncapped year with no spending limit and no minimum, and players could potentially face a lockout in 2008.

Team officials and player agents have said that doing business without an extension -- particularly with the free agent signing period set to begin Friday and the draft on April 29-30 -- will prove virtually impossible. Because of the extreme circumstances that would exist with an uncapped year on the horizon, it would be difficult to meet the financial expectations of free agents and high-round draft choices.

Compounding the situation is that several franchises are in the throes of salary cap overages and will find it difficult, if not painful, to come into cap compliance for 2006 without an extension. If an extension is not struck before Friday, several cap managers acknowledged, there figures to be many veteran players purged from rosters in the next few days.

Among the owners who have expressed optimism that an 11th-hour deal will be hammered out is Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. "I think that we'll likely have a deal," Jones told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Monday. Other owners and team officials allowed there have been rumblings of progress and that they feel an extension will be in place before the end of the week.

"If I were betting, I would bet there would be a deal by Wednesday," Patriots vice chairman and president Jonathan Kraft said on Monday night on Fox Sports New England.

"I've said sanity will ultimately prevail," an owner of an AFC team said. "Hopefully, we're getting to that point. This has always been a deadline league and the clock is ticking. Smart people from both sides know that we all need this. I mean, why kill the golden goose?"

If a deal is struck before Friday, it is likely the start of free agency would be delayed at least a week in order to allow teams to recalculate their cap status. NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw insisted last week he will not delay the free agency timetable. That stance aside, Upshaw might reconsider if an accord that extends the CBA also means a significantly higher spending limit for 2006.

Still to be resolved as well is the issue of revenue sharing among the league's 32 franchises. Given the increasing disparity between the high revenue teams and those at the bottom of the earning chart, the issue is a significant one and the subject of considerable debate. But there are signs that some owners are ready to reach a deal with the NFLPA before proceeding to a battle over revenue-sharing models.

Upshaw has said he will not agree to an extension of the collective bargaining agreement before owners are in agreement on revenue sharing, but some owners believe the battle over revenue sharing will be contentious and drawn out. They also suggest the union will ultimately agree to the extension -- even without a revenue-sharing deal -- assuming the numbers are right.

"They both have to get done," Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney said, "but they don't necessarily both have to get done at the same time."

[bigboydan]

so much for progress

NFL labor talks break off on eve of free agency

By DAVE GOLDBERG, AP Football Writer
February 28, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- NFL labor talks broke off Tuesday three days before the start of free agency, leaving teams and players in a quandary about negotiating new contracts.

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, spent the last three days meeting in New York and Washington with commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

"We're deadlocked. There's nowhere to go," Upshaw said. "There's no reason to continue meeting."

The NFL acknowledged the talks had broken off and said no further discussions were scheduled. The league said it would not extend Friday's deadline for the start of free agency.

Although the contract does not expire until after the 2007 season, this is a critical period in the negotiations to extend the 12-year-old agreement. Talks have been going on for more than a year.

Free agency is scheduled to start Friday. If the deal is not extended, this would be the last year with a salary cap, so agents and team officials want to know how to structure contracts.

For example, if there is no extension, the salary cap is expected to be about $95 million this season and annual raises after 2006 in a long-term deal would be limited to 30 percent. If the deal is extended the cap could be $10 million or more higher.

The sides have agreed on a number of issues. The biggest one is changing the formula for the amount of money to go to the players from "designated gross revenues" -- primarily television and ticket sales -- to "total gross revenues," which include almost every bit a money a a team generates.

They differ, however, on the percentage of revenues to be allocated to the players -- the union is asking for 60 percent and the league's current offer is 56.2 percent.

But there are also disputes among groups of owners on that issue, too. Tagliabue has called a league meeting in New York for Thursday.

Teams with lower revenues -- mostly small-market clubs -- say that if the contributions to the players' fund are equally apportioned among 32 franchises, they will have to pay a substantially larger proportion of their nontelevision and ticket money because they have less. Owners of high-revenue teams, like Dallas' Jerry Jones, claim spreading the load equally would force some teams to work harder to generate new sources of money.

Another high-revenue owner, New England's Robert Kraft, says the formula does not take stadium debt into account, as he has on Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said "internal revenue-sharing issues" would not be discussed at the meeting.

[Illusion]

Great news, I hope the players stick it to them.

[bigboydan]

i gotta feeling they just might do just that ILL. theres a ton of problems with the owners right now with sndyer and jones leading the charge.

[slacker00]

I agree with you guys. I'm amazed that the salary cap has barely increased since it was imposed. This dispute was a long time coming.

[bigboydan]

i see both parties extended the deadline today. now lets just hope they can workout a deal.

League extends free agency deadline
March 2, 2006



NEW YORK (AP) - A few hours after NFL owners voted to continue their standoff with the players union, the league extended its deadline for free agency by three days, putting off what threatened to become a mass purge of high-priced players from rosters.



League vice president Joe Browne announced the delay Thursday afternoon, seven hours before the midnight deadline.

The owners' vote after a 57-minute meeting earlier in the day had seemed to end 13 years of labor peace between the league and its union.