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Debt Crisis Could Lead to NFL Labor Unrest

By Mark

Further to last night's post on the impact of the auction rate debt crisis in sports, here comes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell this morning citing the crisis as a factor in the owner's likelihood of opting out of the collective bargaining agreement this fall. The owners have an opt out window this November and have been making threatening noises directed toward the Players Association for some time. The increased pressure of the debt crisis allegedly tightens owners' margins and, according to Goodell, "right now there's a great more risk."

"When you shrink the margins by increasing player costs and increasing other costs, at some point in time the economics become untenable,'' Goodell said.

Now, I'm sure this was said with a straight face too, but it's a little hard to take this argument too seriously since the league is now receiving $5 billion in television revenue. Granted, that has to be shared with the players, and the players are receiving 55% of the total, but let's not kid ourselves, the teams can pay for the balance of their costs out of the rest and we haven't even begun to discuss ticket revenue, luxury boxes, and sponsorships. In addition, how many teams have stadium costs anyway? Five, six? Most of the league play in stadiums that are built by and owned by states or municipalities that are bearing the risks of the auction rate crisis. The four teams (Giants, Jets, Cowboys, Patriots) mentioned by Bloomberg may be the only ones, other than the Redskins, that actually have built and own their own stadiums.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).