More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

[steelblood]

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Thursday's talks have been cancelled. Glad to know that both sides are working hard to compromise.

[Mister Pittsburgh]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

Lame. I think not having a season is inevitable.

[Oviedo]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

There will be a season but I doubt there is much of an off season. There will be a draft, but free agency will be complete chaos.

2011 will end up be a transitional year with increased restrictions of free agents because free agency will rpobably coincide with training camp/preseason and probably 16 games laying the groundwork for 18 games in 2012.

I don't expect an agreement until June at the earliest because that is when the players will start to feel the financial pressure.

[aggiebones]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

Don't worry, there WILL be a season.

Players have NOT been conserving. They are terrified. They'll put on a good face short term, then they'll shut it down. About 20-30% probably have been conserving for this, the rest are desperate. The owners qually have zero interest in losing A NICKEL of the money coming to them.

Trust me, this is a ploy to get media attention and put pressure on the owners. It will get irritating listening to the media. So I suggest after this looong and ultimately painful season, just watch college basketball or hockey or whatever else you can possibly stomach and turn the channel when football discussions come on.

[siss]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I hope you are all right. Because if there isn't football, they will lose a lot of fans.

[Starlifter]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I have quite a bit of experience with CBA's, unions and negotiations. There is no pressure yet to get a deal done - so it won't be. I suspect there will be a lockout but I think it will be a short one. The players in my opinion have the leverage however I don't believe they are unified to do what it takes to get the best deal. A lockout has been a strong reality since the owners opted out of the CBA - yet very few players have planned for it.

i think there will be a very short pre-season but that we will have football next year.

[Oviedo]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I have quite a bit of experience with CBA's, unions and negotiations. There is no pressure yet to get a deal done - so it won't be. I suspect there will be a lockout but I think it will be a short one. The players in my opinion have the leverage however I don't believe they are unified to do what it takes to get the best deal. A lockout has been a strong reality since the owners opted out of the CBA - yet very few players have planned for it.

i think there will be a very short pre-season but that we will have football next year.

I don't think the players have a leverage advantage. They can only work one place and that is in the NFL. Many know that their careers are short and while we know all the stars making obscene amounts of money the relaity is that probably two-thirds of the league needs those pay checks and they aren't going to hold firm once summer comes.

Billionaires did not become billionaires by losing labor disputes and not being able to turn things in their favor. My biggest concern is Demaurice Smith. The guy to me is a bigger douche bag than Goodell. Every time he talks all I get the sense of is he is trying to build his rep and will take everything down to do it.

[costanza2k1]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I hope you are all right. Because if there isn't football, they will lose a lot of fans.

Good I hope so, get some of the bandwagon fans out of our stadiums and let the real fans back in with affordable prices.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I think that of all the pro sports, NFL players are systemically least able to unite the way others can. A few reasons.......

1) The NFL player has the shortest career expectancy of any other. The window of earning power is potentially very small.

2) Too many union members to not earn enough money to be set for life. Just going by the Steelers cap, I counted 24 players with a base salary above $1M in 2010. That number included player who were released, practice squad players, IR players, everyone prior to the 2010 season. This is less than half the roster who probably feels that they are not "set for life" and would be losing out in their goal to get there. Too many "have nots" to counter the "haves".

3) History - The league has busted the union once. Players understand that and will be afraid of it happening again.

[Starlifter]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I have quite a bit of experience with CBA's, unions and negotiations. There is no pressure yet to get a deal done - so it won't be. I suspect there will be a lockout but I think it will be a short one. The players in my opinion have the leverage however I don't believe they are unified to do what it takes to get the best deal. A lockout has been a strong reality since the owners opted out of the CBA - yet very few players have planned for it.

i think there will be a very short pre-season but that we will have football next year.

I don't think the players have a leverage advantage. They can only work one place and that is in the NFL. Many know that their careers are short and while we know all the stars making obscene amounts of money the relaity is that probably two-thirds of the league needs those pay checks and they aren't going to hold firm once summer comes.

Billionaires did not become billionaires by losing labor disputes and not being able to turn things in their favor. My biggest concern is Demaurice Smith. The guy to me is a bigger douche bag than Goodell. Every time he talks all I get the sense of is he is trying to build his rep and will take everything down to do it.

I disagree about the leverage. without the players there IS no NFL. when we had the replacement players in the mid 80's the quality of football was very poor, fans were not happy and it was pretty much a disaster. That however (if memory serves) was also an example of players caving in and heading back to work. I don't think for one second it would happen but if the players held firm and there was no football this year - I think they'd get most of what they want. NFL players are a very rare species and impossible to replace - particularly with 32 teams. Additionally, there are no college players that would cross a line because they all want to be welcomed into the union at some point. If they stood firm - the players do indeed have the leverage. In this game however you need the courage to not blink. Cromartie has 10 kids by 9 wives or so. yep, he needs a paycheck. tragically it's for reasons like that the players will probably fail.

and yes, I'm on the players side. I watch my ticket prices go up every year and to be honest, between the games, the parking, the 9 dollar beer etc - the only thing of value I get is the quality of the performance of the guys on the field. The owners are demanding 60% of the revenue. I wish the NFLPA was strong enough to stand up to them, but I don't think they are.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I hope you are all right. Because if there isn't football, they will lose a lot of fans.

Good I hope so, get some of the bandwagon fans out of our stadiums and let the real fans back in with affordable prices.

Not much is certain, but I think we can be reasonably sure that prices won't be going down any time soon.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I have quite a bit of experience with CBA's, unions and negotiations. There is no pressure yet to get a deal done - so it won't be. I suspect there will be a lockout but I think it will be a short one. The players in my opinion have the leverage however I don't believe they are unified to do what it takes to get the best deal. A lockout has been a strong reality since the owners opted out of the CBA - yet very few players have planned for it.

i think there will be a very short pre-season but that we will have football next year.

I don't think the players have a leverage advantage. They can only work one place and that is in the NFL. Many know that their careers are short and while we know all the stars making obscene amounts of money the relaity is that probably two-thirds of the league needs those pay checks and they aren't going to hold firm once summer comes.

Billionaires did not become billionaires by losing labor disputes and not being able to turn things in their favor. My biggest concern is Demaurice Smith. The guy to me is a bigger douche bag than Goodell. Every time he talks all I get the sense of is he is trying to build his rep and will take everything down to do it.

I disagree about the leverage. without the players there IS no NFL. when we had the replacement players in the mid 80's the quality of football was very poor, fans were not happy and it was pretty much a disaster. That however (if memory serves) was also an example of players caving in and heading back to work. I don't think for one second it would happen but if the players held firm and there was no football this year - I think they'd get most of what they want. NFL players are a very rare species and impossible to replace - particularly with 32 teams. Additionally, there are no college players that would cross a line because they all want to be welcomed into the union at some point. If they stood firm - the players do indeed have the leverage. In this game however you need the courage to not blink. Cromartie has 10 kids by 9 wives or so. yep, he needs a paycheck. tragically it's for reasons like that the players will probably fail.

and yes, I'm on the players side. I watch my ticket prices go up every year and to be honest, between the games, the parking, the 9 dollar beer etc - the only thing of value I get is the quality of the performance of the guys on the field. The owners are demanding 60% of the revenue. I wish the NFLPA was strong enough to stand up to them, but I don't think they are.

All the talk about replacement players and players crossing picket lines are only considerations during player strikes. This is not a player strike. The players are being locked out. The owners cannot consider bringing in replacement players when they are the one locking the players out. There are no picket lines to cross here.

[Oviedo]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

I have quite a bit of experience with CBA's, unions and negotiations. There is no pressure yet to get a deal done - so it won't be. I suspect there will be a lockout but I think it will be a short one. The players in my opinion have the leverage however I don't believe they are unified to do what it takes to get the best deal. A lockout has been a strong reality since the owners opted out of the CBA - yet very few players have planned for it.

i think there will be a very short pre-season but that we will have football next year.

I don't think the players have a leverage advantage. They can only work one place and that is in the NFL. Many know that their careers are short and while we know all the stars making obscene amounts of money the relaity is that probably two-thirds of the league needs those pay checks and they aren't going to hold firm once summer comes.

Billionaires did not become billionaires by losing labor disputes and not being able to turn things in their favor. My biggest concern is Demaurice Smith. The guy to me is a bigger douche bag than Goodell. Every time he talks all I get the sense of is he is trying to build his rep and will take everything down to do it.

I disagree about the leverage. without the players there IS no NFL. when we had the replacement players in the mid 80's the quality of football was very poor, fans were not happy and it was pretty much a disaster. That however (if memory serves) was also an example of players caving in and heading back to work. I don't think for one second it would happen but if the players held firm and there was no football this year - I think they'd get most of what they want. NFL players are a very rare species and impossible to replace - particularly with 32 teams. Additionally, there are no college players that would cross a line because they all want to be welcomed into the union at some point. If they stood firm - the players do indeed have the leverage. In this game however you need the courage to not blink. Cromartie has 10 kids by 9 wives or so. yep, he needs a paycheck. tragically it's for reasons like that the players will probably fail.

and yes, I'm on the players side. I watch my ticket prices go up every year and to be honest, between the games, the parking, the 9 dollar beer etc - the only thing of value I get is the quality of the performance of the guys on the field. The owners are demanding 60% of the revenue. I wish the NFLPA was strong enough to stand up to them, but I don't think they are.

You could just as easily say that without the owners there is NO NFL. Do you think the players union is going to try to set up a league? Take the monetary risk for stadioums and overhead costs for running teams. Never. The players think that the NFL is like a public works program that is obligated to give them an opportunity to earn money.

It is a business and the people who own the business are the ones who took risks by investing hundreds of millions of dollars to buy teams, build stadiums, etc. If a team starts to lose money because sponsors go away because of the economy will the players take a pay cut "to help their teams and owners?" Hell no.

Obviously I lean towards the owners side on this because without them taking the risks to set up and run the NFL you would have a who bunch of ex-college football players who never got their degress working at Wal Mart of in the military in Afghanistan instead of being millionaires.

[Mister Pittsburgh]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

Goodell and Smith should just shoot dice for the CBA.

[Crash]

Re: More Good News -CBA talks cancelled

This season will not start on time. This isn't good.

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