The first rumors arrived yesterday morning, the official confirmation came yesterday afternoon: the players have approved the new collective bargaining agreement the owners had already voted on Thursday. After more than four months of lock out at last the ten-year agreement arrived and the NFL season has been saved.
Both sides made demands and eventually both owners and players got something. The big issue concerned the division of the NFL revenues – about $9 billion in the last season – and the agreement was reached by changing the way they’ll be used. Now the owners were granted 53% of revenues – with the old agreement it was approximately 50% – but as a compensation the salary cap was raised to $120 million and next season they’ll have to spend 99% of it.
The players have also obtained an increase in the minimum salary of $50,000 each year and the the benefits to be added to the salary cap will reach $22 million, on the other hand the rookie contracts will be lower. Among the good news for the players there’s also a reduction in off-season workouts.
The owners wanted to increase the regular season games from 16 to 18: they’ll discuss this point again in 2013 but a specific agreement with the players will be needed.
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During the week training camps are starting but also the free-agent market. The start of the preseason is scheduled for August 15, the regular season will open on September 8. Most of the first week games will be played on Sunday, September 11, with the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the attack to U.S.A..
The lock out ended in time for a full season. Owners and players knew that they had a lot to lose if they hadn’t found an agreement. It was to be expected that the discussions would go on until the last moment and so it happened. Eventually both sides got what they wanted the most so everybody’s a winner, including fans and people who work thanks to the NFL games.
Now only the NBA lock out is on. Is it possible that what happened in football influences the fate of basketball? Surely NBA owners and players have watched with interest what happened in the NFL but the situation is quite different as many NBA teams claim they’re losing money. There’s still time to reach an agreement for them too but the fact that several players are already in contact with European teams or have even already signed a contract with a European team isn’t a good sign for a quick solution.
