WABronco
01-31-2006, 07:41 PM
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2006/01/29/a_get_rich_kick_scheme_fails/?page=2
It's crunch time in labor negotiations
Meetings have begun between representatives of the Players Association and the Management Council and will continue next week with the hope that the framework for an extension of the collective bargaining agreement will be in place by late February.
Technically, an extension would have to be in place by the start of the new league year on March 3 or problems would arise; agents would be faced with making deals for this year's free agents with only a four-year amortization period for bonuses, and some franchises would be forced to all but gut their teams because of salary cap problems, according to league sources on both sides of the issue.
''A number of teams would go into severe cap trouble if there's no extension," said a league source. ''A team like the Colts would have to blow their team up. And for agents, it will be hard to get a true market deal. Not hard. It would be impossible.
''The good news is, the way the system was designed the last year without an extension is very painful for both sides. Hopefully that will promote rational behavior on both sides. As we get closer to D-Day, people start to think more clearly on both sides."
Management has begun to put together some guaranteed cap numbers beginning at $110 million and swelling to $160 million six years later. Twelve years ago, when the salary cap era began, the first cap was around $36 million.
The owners would have to be suicidal to fight over a few million more per year on the cap because if they had to endure a work stoppage, they would be hurt to a much greater extent. The problem for both sides is that if they get to March 3 without at least the framework of an agreement, they would face what one owner described as ''a mess."
Said the owner, ''Teams would have to cut guys with option bonuses coming due because they couldn't pay them and stay under the old cap. And new contracts would have to be structured differently. People would start to make plans for an uncapped year in 2007. If we later did extend the CBA, those free agent deals signed in the first week or two couldn't be recalibrated and it would create a huge accounting problem. It'll be the wild West again."
That's why people on both sides believe a deal will be close to finalized by March 3. If the labor deal can be extended another half-dozen years, commissioner Paul Tagliabue will have only one world left to conquer.
All that would be left would be settling the issue of when the league will return to Los Angeles.
Then Tagliabue could work on a transfer of power to the next commissioner.
YIKES!
It's crunch time in labor negotiations
Meetings have begun between representatives of the Players Association and the Management Council and will continue next week with the hope that the framework for an extension of the collective bargaining agreement will be in place by late February.
Technically, an extension would have to be in place by the start of the new league year on March 3 or problems would arise; agents would be faced with making deals for this year's free agents with only a four-year amortization period for bonuses, and some franchises would be forced to all but gut their teams because of salary cap problems, according to league sources on both sides of the issue.
''A number of teams would go into severe cap trouble if there's no extension," said a league source. ''A team like the Colts would have to blow their team up. And for agents, it will be hard to get a true market deal. Not hard. It would be impossible.
''The good news is, the way the system was designed the last year without an extension is very painful for both sides. Hopefully that will promote rational behavior on both sides. As we get closer to D-Day, people start to think more clearly on both sides."
Management has begun to put together some guaranteed cap numbers beginning at $110 million and swelling to $160 million six years later. Twelve years ago, when the salary cap era began, the first cap was around $36 million.
The owners would have to be suicidal to fight over a few million more per year on the cap because if they had to endure a work stoppage, they would be hurt to a much greater extent. The problem for both sides is that if they get to March 3 without at least the framework of an agreement, they would face what one owner described as ''a mess."
Said the owner, ''Teams would have to cut guys with option bonuses coming due because they couldn't pay them and stay under the old cap. And new contracts would have to be structured differently. People would start to make plans for an uncapped year in 2007. If we later did extend the CBA, those free agent deals signed in the first week or two couldn't be recalibrated and it would create a huge accounting problem. It'll be the wild West again."
That's why people on both sides believe a deal will be close to finalized by March 3. If the labor deal can be extended another half-dozen years, commissioner Paul Tagliabue will have only one world left to conquer.
All that would be left would be settling the issue of when the league will return to Los Angeles.
Then Tagliabue could work on a transfer of power to the next commissioner.
YIKES!