NFL Football will once again grace our TV screens in 2011. Monday brought a 10 year deal between players and owners that brought an end to a 4 1/2 month lockout.
It is a good thing both sides saw the light. If the lockout had continued, it would have simply weakened the dominant position the NFL holds in the hearts and minds of sports fans. Losing fan support in certain NFL markets would have signaled a death knell for franchises staying viable in those places.
Ask Major League Baseball how well it works to wipe out part of a season over labor disputes. Long before steroids became an issue in that sport, a lockout that wiped out the rest of the 1994 season also drove away a large portion of baseball fans.
It also caused the demise of the Montreal Expos. In 1994, the Expos were 74-40 and in first place in the National League when the rest of the season was cancelled. Montreal would have likely reached its first ever World Series. Instead, the Expos traded many of their top players and were never the same. Slumping attendance and revenue loss led to the team relocating to Washington D.C. where they became the Washington Nationals.
An NFL lockout could have very well sent teams such as the Buffalo Bills or the Jacksonville Jaguars looking for new homes elsewhere. In both cases, the franchises are already struggling with dwindling attendance and interest in their cities and both are rumored candidates to move to major metro areas like Los Angeles or Toronto that do not currently have an NFL franchise.
The new deal offers concessions on both sides. Owners earned a bigger revenue share and will get 53 percent compared to 47 percent for the players. They will also get to limit spending on rookie contracts. On the other hand, players will have safer offseason and in-season practice rules and most will be eligible for unrestricted free agency after four seasons.
Each team will operate under a hard $120 million cap for salary and bonuses in 2011 and will offer another $22 million in benefits. The numbers should reach at least that level in 2012 and 2013.
While NBA fans sit back and helplessly watch pro basketball sit on the shelf for a year while NBA players flee to play overseas rather than work things out with the owners, NFL fans can feel happy in knowing their sport of choice will go on as regularly scheduled.
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