The current Collective Bargaining Agreement, initially negotiated in 1993, has been extended on several occasions, most recently in March 2006. The 2006 extension, which could have continued through the 2012 season, gave both the NFL and the NFLPA an option to shorten the deal by one or two years. NFL clubs recently voted unanimously to exercise that option and to continue negotiating a new agreement for the 2011 season and beyond that will work better for both the clubs and the players.
The NFL earns very substantial revenues. But the clubs are obligated by the CBA to spend substantially more than half their revenues (almost $4.5 billion this year alone) on player costs. In addition, as we have explained to the union, the clubs must spend significant and growing amounts on stadium construction, operations and improvements to respond to the interests and demands of our fans. The current labor agreement does not adequately recognize the costs of generating the revenues, of which the players receive the largest share, nor does the agreement recognize that those costs have increased substantially, at an ever increasing rate in recent years during a difficult economic climate in our country. As a result, under the terms of the current agreement, the clubs’ incentive to invest in the game is threatened. Also, on February 21, 2008, the NFLPA filed the first collusion case ever against the NFL owners for their recent agreement to reduce by 20% the debt limitations that apply to individual NFL Clubs. NFLPA alleged that NFL owners violated the anti-collusion and anti-circumvention provisions of the CBA and the White Settlement Agreement, which were agreed to in 1993. The debt limits starts the beginning of the un-capped salary cap.
Even without another agreement, NFL football will be played without threat of interruption for at least
