NFL Players Approve Labor Contract Offer From Team Owners
NFL Players Approve Labor Contract Offer From Team Owners
(Bloomberg) -- National Football League players approved a proposed labor contract that adds a 17th game to the regular season and increases the number of teams in the playoffs, the player’s union said on Sunday.
The vote was 1,019 to 959. A simple majority was needed to approve the collective bargaining agreement, which drew criticism from a number of the league’s high-profile players, many of whom opposed it on health and safety concerns. The agreement supersedes the final year of the current contract, the 2020 season, and then goes for another 10 years.
“We are pleased that the players have voted to ratify the proposed new CBA, which will provide substantial benefits to all current and retired players,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
Ultimately, the players agreed to more games in exchange for a number of financial concessions, including an increased share of league revenue. The NFL is the most visible and valuable U.S. sports league; its games dominate a TV landscape of falling ratings as consumers cut the cord and move to streaming services. The switch to 17 games would occur in the 2021 season.
The agreement is a boon for the NFL, which can use the guarantee of a long-term labor pact as it embarks on negotiating billions in new media contracts. The existing contract expires after next season, and any uncertainty over a possible work stoppage would’ve hampered owners in their talks with bidders for their programming.
Robust Market
With labor peace assured, however, the league can seek to take advantage of a robust market for live sports programming.
The longest work stoppage in NFL history preceded the current agreement.
The NFL has begun preliminary talks with networks seeking to secure one of the last guaranteed ratings draws on television. The league’s existing television partners -- Disney, Fox, ViacomCBS Inc.’s CBS, Comcast Corp.’s NBC and AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV -- combined to pay the NFL more than $6.5 billion in annual rights payments. Lee Berke, a sports media consultant, has said the NFL may double its media haul.
The existing deals expire in the next couple of years, setting the stage for bidding wars that may include technology companies like Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, DAZN and Amazon.com Inc., which currently pays $65 million a year for the streaming rights to Thursday-night games.
The 17th game was a major focus of negotiations, with players like Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his Seattle Seahawks counterpart Russell Wilson arguing publicly that more games would compromise their health and safety.
To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny
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