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No Breakthroughs in NFL Labor Talks
Representatives of the league and the NFL Players Association met
Monday to try to jump-start the sport's stalled labor talks, but
participants said there were no breakthroughs during the lengthy
bargaining session.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and union chief Gene Upshaw participated in
the meeting in New York, but the sides continued to have significant
differences on the key financial issues in the negotiations. With league
revenues burgeoning, Upshaw is seeking to expand the pool of revenues
from which the players are paid under the NFL's salary-cap system. But
the parties have been far apart on the issue of what percentage of the
expanded revenue pool should be devoted to player compensation.
Tagliabue, meantime, has not been able to get the league's team owners
to agree to a system for increasing the amount of locally generated
revenues that the clubs would share with one another. Such a
revenue-sharing agreement probably would have to come in conjunction
with a labor deal with the union in order for the labor deal to generate
enough votes among the less-prosperous teams to be approved.
The league's collective bargaining agreement keeps the current
salary-cap system in place through the 2006 season, then there would be
a season without a salary cap in 2007 before the labor deal expires.
Both sides have been preparing for a season without a salary cap. But
Tagliabue and Upshaw would like to avoid that if they can, and their
close relationship has been a major factor in the long-standing labor
peace that has helped to make the NFL the nation's most popular and
prosperous pro sports league.
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