Dave Pear's Blog

Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS
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Covenant between fans and sports is a facade
Thursday, 12 May 2011
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
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NFL Smoke & Mirrors

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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS
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Why are NFL owners really locking out the players?

Tuesday, 26 April 2011
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
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The National Football League has been pretending that all is well in the land of the 32 franchises and the league’s more than 1,600 employees. Teams are conducting cheerleader tryouts. The league released the 2011 pre-season schedule, then came the regular season schedule announcement and the exciting month of NFL football reaches a climax with three days worth of what is essentially a major restraint of trade, the college draft. That exercise, which starts on Thursday, is made legal thanks to the 2006 National Football League-National Football League Players Association collective bargaining agreement which gives the NFL the right to offer college players a chance to join the players ranks through that mechanism even though the college players have no say in the 2006 agreement.
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So all is wonderful in the land of the NFL except for one minor detail: NFL owners have locked out the employees who perform on the field — the players and no new negotiations on the collective bargaining agreement are scheduled until May 16 after a flurry of court decisions will be made on the legality of the lockout and whether the owners can use TV monies from 2011 rights from FOX, NBC, CBS, Disney’s ESPN and DirecTV for football operations even if there is no product.
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The lockout was lifted by a Minnesota judge on Monday afternoon; the NFL will appeal the ruling which means both sides are back to the bargaining table with no rules for business for 2011. It could be that 2010 rules apply which is not necessarily good for either side. Players will have to wait six years, not four for free agency and the owners have no salary cap to control players costs.
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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

By Evan Weiner

March 7, 2011

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As the representatives from the National Football League ownership group and the National Football League Players Association continue to try and bridge their differences and sign a new collective bargaining agreement (and yes Green Bay Packers players have collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin despite the best efforts of the state’s governor to bust public employee unions as Governor Scott Walker told the fake David Koch), it might be useful to review 60 years of television money and players association activity and how closely linked television and the players really are.

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NFL owners were planning to use some $4 billion in 2011 television rights fees to underwrite a lockout. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (FOX), General Electric (now Comcast)’s NBC, Sumner Redstone’s CBS, the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN and DirecTV cozied up to the NFL owners because the owners’ product is still a consistently watched fare in an increasingly fragmented audience industry: TV.

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Up here in Seattle, we still remember when the King Dome was imploded (March 26, 2000) to make way for the new SafeCo Stadium that is now home to the Seattle Mariners baseball team. Earlier this morning, the old Texas Stadium was finally imploded now that Jerry Jones’ new Coliseum has finally been finished. So here’s a news clip of the Texas Stadium implosion. And with all the serious stuff about Dr. Amen’s brain scan study and concussions, we’re also including a little bit of humor from Mark Gungor on the difference between men‘s and women’s brains. Have a great Sunday!

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While The NFLPA is continuing to implement cuts to overhead and expenses, as well as advising its active players to start saving as much money as they can, the NFL is apparently cutting any and all outlays that don’t put money in their pocket.

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