(Photo: pink money by: Lezgetreal.com)
So imagine, your sitting in your room doing your homework like the good little college student we know you are and your mom calls you and right as you answer she starts yelling. She says she is looking at the credit card bill, or BILLS (psssh…who is really paying attention). She tells you she is so disappointed in you and of course you give her all the excuses in the book.
“I did good on my last test and I wanted to reward myself!”
“You know I shop when I’m homesick!”
“All of that was so I could look cute when I go visit you mom!”
This time she doesn’t buy it and she is not budging. She wants you to learn your lesson. She cuts you off, and it's no more spending for you. Now what the heck are you going to wear downtown tomorrow (probably peering into a closet full of clothes)?
Well try this scenario times a thousand or a billion. The recent N.F.L. lockout has had some negative consequences on the players in the league. Top management (or in our case Mom) has cut them off until an agreement can be made between the owners and the players. The players have to do a series of cut backs on there spending as well.
(Photo: NFLlockout logo by: predominatlyorgange.com)
A little background info to what is going on. The collective bargaining agreement, which is the process used to negotiate work terms between labor (the league) and management (the owners), has expired and neither the players nor management have settled on an agreement. Two groups had to divide $9 billion in revenue fairly. This hasn’t been a problem the past few years, but with the agreement expiring, the owners decided that they were losing money and wanted a larger share of the profits. To gain more money the owners discussed adding games to the season to increase revenue in ticket sales and television dollars.
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The players were not too happy about this agreement. They would be playing more games for less money, and series of rules changes seemed to be forcing fines (and threats of retirement) on them.
The deal offered by the league before talks broke down and moved into this early litigation phase was as follows:
· Maintaining the 16 regular-season games and four preseason games for at least two years, with any switch to 18 games down the road being negotiable.
· Financial disclosure of audited league and club profitability information that isn’t even shared with the teams. That was proposed by the NFL this week, and rejected by the union, which began insisting in May 2009 for a complete look at the books of all 32 clubs.
· Instituting a rookie wage scale through which money saved would be paid to veterans and retired players.
· Creating new year-round health and safety rules.
· Establishing a fund for retired players, with $82 million contributed by the owners over the next two years.
So back to our scenario, just like the argument between you and your mom the lockout is a result of too much money being spent, and no compromise. What she says goes, and now what do you do?
YOU | N.F.L Player |
*Get a job | * Hope the wife could support the family for the time being |
*Budget your money. No more careless spending on shoes or Starbucks coffee | *Budget their money. Cut themselves off from donating money, and buying expensive cars. |
*Shop at vintage or thrift stores | * Shop retail rather than high-end boutiques |
As of right now the N.F.L is still disputing with the league in court and is waiting on some sort of negotiation with the league as to what will happen this coming football season, and what both sides will settle on in terms of money and games.
After all this we would hope our mom and in the players case management sees improvement, and there is a settlement between the two. It could take time and there would be guidelines, regulations and of course salary cuts; but never the less we would have our new clothes and Monday Night Football.
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