European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 6, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 34 the stars and stripes sports thursday october 6, 1994 is name by Jon Morgan the Baltimore Sun during the next few months its conceivable that fans in this sports crazed nation will be reduced to watching athletes slapping contract proposals rather than pucks slam dunking salary Caps instead of basketballs anti swinging lawsuits instead of Louisville sluggers. Three of the nations major league sports Are in the midst of some of the most contentious contract negotiations in their histories. Players in the fourth foot commentary Ball Are publicly grousing about their collective bargaining agreement which was reached last year after six years of bitter strife. A. Even the jockeys Guild contract expires at the end of this Orcar raising the Prospect of picket lines at racetracks. What has become of sports in America in a word Money. Leagues once the province of weekend. Athletes and vaudevillian team owners have Long outgrown their pastoral adolescence. A professional cadre of managers and sophisticated players unions Are now fighting Over the Bounty of franchises Worth up to $200 million each. A years ago you used to watch the scoreboard not the Bottom line. But there Wasny to much of a Bottom line to watch a said Art Modell who bought a controlling interest in the a Fly a Cleveland Browns in 1961 v not anymore. Had the baseball season ended with an out instead of a strike the 28 teams would have brought in about $600 million from tickets $800 million from to and radio and $85 million from merchandise sales. When combined with All other baseball revenues it brings the total to nearly $2 billion. Combined the four big leagues earn nearly 46 billion a year from television. Sales of hats shirts and other team re Latch merchandise now tops $10 billion a year and corporate sponsorships Are running at about $2.4 billion according to the sports business daily. Players have enjoyed the riches. A top baseball player now can earn $7 million a year for the same Job that 30 years ago paid $40,000. The major. League baseball players association has grown into one of the a Lions richest labor organizations with $80 million a year in revenues and an executive director who earns $1 million a year. A a a. A a. A. A this is our livelihood. Now there s so much Money at stake you really have to hold your ground for fear the other Side will take advantage of you a said Baltimore orioles Pitcher and Union representative Jim Poole who was slated to earn a salary of $270,000 this year. A Money always creates tension a said Edward a Mccasky chairman of the Chicago bears. A this years bruising labor fights could determine the balance of Power Between players and owners for decades to come said William b. Briggs an adjunct professor of Law and associate professor of in Dii trial and labor relations at Cornell University who has consulted for the nil players association. A i Don t think its coincidence All this is happening at the same time a he said. If the owners of hockey and baseball can convince their players to accept a salary Cap tied to team profits As those in basketball and football have franchises values will explode he said. But there a More than greed at work Briggs said. As in the Auto and steel industries before it the sports business has matured to the Point where there is Plen a. A a. Bayers ers baseball owners want new York a baseball a owners want a 45-Day delay in the Start of the signing season which would push Back the Staft of free agent filing until nov. 30. With the sides still operating under the labor agreement that expired dec. 31, free agent filing is set to Start oct. 15. Management a proposal would put a freeze on player signings until after the 45 Days. A a the idea is to Stop the train before it leaves the station a management lawyer Chuck of Connor said tuesday the _ Day expanded playoffs were to begin. A we done to want to create two different classes of players who signed. Under two different economic systems. I think its a constructive step because it allows people to concentrate on the a a principal Issue a resolving the Dis a  a a. Eugene Orza the unions no. 2 official said staffs of both sides will meet to talk about the idea a it is obvious there Are a lot of aspects to this proposal that they have not explored Orza said. To of Moi icy to go around and the workers and managers have gotten better at fighting for it he Saul a the people run Ping teams arc no longer former players and nephews of the owners and they do have to run them As businesses a Briggs said. And the new Breed of owners who recruit their accountants before their starting pitchers see worrisome trends. ,. A a i think there is a realization that the profligate wholesale growth that has characterized sports Over the past 20 years is a thing of the past a Briggs said. One result Cost containment the buzzword of corporate America during the last recession has crept into the clubhouse. But team owners Are finding it hard to squeeze players in an Industry generating record profits he said. A in some ways its easier to Deal with a Flat line Industry or an Industry in decline. Where you have the uncertainty of a growth Industry you have More additional pressures a Briggs said. The National basketball association persuaded its players to accept a Cap on team salaries in 1983, when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Now the league is one of the great Success stories of the last decade and the players Are looking to shake off the Cap while the owners want to tighten it the Start of the season could be in  ensuing fight and those in other leagues also is complicated by a slew of Legal and economic peculiarities not faced by other industries. A. Antitrust for example. The leagues see themselves As an association of teams hot subject to antitrust Laws that limit cooperation Between competing companies. The players see the teams As competitors who should t be allowed to collude on any rates. On the players Side unions have bought to establish minimum working conditions but let members and teams is Tab sly each players pay. Team owners Nave pushed for a More traditional labor management arrangement where salaries Are controlled through collective bargain ing. _ b a a lot of institutions in life the pendulum in sports seems to swing mightily in one direction and the other a said Jerry Sachs a top aide to Abe Pollin owner of the nil capitals and the Aba bullets. A for Many years the players had it Ough and were not treated fairly. I believe now the direction has shifted to such a degree that the a avers have a sed Quot 3 correction is needed Sachs said. It w As not always so former Baltimore Coll Ordell Braase was president of the nil players Asso pans Dation in 1965 when the ution still in recognized by the owners As a bargaining agent first get the league to sit Down arid talk.  the initial  held in a Florida hotel and participants were arrayed around a a shaped table with each team owner sitting next to the Union rep from his team. There were no lawyers or professional negotiators just commissioner Pete Rozelle chairing the meeting sub hed no lawyers no negotiators a How much Are you going to Pound on the table with the Guy that signs your paycheck sitting next to you a Braase said. The meeting started with bears owner George Halas standing up and saying a the game is bigger than All of us a and urging cooperation. It ended about five hours later without official recognition of the Union but with an agreement to let a player sit on the pension Board and to meet again. Braase said it was an important first step that eventually led to recognition. Contrast that with the tortuous Nego tuition that last year gave birth to a seven year nil contract. The process began with a strike in 1987, which collapsed when team owners lured players across the picket lines by hiring replacements. The Union countered by de certifying itself a complicated Legal gambit the players hoped would expose the league to antitrust Laws. Settlement came Only after a Federal judge promised to make both sides unhappy. With his Gavel poised menacingly players team owners and a Host of accountants actuaries and lawyers hammered out a final Deal in a series of meetings that spanned several months. A this Industry has changed remarkably a said the Browns Model an Early architect of nil labor policy. A a it a incomprehensible to me. The games have gotten so big and the salaries and franchise values have gotten so big. There Are philosophical differences that were riot i existence years ago a the Bottom line is that people arc sick and tired of labor disputes a Modell said. A the fans come Home from the factories and their own labor disputes and they want to Urbatch sports. We have a tremendous hold on the Public but we better be