The NFLPA and the NFL continue to be under the impression that the fans care about their efforts to spin the financial aspects of their labor dispute.
As a result, we were tempted to ignore the latest exercise in semantics regarding the current labor deal. But, hey, it’s kind of slow today.
In an effort to reverse the perception that the players get 60 cents of every dollar generated by the game, the union has sent a letter “to sports editors nationwide” explaining that the players get less than 60 cents on the dollar, because “owners take expenses credits off the top.”
The union then lists the actual percentages received by the players since 2000. The amount is much closer to 50 cents on the dollar.
Before bothering to gauge whether anyone happened to hear a tree falling in a forest of ambivalence, the NFL responded with the creative notion that the players still get 60 percent of all revenues because the money that is “committed to revenue-generating costs and investments such as stadiums” doesn’t count as revenue at all. In a move that does nothing to reflect the spirit of the season, the league also called the union’s characterization “voodoo economics.”
Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong, depending on how the term “revenue” is defined. Frankly, we think that the union is more right than wrong, because the money that is “committed to revenue-generating costs and investments such as stadiums” comes from (wait for it) revenue generated by the game.
Moreover, the money that is “committed to revenue-generating costs and investments such as stadiums” ordinarily would come out of the pockets of the people who own the teams.
So score one for the union. If you care.
And you don’t.