Revenue Sharing

ATLANTA -- Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell hasn't collected the first dollar from his Baltimore stadium deal, but NFL owners already are contemplating ways to get a share of it.The owners concluded their meeting yesterday by discussing the thorny issue of finding new ways to have the high-revenue teams share more of their profits with the low-revenue clubs.They put off a vote on the matter until their next meeting Feb. 8-9, and the debate is likely to be spirited.It's considered likely that the owners will approve the Browns' move because they don't want to prevent Modell from getting a lucrative deal in Baltimore, but passing a revised revenue-sharing plan will be much more difficult.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos returned from the quarterly owners meeting in Phoenix a little poorer than he left, but he said again yesterday that he is in favor of a long-term revenue-sharing agreement that would enhance the top-to-bottom financial stability of Major League Baseball.Angelos abstained from the vote on the new interim revenue-sharing plan that was approved Thursday, but said it was not because the new plan will cost the Orioles an additional $1.8 million in shared revenue this year.

The Cincinnati Bengals were dealt another financial blow this week, one that will make it more difficult for the team to survive in Cincinnati if it doesn't get a new stadium soon.The Bengals, already coping with a rising player payroll and a $36 million tax battle with the Internal Revenue Service -- and whose owner already has held exploratory talks about a move to Baltimore -- found out they won't be getting any meaningful revenue sharing from the big-market teams.So without a new stadium on the horizon, and the revenue-sharing plan a disappointment, Bengals owner Mike Brown said he's running out of time.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The 28 major-league owners finally took the first step toward the economic restructuring of baseball last night when they ended a lengthy stalemate and agreed unanimously on a plan to redistribute revenue.The long-awaited revenue-sharing plan is designed to help struggling small-market teams remain competitive in the face of spiraling costs and dwindling receipts, but the issue had taken on even greater significance as it divided the owners into big-revenue and small-revenue factions and delayed the start of collective bargaining with the Major League Baseball Players Association.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The 28 major-league owners finally took the first step toward the economic restructuring of baseball last night when they ended a lengthy stalemate and agreed unanimously on a plan to redistribute revenue.There was no progress, however, on the search for a new commissioner. A 2 1/2 -hour session that lasted until 2:30 a.m. ended with no recommendation, although Northwestern University president Arnold Weber and U.S. Olympic Committee executive director Harvey Schiller remain the front-runners.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The long-awaited collective bargaining negotiations between baseball ownership and the Major League Players Association got under way last night, but the three-hour meeting was only a minor first step toward a new labor agreement.Ownership negotiator Richard Ravitch met with union officials and a group of about 70 players to present a general outline of management's tentative revenue sharing arrangement and the salary cap that the owners hope will accompany it.The players left disappointed that there was no specific proposal, but encouraged that Ravitch promised to share all of the financial data that was used to formulate the revenue-sharing agreement hammered out among the owners in January.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The search for a new baseball commissioner inched forward last night, when the search committee presented its recommendation during the opening session of a three-day owners meeting, but it remains unclear whether any candidate will be able to garner enough votes for approval.The committee was set to present its candidate at a meeting of Major League Baseball's Executive Council, which would then decide whether to put the name in front of the full ownership tomorrow.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The 28 major-league owners returned home from a three-day meeting this week with much of their agenda successfully in place, but the long-term impact of their Florida summit remains unclear.What was the agenda, anyway?They approved a revenue-sharing plan that is the first step toward a comprehensive labor agreement and changed their bylaws to consolidate the bargaining power of chief labor negotiator Richard Ravitch. They finalized realignment, but chose not to elect a new commissioner because of the possible effect it could have on the labor situation.

KOHLER, Wis. -- After meeting for nearly 31 hours, presumably to begin to put baseball's financial house in order with revenue sharing and a cap on players' salaries, representatives of the 28 major-league teams left here early today without settling anything.The owners left the posh American Club resort hotel just before midnight without having taken a vote on the packaged concepts of distributing their individual wealth among all of the teams and placing a cap on player salaries, a notion that was sure to bring a player walkout.

KOHLER, Wis. -- Grim-faced men in suits passed through the doors of the Ellison Bay room of the American Club here yesterday with steely determination to come up with a workable revenue-sharing plan in plenty of time to see their baseball teams play this weekend.But as the second day's marathon meetings continued, representatives of the 28 major-league teams were no closer to settling their differences than the day before.However, Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, head of the ruling Executive Council, sounded an optimistic note that the matters dividing the two groups of owners could be settled before midnight CDT."

A new arena is a poor risk for Baltimore if the city is counting on attracting an NHL or NBA franchise, sports business experts say, but some agree with city leaders that a proposed 18,500-seat venue could be profitable without such an anchor tenant. Neither the NBA nor the NHL offers many relocation or expansion prospects, analysts said, and the presence of basketball and hockey teams in Washington make the odds even longer for Baltimore. "The market, which, whether we like it or not, is actually the Baltimore-Washington market, is pretty saturated as it is with sports," said John Moag, former chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority and head of a Baltimore-based investment firm that specializes in sports.

The NFL's haughty dispute between big-market and small-market teams over revenue sharing is back. Spurred by rising costs in a sluggish economy, league owners decided yesterday to terminate their collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association in 2011. By unanimous vote, the 32 owners effectively shortened the current CBA by two years, opening the door to a year without a salary cap (2010) and a potential lockout in 2011. Rest assured, America, there will be uninterrupted football at least until then.

WASHINGTON -- Michael Chertoff, the lean, intense former federal judge who has been running the Department of Homeland Security for three years, worries about more than dangerous people and deadly weapons passing our borders. He also frets about the nation - and the next president - letting their guard down. "The biggest obstacle my successor will face is, `Does the public and does Congress have the will to stick to it?'" said Chertoff, head of the federal government's newest bureaucracy, and one of its most unwieldy.

The NFL's founding fathers would have been proud. After two days of crucial meetings near a Dallas airport, NFL owners voted 30-2 to approve a six-year extension of the league's collective bargaining agreement with its players that avoided what could have been years of uncertainty and crisis. Though few details were available, the deal did broaden the scope of revenue sharing among clubs to include more locally generated income. Only the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals, two so-called low-revenue teams, voted against the deal.

The NFL's founding fathers would have been proud. After two days of crucial meetings near a Dallas airport, NFL owners voted 30-2 to approve a six-year extension of the league's collective bargaining agreement with its players that avoided what could have been years of uncertainty and crisis. Though few details were available, the deal did broaden the scope of revenue sharing among clubs to include more locally generated income. Only the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals, two so-called low-revenue teams, voted against the deal.

NEW YORK - Baseball's troubled labor history has turned optimism into an endangered outlook, but there were indications last night that the players and owners were closing in on a new labor agreement. Commissioner Bud Selig arrived in Manhattan yesterday afternoon to join the negotiations and the two bargaining teams moved back and forth between the offices of Major League Baseball and the players union to exchange ideas and work on contract language. There still appeared to be a gap between each side's proposals on increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax plan, but management officials seemed more confident that the remaining differences would be worked out before the union strike date threatens tomorrow's games.

Management and union negotiators suspended their public bickering yesterday and met twice in an attempt to move closer to a new labor agreement, but time is running short. The strike deadline imposed by the Major League Baseball Players Association is little more than two days away, and there still has been no breakthrough on any of the three most difficult issues facing the bargaining teams. Negotiators on the management side had hoped to have a third meeting late last night but left their offices at 10:45 p.m. after the union decided to reconvene today, Major League Baseball's Web site said.

Management and union negotiators suspended their public bickering yesterday and met three times in an attempt to move closer to a new labor agreement, but time is running short. The strike deadline imposed by the Major League Baseball Players Association is little more than two days away, and there still has been no breakthrough on any of the three most difficult issues facing the bargaining teams. Ownership negotiators still were waiting late yesterday for a counter-proposal from the union on the enhanced revenue sharing plan and heavy luxury tax system demanded by management.

Major-league owners delivered a new proposal to the players union yesterday that slightly decreased the annual amount they hope to redistribute through revenue sharing and increased their thresholds for a stiff luxury tax on the baseball's highest payrolls. The new proposal would drop management's proposed annual revenue transfer from $268 million to $263 million and raise the threshold for the luxury tax from $102 million to $107 million for the first three years of the four-year labor agreement and to $111 million for the final year.

Baseball's troublesome labor dispute took a nasty turn yesterday when ownership negotiators reacted angrily to a new proposal from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Union negotiators proffered a phased-in revenue-sharing plan and decreased their luxury tax thresholds by $5 million each, but management lawyer Rob Manfred blasted the proposal as "regressive" and questioned the union's desire to make a deal with just five days remaining before the players' Aug. 30 strike deadline.