Revenue Sharing

NFL owners meeting in Grapevine, Texas, yesterday approved a resolution for additional revenue sharing, a step toward the opening of negotiations with representatives for NFL players on a new collective bargaining agreement.Franchises already split network television revenues equally. This proposal provides for additional sharing of home gates, local television and radio contracts, and other incomes.Harold Henderson, the owners' negotiator, said he expects to make contact soon with the New York City law firm that represents the players in antitrust litigation against the NFL.Owners are expected to offer a two-tier system of unrestricted free agency, a salary cap (estimated at $28 million to $30 million)

It was 13 months ago that Major League Baseball owners voted to reopen the collective bargaining agreement with the players and pursue a dramatic change in the economic structure of the sport.If all goes well, they might get started today.The 28 owners will convene at the Rosemont Hyatt Regency Hotel outside Chicago today in the hope of constructing a revenue-sharing program that will meet the disparate interests of the small-, medium- and large-market teams. If they succeed, substantive negotiations could begin soon on a new labor agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Peter Angelos has had some wild ideas in the eight years since he and a group of Baltimore investors bought the Orioles at auction in 1993. He was one of the first to advocate a reduction in the number of major-league franchises, back when Major League Baseball was still hellbent on expansion. That idea has gained some traction over the past few months. He was the most vocal proponent of what he used to call Camdenization - the use of revenue-sharing funds to help small-makret and medium-market municipalities finance new stadiums for struggling teams.

CHICAGO -- NFL owners failed to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at their meeting yesterday.They passed an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement by a 25-5 vote, but it did not include new revenue-sharing provisions.The vote was overshadowed by the Baltimore-Cleveland settlement, but it could have far-reaching ramifications because it will put pressure on low-revenue teams to move for better deals."It's every man for himself," said Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown, who voted against the extension because it doesn't include new revenue sharing.

Major-league owners have produced some movement in baseball's sluggish labor negotiations with a compromise proposal on revenue sharing, but it seems unlikely that it will provide the catalyst for a new labor agreement. Management lawyers characterized the concession as "substantial," and union leaders indicated that they would likely respond to the proposal in today's negotiations in New York. There may be little chance for a breakthrough, however, until both sides move closer together on ownership's plan to levy a huge luxury tax on the game's highest payrolls.

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.

CHICAGO -- For a wheeler-dealer like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, $2 million is not usually a large sum of money.Except, that is, when the NFL owners are asking him to pay it into a revenue-sharing fund.The owners spent much of their meeting time yesterday debating a modest revenue-sharing proposal that would create a fund ranging from $6 to $18 million. The richer teams would pay into the fund to help the low-revenue teams.Although the details were still being debated, Jones might have to pay no more than $2 million into the fund.

PHOENIX - Trying new approaches, Bud Selig and Donald Fehr are attempting to negotiate a labor contract without the acrimony that has led to work stoppages in every previous labor negotiation. But while Fehr's visit to a meeting of major-league owners yesterday was unprecedented, it does not suggest a narrowing of differences. At the conclusion of two days of talks between owners, Selig reiterated his belief that "we need a reform of the economic system." Battle lines are being drawn over the owners' attempts to increase the sharing of local revenues significantly while also instituting a luxury tax on the highest payrolls.

NEW YORK -- The Major League Baseball Players Association tried to coax the owners into a revenue-sharing deal that would have saved the rest of the season, but it did not satisfy management's desire to restrict the growth of player payrolls.The "tax plan" that would have collected revenues to subsidize struggling clubs figured to affect total salary outlays only subtly, according to a fact sheet produced by Major League Baseball to support the decision to reject it.The brief analysis points out that the team with the highest payroll would only be penalized $900,000 by the 1.5 percent payroll tax, not enough -- in management's opinion -- to address the payroll disparity between the large- and small-market clubs.