Exploring What The New NFL CBA Means For Players

What Does The New NFL CBA Mean For Players Going Forward?

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Kaitlin O'Toole: The coronavirus has brought the sports world to its knees. But the NFL seems to be doing business as usual. One big question remains, though, will there be a 2020 NFL season? Joining me now to discuss this is SI's analyst and columnist on the business of sports, Andrew Brandt. Andrew, the NFL has been very fortunate compared to other leagues. However, they are not immune to potential revenue losses. What are the financial implications that need to be considered at this time?

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Andrew Brandt: Kaitlin, as you said, they forged ahead with free agency, with the draft, with the schedule release. Everything's business as usual, albeit with virtual and off-season where they're working out virtually. Now the tough questions lie ahead. Are we going to have a season? Are we gonna have a season with fans? I think the latter appears more likely. Are we going to have fans? So there's the revenue diminution right there. Not just ticket sales, but all the activations around game day for fans, sponsors, concessions, parking, merchandise sales. It's hard to know exactly how much that's going to affect revenues, but it is going to be a loss. And depending on how it goes on, if it's all season, we could see revenues down for the NFL, maybe twenty to twenty-five percent.

Kaitlin O'Toole: It's crazy to even imagine that. Something you said to Andrew that you never thought you'd see a potentially reduced salary cap. I mean, considering the climate of the world, is this something the NFL is considering?

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Andrew Brandt: Yeah, I mean, listen, I've been around the business of sports a long time as an agent running the Packers cap for 10 years and then an analyst. Since then, I've never envisioned even the thought of a salary cap for players going down, not up, down from one year to the next. Never in my wildest dreams, but it's going on with the NBA discussions right now. It's going on in baseball, even though they don't have a cap. They're talking about lowering expenses. lowering players' costs and it's going to go in the NFL because there is language in the CBA that talks about negotiating the new cap, which is going to be 2021 at a rate reflective of revenues in 2020. As we just talked about, that's going to be down. So I think we have a real possibility of this 198 million dollar cap for the NFL in 2020 being not higher but lower in 2021.

Kaitlin O'Toole: Obviously, a lot of discussions are going to continue to happen. We're gonna see how this plays out. but how do things stand now? NFL players contract: are they in favor of the owners or the players?

Andrew Brandt: Well, there are a couple of things going on. There's no force majeure clause from the CBA, just like the NBA owners have. So that's a good thing for NFL players. They can't cancel the CBA. They can't cancel contracts collectively, the whole CBA. But individual contracts, they say that players shall be paid their salary commencing with the first game of the season. Now, NFL lawyers will read that and say, well, if we don't commence with the first game of the season, we don't pay the contract. Now, bonuses, they seem safe, signing bonuses, roster bonuses. But the way the contract reads section six of the standard player contract, you have to actually play the games to get paid. To some people, that's obvious. But a lot of people are asking, well, the players say they have a contract or the contract says you get paid according to each week. And if there is no week, you don't get paid. That's a reading that the NFL will likely take if we're in the unfortunate position of talking about no games.

Kaitlin O'Toole: I hope not, but we'll have to see how this plays out. Andrew, thank you so much for your insight. I really appreciate it.