Where have the times of Ownership peace gone in professional sports? It seems that merely a year ago, only America's fifth (and forgotten) league, Major League Soccer, had any unrest, as the owners and players came to a deadline deal agreement to avoid a lockout. (You know how far off the radar a sport is when you only find out about their labor strife over a year after the event.) Even though an MLS lockout was narrowly avoided, the league was moving forward with expansion at the time (one team in 2010 and two in 2011), so those of us who knew about the potential lockout knew that a resolution wouldn't be far off.
A year ago the NFL was still trying to come to grips that the Saints had won the Super Bowl and labor discussions weren't a priority. Knowing what we know now, maybe they should have been.
MLB was only dealing with a polarized fan base because the Yankees were kicking off the season as the defending World Series Champions (you either love or hate them), because no ownership issues remained. I say remained because the Cubs had been sold and were under new ownership (no hostility) and the Rangers were moved from the broke Tom Hicks' control to MLB's to the current ownership group lead by MLB great Nolan Ryan. (The sale was settled in bankruptcy court.) Although there was some contention with Hicks being removed as owner, the public outcry wasn't enormous because he was too far overleveraged to continue as an owner.
The NBA was even in a relatively peaceful state. The Lakers were kicking off the playoffs in defense of their 2009 Championship (which they would successfully defend), and everyone was happy, except for people in Cleveland who were wondering if this was going to be their final postseason with LeBron. Just 5 months ago, the league office did buy the New Orleans Hornets franchise due to the owner's financial struggles, but there was relative peace in the league.
A year ago, the NHL was also in as peaceful a state as playoff hockey will allow, and one of the Original Six went on to win the Stanley Cup Finals (the Chicago Blackhawks).
So what's gone wrong? Unfortunately, millionaires and billionaires have not been immune to financial issues, and as we've all learned recently with the NFL labor negotiations...it all boils down to money.
As we all know, NFL labor negotiations are ongoing, but due to the court ordered gag order, we have no idea if any progress is being made, which I think is miniscule at best. If real progress towards a labor deal is occurring, why is the next mediation session not until May 16th? If the sides were close, they’d still be meeting this week to hammer out the remaining issues. OK, so why does this matter in April? Besides the lack of offseason team training sessions, the NFL draft is less than a week away. Because a CBA is not in place, teams cannot trade players currently on their roster. The Randy Moss trade from Oakland to New England in on Draft Day 2007 would not have been allowed under current rules. That season Moss went on to break the single season TD reception record and was within 35 seconds of a perfect 17-0 season. Several players, including QBs Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb and Carson Palmer, would have been perfect draft day trade material, but not this year. As mentioned a month ago, there is currently no sense of urgency between the sides. The notorious deadline league isn't pushing any of their season killing deadlines yet.
The Players’ Association does appear to be showing the first signs of cracking (as guessed by almost all the “experts”), as a splinter group of mid-tier players have hired their own legal representation because they feel their voice isn’t being heard. I can’t say that I disagree with them. Of the names on the players’ lawsuit against the owners, one player about to be drafted is named alongside several superstars such as Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. It appears that the voice of the common NFL player is missing.
One of the most storied franchises in MLB history is now under league ownership and a messy legal battle is ahead...in addition to the messy divorce legal battle tied to it. As it turns out the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles and Major League Baseball are currently tied up in two types of divorces. First owner Frank McCourt is trying to settle his divorce from his wife Jamie…who claims 50% ownership of the Dodgers. Just this week, MLB took over the day to day operations of the Dodgers because of the financial instability of the McCourts. The Dodgers have had to borrow money in order to make payroll. Speaking of financial instability, the Mets are also under scrutiny as millions of dollars were made by their owners in the Bernie Madoff scheme. The Wilpons claim to not have known about the illegal practices of Madoff, but that hasn’t stopped the trustee of the Madoff victims from suing them for hundreds of millions of dollars. (A billion dollar number has been mentioned, but that includes others besides the Wilpons. In order to pay off their debt (whatever the actual amount), the Wilpons are trying to sell a minority stake in the Mets.) Last fall the Mets too had difficulty paying their debts and approached MLB for assistance. Neither the Mets nor the Dodgers situation is good, especially since these are two of the richest teams in baseball. (One good note about baseball is that even though their CBA expires towards the end of this year, protracted heated talks are not expected.)
The NBA, like the NFL, is on the verge of a lockout as their CBA is set to expire this summer. In past months, NBA Commissioner David Stern has stated that owners would like to cut salaries by a third, which, of course, hasn’t gone over well with the players. More recently, Stern stated that the NBA needed to get back to the bargaining table because they wanted to avoid “the mess” that the NFL situation has become. Still, I will be surprised if a lockout is avoided.
The NHL seems to be the only league of the big four with some form of stability right now. Just this week, a new 10 year TV deal was agreed to which will pay the league $200M per year.
Hopefully, peaceful labor/owner times will return soon.
