The current National Football League labor agreement is set to expire, and an NFL lockout could have a monumental impact on our economy. Two years ago, the owners of NFL teams opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement, and if a new deal isn’t decided upon, the owners can choose to lock out the players with no pay or benefits.
Essentially, the owners want to pay the players less. Player salaries account for roughly 60 percent of total revenue in the former agreement, and players generally agreed that they got the better end of the deal. But with debts from stadium construction and other costs in a recession, the owners would now like to adjust to a “healthier” deal.
The owners essentially want to keep more of their total revenue for investment and operating expenses, which is about $1 billion from the total revenue. The owners are also reportedly asking for players to take about an 18 percent pay cut, mainly coming from loss of bonuses, while coaches would stand to lose up to 50 percent of their pay.
“If there is a lockout starting March 4, coaches will take a pay cut of varying degrees,” said Larry Kennan, the NFL coaches association executive director. “Players will be affected because they’ll loses bonuses, but they don’t lose salary in March, April or May. The coaches will lose pay.”
The pay cuts taken by coaches and players are extremely substantial, but they are millionaires and the owners are billionaires. The true downside to a NFL lockout is the effect on small businesses that benefit from football.
Michael Sinensky, an owner of five bars in the New York Tri-State area, views the effect from a NFL lockout on his businesses as staggering.
“Without football, Sundays average only about $2,000 in revenue. With football during the regular season, we average a whopping 600 percent more or approximately $12,000 on any given Sunday. Add $2,000 for playoffs without a home team playing, or at least another $5,000 with a home team, totaling approximately $14,000-$17,000 for playoffs, which take place for three weeks. Multiply the difference by 8.875 percent and you’ll figure out how much in sales tax is wiped away,” Sinensky said in his article in the Huffington Post. Next add the vendors who lose business from the loss of sales and the tax dollars lost, and you begin to see that it’s not just about the players and coaches.
Football has become America’s sport and America needs football right now. The economy needs it, and small business owners need it.
