NFL players, club owners resume talks
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — NFL players and club owners returned to court-ordered contract talks guided by a federal mediator on Monday in a bid to resolve the league's first work stoppage since…
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — NFL players and club owners returned to court-ordered contract talks guided by a federal mediator on Monday in a bid to resolve the league's first work stoppage since 1987.Billionaire owners and millionaire players have been unable to agree on how to divide $9.1 billion in annual revenues from America's most popular spectator sport, jeopardizing hopes for the 2011 season to start in September as planned.Players voted to decertify their union as a bargaining agent and pursue an anti-trust case in court, a legal fight that figures to stretch the dispute for months as decisions are appealed.Judge Arthur Boylan, who guided four days of talks last month, is mediating the latest talks. Both sides met in February and March before talks broke off and the NFL imposed a lockout.A Minneapolis judge lifted the lockout but the NFL pushed the case to an appeals court in St. Louis that has reinstated the lockout temporarily with a June 3 hearing scheduled on the situation.If the lockout is forced to end, training camps might begin in July as in a typical NFL season. If the lockout remains in force, it would be a legal victory for owners that could give them leverage in contract talks.In either case, the latest talks figure to struggle as each side awaits the outcome of the appeals court hearing in 2 1/2 weeks. Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
last modification 2011-05-16 19:16:20
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