League and Union officials meet in a crucial round as Labour Dispute nears deadline - NBA Special
The NBA owners and players are meeting on Tuesday for what has been billed as the most critical juncture of the ongoing Labour dispute between the league owners and the player’s union. As the fans hold their breath and wait for the two sides to give them some good news after the meeting, we have decided to take a look at what the dispute is all about and what will most likely happen on Tuesday.
The current CBA, Collective Bargaining Agreement, is coming to an end on the 30th of June. A new CBA has to be agreed before that for the league to carry own working. However, this is not a simple case of renewal of an expiring contract.
The owners want significant changes and the players want to retain the old system. The NBA commissioner David Stern has thrown out the figure of $300 million. This is how much the league’s 30 teams collectively stand to lose this year alone. The owners are adamant that the players take a very large piece of the pie which has caused them to go into red ink.
They don’t want any more of it, and the players don’t want to let go of what they have got. However the demands seem legitimate enough and if the two parties talk in earnest a solution can indeed be reached.
Labour talks however are never simple. Both sides put exaggerated demands on the table to try and outwit the other side and gain advantage. That’s exactly what’s happening here, especially from the owner’s side.
The owner’s claim to be losing $300 million a year, yet they have proposed slashing the wage bill by more than double that amount; a reduction of $750 million over four years. That is almost 40 percent of the $2.1 billion that the players currently draw. They, on the other hand have offered to reduce the wage bill by a much lower number.
With the parties so far apart, there is not much chance of a resolution being reached on Tuesday. There have been token gestures though. Like the owners backing down from the demand of the unguaranteed contracts and the players have offered to show flexibility in their share of BRI, Basketball Related Income, that currently stands at 57 percent.
However, a source familiar with the negotiations said that the two parties are still too far apart,
“The owners are asking for a give that puts them in a place where they've never been, which is guaranteed profitability," said the source. "The biggest problem is that it is unreasonable for owners to even ask for $400 million when they say they are losing $300 million, and thus far they are nowhere near lowering their demands down to the $400 million range. So it's a question of when will they get to a number that is reasonable?”
The answer is “not on Tuesday”. The players and owners both know that and both are determined to play hardball. There is only hardball in talks like these. The fact is that Tuesday is not as crucial as it has been hyped up to be. After the meeting there will still be more than a week left in the June 30 deadline and it is only in the final week that the two sides will show their real hand.
If an agreement averting the lockout is reached, it will only be reached in the 11th hour. Before that time the two sides are merely going to test the water and bide their time.
The sides will both have to make concessions in the end, but the end is still at some distance.
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