#LABOR STRIFE FULL#

This would also have the added benefit of providing additional capital to the players' war chest in their fight with the league. NFL Players, the marketing and licensing arm of the NFLPA, has begun reaching out to sponsors directly to enter into new sponsorship arrangements that would allow sponsors to continue to utilize group player licensing rights. While the lockout threatens to keep NFL players off the practice fields this spring and summer, and might keep them off playing fields in the fall, it may also keep them off of television screens since the expiration of the current deal also impacts the rights of corporate sponsors to use players in national ad campaigns under their contracts with the league.

#LABOR STRIFE FULL#

While the owners want a better deal to help offset such expenditures as new stadiums, the players are skeptical that the owners are losing money and are demanding full transparency of each team's books and records. The primary issue continues to be how the league and its players will divide the roughly $9 billion in annual revenue. In response to the decertification, the NFL officially began the lockout. On March 11, 2011, after unsuccessful negotiations between the league and the players, the NFL Players Association formally decertified becoming a trade association, after which a group of ten players consisting of, among others Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league. In our Summer 2010 Quarterly Sports Update, we examined the labor strife in the National Football League and how these issues may impact sponsors of the NFL and its teams.

Labor strife