Letters To NFL Requesting Financial Information
Below are excerpts from just a few of the requests by the NFLPA for league financial information during the CBA negotiation process. Click on the links to read the full text.
Club Costs/Return on Investment Data
“You have consistently maintained in every one of our meetings that this eighteen percent shift is necessary, not because of player costs, but instead because of significant increases in the clubs’ non-player costs since our current CBA was fist negotiated in 1993.”
“In response, we have consistently told you that we need to have relevant financial information from the clubs’ books which would allow us to evaluate these assertions.”
“In an interview last month, Bob Batterman was quoted as saying that ‘we are as far apart as [he] could imagine’ in our current bargaining. We acknowledge that we are ‘far apart,’ but we believe the reason is that we do not have the information requested in this letter.”
“However, your letter goes on to imply that the club cost information we requested in my June 7, 2010 letter does not relate to the assertion of any financial facts which you have made in support of your proposal. In our view, nothing could be further from the truth.”
“And while we have acknowledged that costs in certain areas have been increasing, we have stated that those increases have to be compared to increases in revenues and profits over the same period in order to meaningful.
“But as we stressed to you in our analysis, if the players’ percentage is viewed (as it should be) as a percentage of all revenue, if any, has been downward, and not in any direction that would ‘squeeze’ the owners.”
“In other words, you would have us believe that increasing costs the owners’ return on investment was not an issue for your side, and that instead the issue was whether the owners had an ‘incentive’ to grow the game in the future.”
“We believe, however, that such statements were simply a pretext to try to defeat our right to the financial information that the owners have put at issue in the negotiations, and that the owners’ highest priority was and still is to significantly increase their return on investment by having a greater share of their non-player costs deducted from revenue before the players’ share is determined.”
“The union’s ability to verify, evaluate and bargain over the NFL’s core economic proposal requires the union to have access to the financial information on which the NFL’s proposal is based. We also need this information to evaluate the NFL’s alternative characterization of its position—that the current economic split of revenues with the players does not provide either an ‘adequate return’ on teams’ investment or an ‘adequate incentive’ to invest in the future.”
“We therefore need the other cost data you have not given us to see whether the increase in non-player costs you have claimed does, or does not, exist.”
“The cost categories for the data given us also do not seem uniform or consistent so we need the other categories to assess the accuracy of these figures. It is simply not possible to tell whether the cost categories in your proposal (which you claimed are more closely related to revenue generation than the categories you excluded) make any sense without considering the nature and size of the cost categories you did not include in your proposal.”
NFL Television Contracts
“Against this backdrop, it would seem that your current failure or refusal to share at least the non-financial terms of the television contracts with us violates precedent.”
“We need to see specific economic information which we can use to evaluate the need for change, and we need to understand, to the best of our ability, what each owner’s reasons are for discounting the partnership which has performed so well for both of us since its inception in 1993. None that information has been forthcoming so far, but we trust that will not remain the case as we prepare for our next round of talks.”
“Therefore, we ask that you confirm by your signature below that, notwithstanding any language in the TV contracts to the contrary, the NFL and its member clubs agree that they not accept monies, loans or any other form of financing from their broadcast partners for any games that are not played due to a lockout.”
Health and Safety
The NFLPA requested the Management Council promptly provide information related to group insurance, including materials relating to experience and costs.