Many people are calling this the millionaires vs. billionaires fight. The billionaires, or owners, want a larger portion of the profits and are trying to add up to two more games per season while, the players want to keep the status quo. This reflects many of the class struggles that we have witnessed due to the recession. Union workers vs. Executives, we've seen it in Wisconsin with the struggle over workers benefits, and in Detroit with Automotive manufacturing jobs and the executives of large motor companies. The possible NFL Lockout resembles these larger trends of society.
There are many important factors to keep in mind when analyzing this conflict. Salaries of each group are important features in this argument. The average NFL player has a salary of about 1 million dollars per year, and the average career length of an NFL player is 3-4 years. With these statistics combined it means a player must spread out his 3-4 million dollars over the rest of their lives. However most NFL players spend close to 50% of their salaries thus 78% of players end up either broke or in financial trouble just two after retiring. Regardless of how things play out with the Lockout these issues also need to be addressed.
The spending habits of many NFL players are not that different from those of an average American. It is not just professional athletes who spend too much, save too little and find them selves in financial trouble down the road. These spending habits contributed to the Economic problems we now see.
There has not been nearly as much research on the length of an owners career or their salary. However it is easy to imagine how a career of team ownership would be less physically demanding and thus would allow for a longer career. Also there profit's must be enormous considering the 32 team ownership positions that split over 3.5 billion dollars last season. The NFL team owners together are worth over 40 billion dollars.
Personally, I have more sympathy for the players than the owners. I feel that this situation resembles the broader trends of the Country; company executives trying to deal with the recession by cutting salaries of their employees, rather than taking a pay cut themselves. Average Americans are more likely to side with the players rather than the owners due to the vast resources available to the owners, and because they can relate easier to the players, many of whom live pay check to pay check.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41891873/ns/business-sports_biz/
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/03/03/david-morris-owners-nfl-players-union/
http://managerofwealth.com/2011/03/22/general-public-should-back-nfl-players-and-retirees-period/
http://phillysportsdaily.com/eagles/2011/02/28/with-lockout-looming-are-nfl-players-prepared/
