Reports: NFL owners could halt start of training camp over economics
There’s still a major hangup when it comes to the start of the NFL season — potentially.
According to multiple reports, NFL owners may be open to shut down training camps before they start if no agreement is struck with players on a new economic model to brace for revenue shortfall from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Thursday a failure to reach a deal this weekend could force teams do continue preparing for the upcoming season virtually, as they did throughout the spring, rather than have players in facilities and on the practice field for strength and conditioning programs. The league and players association continued their negotiations on Thursday, according to The Washington Post.
The 49ers’ quarterbacks, rookies and injured players began reporting to the team’s Santa Clara facility Thursday for their first round of COVID-19 testing. All other players are scheduled to report Tuesday, with full-team work slated to start the following weekend, when daily COVID-19 testing would start.
According to Pelissero’s report, a pressing issue has to do with the salary cap in 2020 and 2021. There’s set to be a multibillion-dollar shortfall in revenue this season with few to no fans expected to attend games in the fall, which would lead to a drastic drop in the salary cap for the 2021 league year.
That number could drop as much as $70 million per team — as the yearly salary cap is a fixed percentage of league-wide revenue — which could lead to a slew of players getting released as teams scramble to get below the hard spending limit.
The 49ers are projected to have roughly $44.8 million in cap space for 2021, according to Overthecap.com, which doesn’t include new contracts for looming free agents, including All-Pro tight end George Kittle, cornerback Richard Sherman, new left tackle Trent Williams and Pro Bowl fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Fred Warner, the team’s budding middle linebacker, is also eligible for a new contract after the coming season.
Naturally, it makes sense for the players to be against the idea of taking the hit one year and are reportedly in favor of spreading the potential revenue losses over the length of the newly signed collective bargaining agreement that was enacted in March through 2030.
Exactly how much revenue the league will lose this season during the pandemic remains to be seen. Another unknown is the economics behind a new television contract to re-work a primary source of income. That new broadcast agreement could be signed over the next two seasons. A new deal could help offset long-term losses.
It would be logical for the league to want to approach those negotiations with no debt on the spreadsheet beyond 2021, though it would likely come with a slew of highly-paid players losing their jobs — or taking drastic pay cuts — because of it.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 2:58 PM.