Ken Berger of CBSSports.com is reporting the sides are
“inching closer” to a deal.
“A person in frequent contact with ownership told CBSSports.com this week that 51.5 percent is, in fact, the presumed landing spot for the players’ share. According to the source, one owner recently confided to associates that the union’s affinity for “odd numbers” and fact that 51.5 was a logical midpoint between the various “bands” each side has proposed signaled that such a split ultimately would get done. The owners then have to agree among themselves to a revamped revenue-sharing plan to help small-market and low-revenue teams. League executives, team officials and owners participated in a video conference call lasting several hours Tuesday to discuss the latest proposals on how to redistribute revenue. Although one person on the call said there was no consensus and that “a lot of ideas” remained on the table, one executive told CBSSports.com that observers will be “pleasantly surprised” by the commitment big-market owners are willing to make to revenue sharing. Assuming that aspect of the negotiations soon will be finalized, the last base to be covered is perhaps the most difficult of all: changing the distribution of payrolls among teams to achieve what league officials consistently refer to as their goal of “compe ive balance.” It’s an ideal that both deputy commissioner Adam Silver and labor relations committee chairman Peter Holt pointed to last week as something the NFL (hard cap) and NHL (flex cap) have achieved. Having been unable to get the NBPA to agree to either concept, league negotiators have spent the past several weeks trying to refine a more punitive luxury-tax system to achieve the same goals.”