by John Morse

Speaking for the first time since the seating incident took place during the Super Bowl, Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones apologized for errantly placing 400 people at standing room locations who had ticket in seats deemed to be unsafe.

“I do, along with the NFL, take responsibility for the seating issue and some of the things that we would like to improve on regarding the seating issues,” Jones said to Cowboys reporters.

The NFL has accommodated those 400 fans who were relocated by providing multiple options to make it up to them. The fans can choose between a free ticket to next year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, plus $2,400 cash, or receive a free ticket to the Super Bowl of their choice along with flight and hotel accommodations.

However, much to the chagrin of SFC chair David Goodfriend and cheesehead nation there is no guarantee that the Packers will be back in another Super Bowl any time soon.  Steelers fans would like to believe they’ll be back soon too, but this outcome is not promised either.  For the fans of either team, it could be a long time to wait to recoup their losses, and this apology is truly too little too late.

Read the full story here.

In a Washington Post editorial today, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, writes:

What I’d like to see from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners is a simple display of good faith: Show the union your books. Don’t keep secrets. If there are financial pressures that keep you from agreeing to the revenue-sharing plan proposed by the players, let’s see the proof.

We support the Senator’s call for the owners to open up the books, though we feel the fans have a right to see them, as well, given the billions we’ve spent subsidizing the NFL.

It is beginning to look like Congress will intervene if the two sides cannot reach a resolution. If they do, they would be justified. But we would like to see the fans force a resolution to this first. The more fans who support our proposal to Save Next Season and our request that fans be represented in the negotiating room, the quicker this dispute will be resolved.

Read the rest of Sen. Rockefeller’s editorial here.

by Brad Sullivan

As March approaches, NFL fans are still looking for a new CBA, but they will need to keep waiting. It seems as if the deadline is going to come and pass without a deal, much to sports fans’ dismay.

One NFL coach thinks that regardless of what happens in the NFL labor negotiation, his team will win it all. It’s no surprise that this coach is the New York Jets’ Rex Ryan.

Ryan can be as confident as he wants but it will be hard to win a Super Bowl if there is no NFL season. I feel bad for Jets fans, they have a great team but they may not be able to take the field this year.

Teams are going to struggle when the deadline arrives and there is no agreement.  Jim Corbett of USA Today Writes: “A lockout would mean a shutdown of all things football, from player workouts and treatment at team facilities to loss of pay for coaches and assistants who have clauses in their contracts that call for reduced pay during a lockout.”

The fans will just have to play out the Jets season on XBOX or something if the NFL can’t get their act together and get a deal done.

For sports fans, it’s time to act.  Sign the petition at www.SaveNextSeason.com.

by Scott Weiss

Here are the main issues that fans have been led to believe are key to the present NFL labor negotiations: how the owners and players should split up $9 billion a year in profits and should the owners open up their books, whether the season should expand from 16 to 18 games, and whether there should be a rookie wage scale.  These are all important issues, but are they really most important to football fans?

Well, this football fan, has a number of different issues that I feel are most important to be addressed in the new NFL Labor Agreement:

1. No more TV blackouts of NFL games.
2. No future seat license fees to fund NFL palaces (stadiums).
3. More fan involvement in operations of teams that receive public funding.
4. A freeze or reduction in ticket, concession, merchandise and parking prices.
5. A guarantee of no work stoppages in future CBA negotiations.
6. More restrictions on teams moving to new cities without fan input.

We have continued to hear from both the NFL and NFLPA how much they value the fans.  If they are true to their word, they will start paying attention to what their fans really want, and not just what is best for the owners and players.

I am excited that SFC Executive Director, Brian Frederick, has gotten the attention of the NFL and NFLPA.  I am also really looking forward to DeMaurice Smith’s promise to reply to SFC’s letter this coming Monday, and hope that the NFL will do the same.  I hope that other fans will answer Mr. Frederick’s request to hear what you want from the NFL labor agreement.  With fan involvement, we can make a huge difference; without fan involvement it will be business as usual.
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Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey and an SFC Sportwriter Fellow. He has been involved in the sports fans advocacy movement since 2000. He is a life long fan of the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers.

Neither the NFL nor NFLPA has formally responded to our request that fans have a representative in the negotiating room, even though both sides promised to respond. I met with DeMaurice Smith yesterday and he said that the NFLPA would respond on Monday.  (Still haven’t heard from the NFL since spokesman Greg Aiello said they would respond.)

We are still very hopeful that both sides will acknowledge the generous investment fans around the country have made to help build this game into the most popular sport in America and choose to include fans in the process.

So I put it to you — if you were seated at the negotiating table with the NFL and NFLPA, what would you want to see included in a new Collective Bargaining Agreement?

I will start by saying that my first priority would be to get both sides to eliminate the NFL blackout rule, which prevents fans in local markets from seeing games if the stadium isn’t sold out. The rule is archaic and even counter-productive. How can you grow a fan base if your fans can’t see the games? Many of these fans would love to come to the games but due to the economic recession and the ever increasing price of NFL tickets, they cannot afford it. Further, the revenue generated from these seats is just a drop in the bucket compared to television revenues.

But more than being misguided, it’s completely unethical considering that taxpayers in virtually every NFL stadium helped subsidize the stadium. Fans have demonstrated their loyalty by agreeing to finance an NFL stadium.

There are all sorts of other issues that need to be addressed on behalf of fans — the proposal for 18 game-season, personal seat licenses, teams relocating to other cities, etc.  (Here’s a humorous list of other demands.)

So what would you like the new CBA to include?

Comment below or email me at brian@sportsfans.org. I’m even happy to publish guest blogs on this subject if you are inspired. I can assure you that the heads of both the NFL and NFLPA will hear our list of demands for the new CBA one way or another.

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Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at brian@sportsfans.org and follow him on Twitter here.