NFL settlement could mean pricey tickets and cable only games - Ingles

National Football League camps were back in full swing Wednesday and there has been a lot of talk about the 10-year collective bargaining agreement being a win-win for both sides.

Each side made some concessions in a settlement that could provide an example for the gridlocked U.S. government but there is one group which was not party to the talks which figures to lose in the long run – the fans.

The settlement guarantees that there will be football every Sunday afternoon – and Sunday and Monday nights and occasionally on Thursdays and Saturdays – for the next 10 years. But fans, who have become accustomed to seeing those games for free on over-the-air networks, may be in for a shock in the future.

The key economic component of the deal revolves around revenue sharing between the players and the owners. The players agreed to accept a smaller piece of the pie – 46 per cent of all revenues as opposed to 53 per cent in the previous agreement – but the players can look forward to sharing a larger pie because the owners have made a commitment to double the current revenues to nearly $20 billion over the life of the deal.

How do you do that? It’s not easy. Attendance is running near capacity for most teams and that means the only way to squeeze more money out of the gate is to raise prices for tickets, beer, hot dogs and parking.

And then there’s television. CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN currently cough up more than $3 billion in revenue each year. The current contracts expire after the 2013 season and Peter King of Sports Illustrated said the rights fees are expected to rise by 50-70 per cent.

One scenario will see the over-the-air networks continue to carry the bulk of the games. They will make their money by raising ad rates and companies which buy advertising will pass those costs along to consumers.

The other scenario is for more games to move to cable outlets or the league’s own NFL Network. Fans in Canada are relatively insulated from the battles between cable networks and providers but there are countless stories of fans in the U.S. being held hostage by this warfare. More games on cable or satellite will result in higher direct cost to the viewer.

North American soccer on the wane: The next time someone points to the rising number of registered soccer players in North America and talks about the game’s bright future in these parts, you might ask why Canada and the United States continue to plummet in the FIFA world rankings.

In the latest rankings released this week, the United States, which ranked as high as No. 4 in 2006, dropped six places to No. 30. Canada fell 22 spots to No. 105. That’s Canada’s lowest ranking since the FIFA rankings began in 1993.

The message seems to be clear – it’s great to have numbers but without world-class coaching and a coherent development plan, Canada will continue to be a non-factor in the soccer world. This article was written by Pat Hickey and appeared in The Montreal Gazette.