The NFL players Union is willing to discuss with the team owners to increase the regular season to 17 games

According to people familiar with the matter, NFL players have indicated to the team owners that they are willing to discuss the idea of increasing the regular season to 17 games when negotiating a new labor agreement, provided that players’ share of League revenue under the new agreement needs to increase substantially.

The owner’s proposal is to increase the regular season from 16 games to 17 games from 2022 and reduce the pre-season to 3 games.

In the negotiations two weeks ago, the team owner’s share plan was not approved by the players. But the League contacted the players Union earlier this week. The two sides are now trying to plan a formal consultation in the future. The League hopes to increase the daily sales of the jerseys, and the players’ Union thinks the profits of the jerseys are too high!

People familiar with the matter said a key issue in the negotiations was the cost of the new stadium shared by Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles lightning. The initial cost of the new stadium is expected to be $2.5 billion, but it is now more than $5 billion. The team’s owners are therefore trying to ensure in the new deal that they can use the league’s revenues to compensate for the cost of building the stadium.

Two weeks ago, the owner of the team presented two different plans. In the two schemes, players prefer the mode of relatively less sharing but restricting the team to use the League income for stadium ability. However, the proportion of income distribution in the two schemes does not reach the level that players are willing to increase the number of regular matches.

People familiar with the situation said that at the team owners’ meeting held recently, the owners of all teams did not reach an agreement. Some team owners are willing to meet the demands of players’ higher income share in order to increase the number of regular matches. Some team owners prefer to maintain the original income distribution ratio.

In addition, the 17 regular season plan is still in its infancy, and the two sides have not discussed any details of the plan. So even if both sides agree to the regular season expansion, they still need to discuss how to implement it.

The current labor agreement will expire in March 2021. At present, both the owners and the players’ Union hope to complete the negotiations during the season. The owners of the team hope that a new NFL jerseys wholesale agreement can be reached, and then the focus can be on broadcasting rights negotiations, while the players hope to sign a new agreement, so that they can elect a new leader in March next year.