« Bonus or no bonus? | Main | Harrison upbeat »

Kraft on FSNE

Patriots Vice Chairman and President Jonathan Kraft expressed optimism that the NFL will reach a new collective bargaining agreement with the players union. Kraft was speaking as a guest on the Fox Sports New England program with co-hosts Gary Tanguay and Greg Dickerson.

A portion of the transcript from the Fox Sports New England interview:

What’s the latest with the collective bargaining agreement?
“Negotiations are ongoing. Really, the league office, the commissioner [Paul Tagliabue], Harold Henderson -- who runs our labor negotiations -- and a couple of people who work with him are down in Washington today with the [players] union. I think negotiations will go on. The commissioner told the coaches and the GMs in [Indianapolis] over the weekend to expect to hear by Wednesday at 4, either we have a deal in principle or we don’t. Everyone, I think, on both sides feels like there is too much to lose. If I were betting, I would bet there would be a deal by Wednesday.”

Even if an agreement is reached with the players union, isn’t there another issue with the owners –- high revenue vs. low revenue?
“It’s really a two-step process. If we get a deal with the union, and if it’s a deal with a [salary] cap based on the percentage of revenues … the way we have done it, you take the revenues of the league -- both the shared and unshared revenues -- and a percentage of that pool becomes the [salary] cap. Then when we get into the room to ratify that agreement, there will be a discussion about incremental revenue sharing. That will probably be an interesting discussion.”