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The National Football League is preparing to play the 2010 season without a salary cap because of the slow pace of talks with the players union about a new labor agreement.

“We have a lot to do and a lot to address,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters yesterday at the league’s New York headquarters. “Progress today is minimal.”

The first work stoppage since 1987 may happen in 2011 following a unanimous decision in May 2008 by team owners to opt out of their labor deal with players. Unless a new deal is reached, the 2010 season will be played without the salary cap, which stops wealthy clubs from hoarding the best talent.

Goodell said he told NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith over lunch this week that owners want to start negotiating. There is no timetable for talks.

Owners want a deal that recognizes the league’s changing economics and provides for the cost of investment in expanding the sport, said Anthony Noto, the NFL’s chief financial officer.

The existing deal gives players about 60 percent of the league’s $8 billion annual revenue. That’s unsustainable because of the rising costs of running stadiums and other operations, owners said.

In 1993, when the labor agreement was originally reached, only the Miami Dolphins’ stadium was privately financed, said Jeff Pash, the NFL’s general counsel. Since then, owners have invested billions in stadiums and face rising costs for debt, maintenance and capital improvements.

Economic Reality

“What we’re looking for is a labor agreement that recognizes the reality of those economics and allows us to continue the kind of growth that we’ve had over the last 15 years,” said Pash. “If we can do that, we’ll have a system that can generate greater salaries and benefits and will be better for current players, retired players and clubs.”

The league has mechanisms to prevent an uncapped year from upsetting the competitive balance, Pash said. Fitch Ratings in a 2008 report called the cap “a key factor incorporated in the NFL’s credit rating, given that it promotes both competitive balance among franchises and cost certainty.”

Goodell also said that the league’s worst-case scenario for ticket sales still has 80 percent of games sold out. The NFL sold about 17.9 million tickets last season, the third-best performance ever and a drop of 1.3 percent from a record of about 18.1 million in 2007. The league won’t change a rule requiring local television to black out games that aren’t sold out within 72 hours of kickoff, the commissioner said.

The league may also increase the number of games it plays in London as soon as next season, Goodell said.

Two sold-out regular-season games have been held at London’s Wembley Stadium and a third, between the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is scheduled for Oct. 25.

(Source: Bloomberg)