The NFL and NFLPA are currently in negotiations for a new CBA, with the players preparing for a full vote on the latest proposal. ESPN’s Adam Schefter took the opportunity ahead of that vote to tweet about the revenue distribution inherent to the latest version, couching it as a major win for players.
If ratified by majority of players, new deal would give them the highest percentage of revenues of any American professional sport, going to 48% and eventually could climb higher than 48.5% depending on media rights. That would mean more than $5 billion in new money to players.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 26, 2020
Wow, what generosity and willingness to negotiate from the owners, one might think if they read that tweet. After all, they’re going above and beyond MLB, the NBA, and the NHL!
Except for one thing: they’re not. It’s tough to guess where Schefter pulled this from (well, beyond “owner talking points”), because the revenue divisions from other leagues are pretty widely available. Especially the NBA’s, as the players taking a reduction in revenue percentage down to a shifting number somewhere between 49%-51% was a major point during their last CBA negotiation in 2016.
Here’s a solid breakdown, wherein every league, essentially, has a higher percentage of revenue going to players:
MLB Owners spent 48.6% of revenue on players in 2018.
The NBA CBA offers 49%-51% player revenue compensation from Basketball Related Income.
NHL players get 50% of Hockey Related Revenue (though some is put into escrow).
— Spotrac (@spotrac) February 26, 2020
It’s also worth noting that MLB and NBA players in particular have not been happy with the current split. Trying to spin this NFL agreement as some kind of charitable donation from owners at a level American sports hasn’t seen before is a very weird choice for Schefter, who left the tweet up all morning despite the parade of people pointing out that it was wrong.
Exact % are always tough bc determining which ancillary revenue measurements count differ but this statement is objectively wrong.
MLB 48-52% https://t.co/Pxcx3s58np
NBA 50 % (was 57) https://t.co/rIjhq6zp3a
NHL 50 % https://t.co/20lrlWtoN7 https://t.co/F5MmDqKpn4
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) February 26, 2020
https://twitter.com/smartfootball/status/1232659989732433920
The NHLPA gets a 50-50 split and MLBPA has been 48-52 over the last 15 years. So, this is actually the complete opposite of true. pic.twitter.com/og3G9Xulyp
— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) February 26, 2020
Is there a chance that Schefter meant something else, or conflated a few points and ended up where he did? Sure, maybe. But the tweet is still up, and he was very specific in that phrasing. Not a great look all around.
UPDATE: a few hours later, Schefter clarified that he was talking about net revenue and not gross revenue, which totally makes this all fine!
An update to an earlier tweet: https://t.co/s9s1PWDSR1 pic.twitter.com/6eYw963nHU
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 26, 2020
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.