John Mara said the Giants and other NFL teams are “well prepared” for a 2011 season without football but he is holding out hope that doomsday scenario doesn’t become reality.
“We’ve all made preparations to prepare for the worst case,” the Giants co-owner said yesterday on ESPN 1050. “It’s certainly not going to be easy and it’s certainly not the preferred route, but if we have to go that way, I think most of the clubs are going to be able to deal with it.
“I don’t believe that’s going to happen, I believe there will be a 2011 season. I still am trying to retain an optimistic view about this.”
After failed mediated negotiations, the next step in the increasingly contentious NFL vs. NFL Players Association battle for a new collective bargaining agreement comes during an April 6 hearing scheduled in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. The players are seeking a preliminary injunction to end the owners’ lockout.
This court battle could have, and should have, been avoided, Mara insists. He sat in on the negotiations last week in Washington and came away convinced the union intended to reject any proposal that was remotely fair and then decertify and head to court.
“The most frustrating part to me is there was a deal there to be made if they were interested in doing one,” Mara said. “It became pretty clear to me after the first few days there they were not really interested in negotiating a deal unless it was strictly on their terms in regard to the core economic issues.
“It just seemed like the past couple of weeks we might as well have been sitting there staring at ourselves because not a lot was getting done.”
Early in the process, Mara said, “I started to sense we were getting close to some sort of tentative agreement. The numbers going back and forth were in the same ballpark.”
Clearly, his sense was not correct.
“They were the ones who walked out on the mediation process,” Mara said. “We would have stayed for as long as it took to try to get a deal. They seemed like they were in a hurry to get out of there on Friday and get into a Minneapolis courtroom.”
The case cannot be made that the owners are not making money in an industry that generates more than $9 billion, and Mara won’t try to make that case.
“Nobody is saying the NFL is not profitable or the teams are not making money,” Mara said. “But there is no question about the fact our margins have been squeezed considerably over the past couple years. The costs of running an NFL franchise have grown considerably, considerably in our case with a new stadium that’s just been constructed.”
Can Mara promise the 2011 season will kick off as planned?
“There’s no guarantee that it’s not going to be affected,” he said. “I remain optimistic because I believe we can make a deal that is fair for both sides. I don’t think the players are interested in missing games and missing paychecks and certainly the owners don’t want to see that happen.
“I think as we get through the summer and get closer to training camp it would be hard for me to believe we won’t be able to sit down and negotiate a fair deal. There is enough money out there for everyone, it’s just a question of how it’s allocated.”