Brown: Deal bad for Bengals
Players, high-revenue teams will benefit, owner says
BY MARK CURNUTTE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
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CLEVELAND - A day after casting one of two dissenting votes among owners to extend the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, Bengals president Mike Brown said he was ready to start thinking about the 2006 regular season.
"I voted on how I felt (Wednesday)," Brown said Thursday from his office at Paul Brown Stadium. "That's how I saw it. It's all water over the dam. We're going forward and looking forward to the coming season and really think things are going well for the Bengals. We have good prospects."
The weeklong league negotiations with the players' union put into sharp focus the delicate nature of parity in the NFL, which is composed of small-market teams such as the Bengals and large-market teams such as the Dallas Cowboys.
In a nutshell, the owners and players were arguing over how to split the millions of dollars generated by the league.
For players, the 30-2 owners' vote is a victory. The salary cap - the maximum amount a team can spend on players - is increased to $102 million a team in 2006, up from $94.5 million.
The cap is viewed as a key part of the NFL's success.
Unlike baseball, in which the wealthiest teams spend freely on the best players, NFL teams must adhere to this cap, which helps to maintain competitive balance.
Without the collective bargaining extension, the 2007 season would have been played without the salary cap, which could have potentially hurt teams such as Cincinnati.
Even so, Brown said the new agreement brings with it financial pressure.
Brown said low-revenue teams, such as the Bengals, pay 70 percent of their revenue toward player costs. High-revenue teams such as the Washington Redskins and New England Patriots pay about 40 percent.
That's because the Redskins and Patriots of the world generate a great deal more local revenue from advertising, radio agreements and stadium luxury box rentals. Each NFL team will receive $100 million in television contract money.
"We don't want any of the revenues from the high-market clubs," Brown said. "We merely want them to pay the costs that they export down to us under this system."
High-revenue teams force about $45 million to $50 million in costs onto other teams in the league, he said.
The owners attempted to address the revenue disparity by creating an additional pool of shared money. The top 15 revenue-generating clubs will contribute a portion of their local revenues to a pool that will be distributed to the remaining 17 organizations, including the Bengals.
Brown said he does not regret his vote and would have preferred no deal at this time compared to the one that passed.
"I would have wanted to bargain for a new deal," he said.
Brown said other low-revenue teams - he would not identify them - also were opposed to the proposal but switched their votes at the last minute. Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson cast the other "no" vote.
Brown did say that there are benefits to having the labor situation settled - especially for players and fans.
"It provides us with uninterrupted play for a minimum of four more years, possibly six. We're going to be competitive under the system no differently than we have been in recent years. From the fans' perspective, they should be pleased with the result."
The 2005 Bengals were the franchise's first team since 1990 to make the playoffs, win a division title and have a winning record.
The Bengals are an estimated $16 million under the new salary cap, but Brown said that number is fluid and fails to account for certain costs. For example, there is a pool of money used to sign rookie draft picks.
Still, the Bengals are seemingly poised to be active in free agency, which will begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Brown said the Bengals will be involved in free agency but would not discuss specific team needs.
The Bengals are expected to lose backup quarterback Jon Kitna to another team and quickly will strike to sign another quarterback, head coach Marvin Lewis said.
The Bengals have under contract two healthy quarterbacks, Craig Krenzel and Doug Johnson. Starter Carson Palmer continues to rehabilitate his left knee, in which a surgeon replaced two ligaments two months ago today. Lewis has said he expects Palmer to be ready for the start of the season but has prohibited the quarterback from discussing his rehab publicly.
The salary cap for 2007 will be $109 million.
"We are strong enough to continue on," Brown said. "We will be able to maintain our ability to pay the cap. We will do it in the fashion as we have in the past. We will be up and running under the cap system through the duration of this deal."
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