The NFL has been ordered by an independent arbitrator to return more than $100 million to the pool that it shares with its players, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. This ruling will put an additional $50 million in players' pockets and boost the 2016 salary cap by about $1.5 million.
The NFL salary cap is going up because owners hid over $100 million from players
40 percent of that will now be handed back to the players, an amount which will boost the salary cap by around $1.5 million.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
As per the league’s collective bargaining agreement, there are three types of revenues that owners are not required to share with the players: personal seat licenses sales, premium seating sales and naming rights revenues. Players, however, are supposed to receive 40 percent of local revenues (which mainly consist of tickets sales), 45 percent of sponsorship deals and 55 percent of media revenues. That total is pooled and divided, which is how the league generates its annual salary cap number.
But during an audit of the league’s finances, lawyers and accountants from the NFL Players Association discovered that over the past three years the NFL had filed nearly $120 million in local revenues under a category titled “waived gate,” one which it said it was not required to share. The NFLPA filed a grievance in January and last week arbitrator Stephen Burbank ruled in the union’s favor.
“They created an exemption out of a fiction and they got caught,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said to the Wall Street Journal.
The former “waived gate” total will now be filed under local revenues, meaning players will receive 40 percent of that money, or around $50 million.
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