Critique NFL Labor Dispute

Stephanie discussed the possibility of the NFL season being cancelled due to the disagreement between the players and owners. The NFL has enforced many things before but taking away NFL player’s salaries does not benefit the players nor the many vendors that benefit from the NFL. The NFL is a major association that should not be messed with due to its large acceptance throughout the American population. This lock out, enforced by the owners, locked out the players, “creating the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987 and putting the 2011 season in jeopardy”. I see where the NFL has no problem placing a lock out on the player because of the revenue the company has already received, but the association does not understand the economical errors that other companies will be presented with. Surely the NFL could lock out player till 2012, but the advertisement of many companies would be in slander. It will cut into billions of dollars of other company’s profits.

Stephanie does a good job in relaying what the problems and conflicts are involved in the NFL case. She has a good summary but could have incorporated more of the economics problems into her blog. She fails to identify that the NFL is one of the major Monopolies in American. A monopoly is the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service. The NFL association being the monopoly that it is alters the demand for many other companies and products. As I stated before the lock out would cut into billions of dollars of revenue that many companies rely on. Companies like alcoholic brands depend on the NFL for sales, customers, and advertisement. Beer companies such as Corona use commercial time during Sunday Night Football to relay their brand to consumers. Beer and football go hand and hand. Without football players on the television screen, there will be a decrease in demand for beer. Some American’s at home only purchase beer in the event of an NFL game.

Thus, another aspect of the market that could suffer from the NFL lock out is the gambling economic aspect of the NFL. The league posts the odds of that week's game in the newspaper and on TV. They don't just predict who will win, but what Las Vegas and the gambling world will say they will win by in the final score. The league also tells gamblers what other gamblers in Las Vegas and Atlantic City think the outcome would be. Without players out on the field the football gamblers will be at a loss.