Posted on 08/24/2002 5:38:20 PM PDT by GeneD
NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball players made new proposals Saturday on the key issues of revenue sharing and a luxury tax, and owners immediately slammed them as moves backward.
``We could not have been more disappointed in the proposal we received,'' said Rob Manfred, the owners' chief labor lawyer. ``This is raw regressive bargaining.''
Six days before the union's Aug. 30 strike deadline, the sides appear to be on a collision course for baseball's ninth work stoppage since 1972.
There was no immediate response from the union.
Manfred accused players of backtracking on increased revenue sharing. The union proposed Saturday that revenue sharing should be phased in. In 2006, the final year of the proposed deal, the sides are relatively close. Owners have proposed transferring $268 million, using 2001 revenue figures for analysis, and the union moved to $240 million, a $5 million increase
The union also moved $5 million toward the owners on the luxury tax, designed to slow spending by high-payroll teams, but Manfred said that was far short of what owners want because it would affect only two teams next year.
``If they had made any sort of move that was in our direction we would have made a countermove already. The thing we're dealing with is how to respond to a move that went the wrong way,'' Manfred said.
He called the proposal ``so out of the realm of expectation that it's going to take us a little time.''
Manfred chided union head Donald Fehr for giving a ``20-minute monologue'' before the proposal on ``Don's view of the world.''
``It was a recitation of his view of how the negotiations had gone,'' Manfred said.
On Friday, when asked what was needed to spark talks on the key issues, Fehr said ``Rob knows what he has to do.''
``My answer to that is apparently Don doesn't know what he needs to do,'' Manfred said.
Players said they thought their plan would move talks forward.
``We never expected them to accept it, but at least it's a move, and it's a significant move,'' Arizona's Mark Grace said.
``Any kind of dialogue and any kind of movement is good. They moved a few days ago, and we moved today, so the gap was narrowed. If we continue to do this, pretty soon the gap will be small enough that we can avoid a work stoppage.''
At Yankee Stadium, Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez backtracked from his comments Friday that he would give back 30 to 40 percent of his pay if it would improve the sport.
``I'm willing to do my part. Thirty to 40 percent? Probably not. I was speaking off the cuff,'' he said.
``What I wanted to say is I love the game of baseball and would do anything to help it. Obviously, that was a very drastic statement. I wouldn't take it literally.''
Rodriguez said he had not heard from Texas owner Tom Hicks, who signed him to the record $252 million, 10-year deal in December 2000.
``I don't think Tom Hicks has my cell phone,'' Rodriguez said.
Anyone buying tickets now that are for games beyond August 29th would have to be looney. There are a lot of looney people.
Both the owners and players are betting that while fans may say this now, they'll be back once the strike is settled.
Personally, I agree with you. I've about had it with the arrogance of BOTH sides in MLB, and I can guarantee that if there is a strike I'm gone for good.
Baseball is dying. Bloated salaries are being paid for through higher ticket and vending prices.
I agree with you. But tickets are even more bloated for football, right? And yet the parks there are filled every Sunday.
foreverfree (a two time attendee of Ravens' games, and who went to a few Eagles games when I lived in Philly)
Take a family of four to a baseball game and you spend $145 minimum for a game that relatively means nothing in the midst of a 162 game season.
Baseball needs to change the game- make the season shorter, raise the mound, make the All-Star game mean something like giving the home field advantage of the Series to the winning league.... Something...!
SkyDome was built with a provincial grant, but was sold to the private sector for 1/5th the cost of construction after the non-profit corporation set up to run it went bust. It was saddled with heavy debt due to budget over-runs caused by the addition of a hotel (which does have cool field view rooms) and round-the-clock construction to open on time. Someone I know who worked on it told me his salary more than doubled because of all of the overtime. If I recall correctly, the sale price didn't even cover the stadium corp. debt and the taxpayer got stuck with that too.
Olympic Stadium was built for the 1976 Olympics, and I think Quebec just finished paying off the debt caused by those games. (It should be noted that included in the cost of those Olympics was the Montreal metro (subway) system. Olympic rules have since changed so that only the construction of developments directly involving the Olympics can be included the budget.) They added a roof in the early '90s (long overdue as the weather isn't always ideal) which was supposed to retract but didn't work. I think it is owned by the Province of Quebec, but www.ballparks.com isn't working so I can't verify it. (I hope they didn't take their site down. It is the BEST place to check out ballparks, past and present, and they have stadiums and arenas too.)
A baseball strike would be irrelevant to Canada. Baseball died here with the last one when the Blue Jays were coming off 2 world series and the Expos were leading the league. The fans (present company included) never came back. I'll watch on TV once in a while, but otherwise they're not getting a dime out of me. (Not entirely true because the Jays are now owned by my cable company, but they've got to be kidding if they think they'll get more than a handful of subscribers for pay-per-view.)
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