Despite periodic hints from NFL Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw that the league claims its current Collective Bargaining Agreement has caused one or more teams to start losing money, it’s now clear that the looming labor battle isn’t about keeping franchises financially viable. 

It’s about preserving a certain level of profit.

SportsBusiness Journal takes a close look at the situation, contrasting the NFL’s current predicament with genuine financial threats that baseball, basketball, and hockey have experienced in the past.

This reality suggests to us that, when push comes to shove, the owners won’t sacrifice their ability to pay the bills and to generate a certain level of profit in search of even greater profit.

Not that there’s anything wrong with profit.  The goal of any private business enterprise isn’t to break even.  It’s to make money.  Typically, as much as possible.

Part of the reality here is that the NFLPA has no legal right to obtain financial information unless and until the league cites financial concerns as one of the reasons for seeking a new deal.

Still, the union wants more information to support the league’s position that its not making as much profit as the league’s teams would like to make.  Without it, the union can’t even begin to justify making financial concessions.

Frankly, we continue to agree with the union on this one issue.  There simply has to be some sharing of financial information to support the notion that the risk and the investment of time and worry and the value of the brands involved aren’t yielding a sufficient amount of money for those who own the teams once all expenses have been paid.

Again, the owners are entitled to make a profit.  But they simply can’t expect the union to take their word for it when it comes to how much profit the owners already are enjoying.

It’s clearly a sticky situation for the league.  Rich guys saying they’re not getting sufficiently richer never goes down well with the public. 

Especially at a time when more and more members of the NFL’s audience are paying more than half their hourly wage for a single gallon of the stuff they use to get to and from the places where they earn their money.