End to NFL Player Lockout Imminent

Lawyers for National Football League teams and players are working on the final details of a labour agreement that would end the four-month lockout and allow USA’s richest and most-popular sports league season to start on schedule.

Lawyers for both sides will continue working separately today with the intention of drafting a deal, rumoured to last 10 years, that would then go to a vote of players and owners.

A majority of the 1,900 players is needed to ratify any agreement.

The NFL Players Association’s executive committee began meeting in Washington yesterday and if an agreement is completed today, could recommend to the full membership whether or not to approve it.

Owners could ratify the contract at a meeting scheduled in Atlanta, with 24 of 32 votes necessary for adoption. tomorrow

The deal would give players about 48 percent of the league’s projected US$9.3 billion in revenue, and cap payrolls at about US$120 million a team in 2011, with additional benefits, down from about US$128 million in 2009.

The agreement would also create a pay scale for rookies and free-agency rules that allow most veterans to negotiate with any team after four years.