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Labor and Agents

NFLPA reports $50 million surplus

Super Bowl 50 marked the unofficial halfway point of the NFL’s 10-year collective-bargaining agreement, signed in 2011. It’s a deal that’s widely viewed as having greatly enriched NFL team owners, though not without lifting players’ boats as well.

The NFL Players Association has seen certain financial gains in recent years, too — gains that could be beneficial for any new labor negotiations ahead.

According to the newly available annual tax return for the union, filed last month, the labor organization had a surplus of nearly $50 million for its year ended Feb. 28, 2015, nearly double the amount of the year before. Over the three years of tax-reporting periods ending with the fiscal 2015 period, the NFLPA posted nearly $100 million of gains, largely from licensing, sponsorships, player dues and other income.

That’s money that goes to pad the union’s assets, the bread and butter of any union as it prepares for labor talks and any potential strife.

“The three most important keys to success in collective bargaining are leadership, resources and leverage,” said Doug Allen, the former NFLPA chief operating officer and now a labor professor at Penn State University. “Because of the long-term success of the NFLPA’s licensing and marketing program, and because of the support of that program by players, the NFLPA continues to be well-financed and resourced and well-prepared for bargaining in the future. Also helpful was the recent increase in annual player dues from $10,000 to $15,000.”

The NFLPA declined to comment on its return. The current CBA is due to expire in 2021.

At the end of the most recent reporting period, NFLPA assets stood at $285 million, a record high. Just weeks before the owners locked the players out in March 2011, assets were $196 million, and that amount would fall to $166 million by the end of the following 12 months as the union consumed resources fighting the NFL.

NFLPA revenue for the most recent reporting period was $84 million, according to the return, up from $65 million. That does not, however, include all revenue that flows from NFL Players, the union’s for-profit licensing and sponsorship arm. At the NFLPA’s Super Bowl press conference, DeMaurice Smith, the union’s executive director, said NFL Players revenue was $160 million, a record. That citation is believed to be the first time the union publicly released that figure.

Of course, the player assets still pale compared with the owners’ wealth, with their franchises all valued at more than $1 billion, and more than $13 billion in revenue projected for the league for 2016. A little less than half that amount is shared with the players.

The tax return also discloses that Smith earned $3.15 million in the 12-month period ended Feb. 28, 2015. That compares with $2.95 million a year earlier, according to the prior annual return.

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