TUESDAY, 4:44pm: The NFL released a statement today on the arbitrator’s decision that will result in the 2016 salary cap to rise further than anticipated, stating the league’s error stemmed from a technical accounting error regarding stadium construction and renovation projects, via Daniel Kaplan of the SportsBusiness Journal (TwitLonger link).
MONDAY, 9:11pm: An arbitrator found that the NFL withheld roughly $120MM in ticket revenue from its players over the past three years, as Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal writes. Now, the league will have to make it up to the players by increasing the salary cap by roughly $2MM per team, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. 
In December, the league’s estimate projected a cap between $150MM and $153.4MM with many saying that the number would land closer to the upper maximum of that range. Now, with the latest bump up, the cap could easily approach ~$155MM for the 2016 season.
“They created an exemption out of a fiction and they got caught,” said DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFLPA.
The league’s spokesman, meanwhile, referred to the ruling as the resolution of a “technical accounting issue under the CBA involving the funding of stadium construction and renovation projects.” Regardless of what the league says, this ruling marks yet another legal victory for the NFLPA which is a good sign for the union going forward. More importantly, the ruling has the potential to give players an additional $60MM+ in 2016.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Sweet
How much of it are you going to see?
Of course we see none of if but our teams benefit from it. Means we can get more valuable players for the money we have available so we have every right to be happy even if we don’t see any of it. Im pretty stoked. My team need every bit of help they can get.
We? My team? I didn’t know we had an owner/GM here.
I see your one of those people. Does it really matter when a fan says we/my team?
Billionaires not bargaining in good faith with their employees. You have all this money and you want to try and withhold money. Absolute greed.
Billionaires not dealing in good faith with their employees. Such greed. How much money do you really need??
What a joke. The NFL makes more money than baseball, but the players get paid significantly less in comparison. The NFL players have shorter careers, so it’s even worse for the players. The cap per team should be at least $150 Million, considering how many teams in the mlb have payrolls near there and considering the fact the NFL makes MORE MONEY.
Okay, so it is 150 M, but that’s still on the low end of what it should be. Imagine if there was no cap. 150M is what a small market team would be willing to pay. Also, there are way more players in the NFL, and they deserve to get payed.