Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Q&A about baseball's labor dispute
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Questions and answers about baseball's labor dispute:
Q. Will players set a strike date?
A. After backing off setting a date on Monday, the union's executive board will have a telephone conference call Friday to review developments. If there is not an agreement by then, the board likely will set a strike date for Aug. 30.
Q. Why didn't players make a decision Monday?
A. Management officials suggested to the union that a delay would help negotiations and suggested that commissioner Bud Selig and union head Donald Fehr speak by telephone. After that call, the executive board met and decided not to set a strike date.
Q. What is the likelihood that a settlement will be reached without a strike?
A. Hard to tell. The sides have been bargaining and narrowing their differences in recent weeks, but their track record couldn't be worse. They've had eight work stoppages in their eight previous negotiations.
Q. Why doesn't the union keep negotiating without setting a deadline?
A. Players fear that if the season ends without an agreement, owners will either lock them out (which NBA owners did to their players) or change work rules. The union prefers to have any confrontation late in the season, when owners take in more revenue and would feel more pressure.
Q. What are the biggest obstacles standing in the way of a settlement?
A. Owners want to vastly increase the amount of locally generated revenue shared by teams, and they want a luxury tax on high-payroll teams that would slow the rate of salary increases. The union thinks taking away too much money from the high-spending teams would slow salary increases.
Q. Will replacement players be used in a strike?
A. Owners have not addressed this question. After the last strike cut short the 1994 season and eliminated the World Series for the first time in 90 years, they planned to start the 1995 season with replacement players from the minor leagues and amateur ball. They abandoned that plan after a federal judge ruled owners violated federal labor laws by illegally changing work rules. The judge issued an injunction that restored the former work rules, and the union ended its strike.
Q. What will happen to the pennant races and postseason play if players strike?
A. If the strike is short, perhaps less than a week, games probably could be made up, which is what happened after the 1985 strike and the 1990 lockout. If there is no settlement until September and the strike extended beyond a week, the sides would have to agree how to complete the season.
Q. If the strike is still going on at the end of this season, is next season threatened as well?
A. Yes. There is no economic incentive for either side to resume serious talks until mid-March. The last dispute caused the cancellation of the first three weeks of the 1995 season.
What will owners do if there isn't a settlement this season?
A. Owners may attempt to declare an impasse and impose new work rules, a tactic that backfired when they tried it in December 1994. Or they may just keep negotiating, hoping to outlast players during a work stoppage.
Q. How would the players respond if work rules are changed?
A. Probably the same way they did after owners tried to change work rules during the last dispute: They would probably refuse to sign contracts.
Q. What will happen to attendance if there's another strike?
A: There will probably be a severe drop. The average attendance dipped from 31,612 in 1994 to 25,260 in 1995, a 20 percent decrease. The average increased to 26,889 in 1996 and 28,288 in 1997, 29,285 in 1998 before dropping to 29,019 in 1999. It rebounded to 30,009 in 2000 and 30,005 last year. This year's average is 28,677, down 5.4 percent from the comparable time last season.
Q: Which player would lose the most money?
A: Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez. He would lose $114,754.10 for each day of regular-season play canceled by a strike.
Q: How much would owners lose?
A: It depends on the length of the walkout. After the last strike, baseball revenue didn't completely return to normal until 1998.
Q: Would any teams go out of business during a strike?
A: While some franchises might be forced into bankruptcy proceedings, which could result in new owners, it is unlikely a team would go out of business solely because of a walkout. Selig intends to eliminate two teams before next year, which the union says would violate the terms of the expired contract, which remains in effect. But courts may determine if contraction occurs, not players and owners.
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Q&A about baseball's labor dispute 
