Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross appeared on the CNBC show Squawk Box on Thursday morning, and before delving into real estate talk, Ross reiterated that he remains optimistic for a full 2011 season, but only if the players get serious about solving the differences at the negotiating table.
Everybody who owns a football team really wants to play football, Ross said. You have a financial model that really doesnt work.
Once the players really kind of understand it, and not try to win through a court victory, hopefully the game will be on.
But today Ross and many of his fellow owners have created an atmosphere in which many of their employees are now rooting against them and that now includes the leagues coaches, football support staff and non-football employees, who in Miami and many other cities have become unintended victims of the lockout.
Eight days ago, the Dolphins told non-football employees that all salaries would be immediately cut by 10-20 percent for as long as the lockout lasts because of slumping season ticket sales a slump brought on in part by the lockout instituted by the owners. And yesterday the Post learned that the football staff wont be spared, either everyone from general manager Jeff Ireland and head coach Tony Sparano down to the assistant coaches and support staff will face pay cuts effective June 1.
Everyone on the business and football sides will return to normal wages once the lockout ends. But they wont get refunds on their lost wages. The lockout could end in June, but at worst could last well into the fall.
And as a team source explained Wednesday, the pay cuts have created a strange dynamic inside the Dolphins offices, where Ross employees are now rooting for the owners to lose at the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals next month so the lockout can be lifted and wages returned to normal.
The cuts are hard for many employees to accept, given that the lockout has so far only postponed the players conditioning program and a few mini-camps. Most of the revenue-generating activities dont happen until late summer and the fall. And the owners are now the ones fighting in court to keep the lockout in place.
The only significant revenue lost by the team so far is whatever shortfalls they have experienced with season ticket sales which, again, is a function of the owners actions. We reached this impasse only because the owners opted out of the CBA two years ago and ultimately enforced a lockout.
Im the newest owner. I didnt realize what I stepped into, admitted Ross, who became majority owner in January 2009.
It must be noted that the Dolphins are hardly alone in making victims out of innocent coaches and employees. At least 11 other teams, and likely more, have instituted some sort of pay cut during the lockout. The Jets almost immediately instituted a one-week furlough per month for all employees. The Cardinals cut all salaries by 35 percent. To avoid pay cuts, the Raiders are forcing all employees from executives to coaches and secretaries to sell season tickets. Seriously.
The pay cuts may make sense for the bottom line, but they have created animosity toward the owners throughout the league. Ross may be sincere when he says he really wants to play football in 2011, but no more than the innocent coaches and employees who now are suffering.
