Friday could be a turning point - Ingles

I've stayed above the fray in the labor dispute between the NFL owners and players. No. 1, it's baseball season. No. 2, the warring factions will eventually settle. They always do. No. 3, the constant whining over big-money labor disputes is boring. No. 4, it's pretty silly to cast one group as heroes, the other as villains.

There is plenty of blame to be tossed around, so throw two penalty flags for unsportsmanlike conduct, one on each side. There are no victims here. No owner is declaring for bankruptcy. And as much as we personally like outspoken NFL Players Association activist Drew Brees and most of the players, this isn't the movie "Norma Rae," and his colleagues aren't abused factory workers.

The NFL owners locked the players out because it's a hard-edged but standard bargaining tool in a tough negotiation. It doesn't make them fascists. And it doesn't make commissioner Roger Goodell the football version of Dr. Evil.

Rather than get serious about negotiating, the players preferred to put pressure on the owners through litigation. That's why the players hired a trial lawyer, DeMaurice Smith, to head the union and lead the charge against the owners. Everyone is playing hardball.

In my unemotional view, it seems as if the owners have been more willing than the players to hash all of this out through collective bargaining. Remember that the players, not the owners, walked away from the negotiations. And as long as the players were confident of prevailing in court, they had no reason to grant concessions to the owners at the bargaining table.

The players' path to victory may be blocked by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals here in St. Louis. Through a lawyer, each side will have 30 minutes to present its argument during a hearing Friday morning downtown at the Thomas F. Eagleton Courthouse.

If as expected the 8th Circuit decides to keep the lockout in place, the players may be more motivated to resume earnest negotiations. Some players already have missed out on lucrative workout bonuses. If the standoff goes on much longer, the players will start to worry about the increased likelihood of missing paychecks. And that could lead to increasing pressure from within the union to make a deal with the owners.

Of course, if the 8th Circuit rules in favor of the players, the lockout will be lifted, official league business will resume, and that will likely lead to the official return of NFL football, on schedule, for 2011.

This is all about leverage. Either way, the court's decision should be a tipping point.

If I must lean to one side in this skirmish to divide $9 billion in annual revenue, I'll do it for selfish and blatantly parochial reasons.

I like having an NFL team in St. Louis. I like the idea of Sam Bradford and James Laurinaitis playing their entire NFL careers here and building something special for a thriving St. Louis Rams franchise. I'm in favor of anything that helps to secure the Rams' future in our town.

And if that means hoping that the owners get a workable deal, one that helps lessen the financial stress on the Rams, I won't apologize for that.

The next collective bargaining agreement will likely have significant influence on the Rams' financial standing and future. Sure, owner Stan Kroenke is a billionaire. He won't be panhandling. I get it. But that really isn't the point.

Everything I know and believe about Kroenke is that he'll operate the franchise in an efficient manner, with an emphasis on drafting and developing players. Kroenke won't be a huge, wanton spender racing out to buy celebrity free agents.

And while I don't believe Kroenke is in the football biz to make the maximum financial haul with the Rams — his big profits come through other business endeavors — he isn't in the NFL to lose money, or to see his team at a considerable disadvantage with a revenue base that lags far behind the big-market franchises and their vastly higher profit margins.

Kroenke isn't in this to lose games, either. I believe he'll try to make it work at the Edward Jones Dome, at least for a reasonable period of time, as long as the Rams can remain financially healthy and competitive.

As a Kroenke associate explained to me recently: If player costs remain relatively stable instead of escalating dramatically, the economic disparity won't be as pronounced. The higher-revenue teams will have an advantage, yes. But on the economic scale, there will be less of a gap between the top and the bottom. And the Rams reside in the lower-middle class of earners.

Translation: A good deal for the NFL owners will be a good deal for Kroenke, and that should help extend the Rams' viability in St. Louis.

It's ironic that this crucial proceeding will take place at the Eagleton Courthouse, named for the late U.S. senator from Missouri. Eagleton, of course, played a major role in brokering the deal that lured the Rams away from Los Angeles and to St. Louis.

And part of the agreement was a de facto escape clause that would allow the Rams to jump out of their lease if The Ed falls below the top-25 percent level of NFL stadiums. And because of that escape clause, which Eagleton signed off on, the franchise's long-term presence in St. Louis isn't firm. The way things look now, the Rams could opt out of the lease after the 2014 season.

But if Kroenke (and the other owners) are happy with the results of the CBA, it would be the first step in ensuring the Rams' financial health, even as they play in a venue that's becoming outdated by present-day NFL standards. Since The Ed opened in 1995, we've seen 18 new stadiums rise in the NFL, with four others being enhanced to become good-as-new through massive renovations.

At some point, the stadium issue here will be addressed. Public money for a new stadium is out of the question, but if Kroenke likes how his football investment is going in St. Louis, he'd be more inclined to build a stadium with his own money. And Kroenke would be abetted through financial contributions from the NFL, which assists owners in their new-stadium projects.

I'm not pro-owner.

I'm pro-STL.

These battling owners and players will come and go.

But I want the Rams to stay.
This article was written by Bernie Miklasz and appeared in The St.Louis Post-Dispatch.