Specter of labor strife in 3 major sports

NEW YORK — Labor strife looms in the new year for the NFL, NBA and NHL. By this time next year, two of the three leagues could be dark.

The National Football League's labor contract expires March 4, followed by the National Basketball Association's on June 30, Major League Baseball's on Dec. 11 and the National Hockey League's on Sept. 15, 2012.

Only baseball, interrupted by eight work stoppages from 1972 to 1995, shows signs of peacefully reaching a new agreement.

NFL players, meanwhile, are bracing for a stoppage, going so far as to post a "Lockout Watch" countdown clock on the home page of the union's website.

"The players believe this lockout is going to occur," NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith said.

Coming out of the national recession, management wants to reduce the percentage of revenue that goes to players. The goal has been voiced by NFL and NBA owners and could spill over to the NHL.

"All we can say now is those seem to be the proposals from football and basketball," former baseball players' union head and new NHL players' boss Donald Fehr said during an interview with the Associated Press. "While a lot of the words and phrases are the same and while all three industries have caps of various types, all three industries are different."

The NFL was interrupted by strikes in 1982 and 1987. The NBA was stopped by preseason lockouts in 1995, 1996 and 1998, followed by a regular-season lockout in 1998-99 that extended to Jan. 6 and wiped out the first 464 games.

Hockey has had an even more tumultuous time. After a brief strike in April 1992 led to the postponement of 30 games, a 103-day lockout in 1994-95 caused the cancellation of 468 games. That was nothing compared to the lockout that obliterated the entire 2004-05 season.

Given the NFL's predominant place in the American sports scene, its labor talks are of interest to most. Running the most successful of the U.S. leagues, NFL management is worried that any gains achieved would be wiped out by fan backlash, similar to the one baseball experienced after the 7 1/2-month strike of 1994-95 eliminated the World Series for the first time in nine decades. Baseball's average attendance didn't rebound to its pre-strike level until 2007.

"That's why we would all like to get it done. And that's why we're completely focused and making it the highest priority to get a collective bargaining agreement. The fans want football," Commissioner Roger Goodell said.