Tonight in Manhattan, at the New York City Executive Center, the Marist College Center for Sports Communication hosted a labor panel and discussed collective bargaining agreements in sports. The panel was hosted by Marist Professor Michael Smith, who is well-known for his days as host of popular ESPN shows such as “His and Hers” and “Numbers Never Lie.” Smith recently began teaching at Marist College this semester after fifteen years with the sports network. Marist Sports Communication students both studying in Manhattan and Poughkeepsie were in attendance, soaking in information and participating in a Q&A.
To clarify, a collective bargaining agreement is an agreement between the players association of a given league and the league itself (owners, commissioner, general managers etc.). A collective bargaining agreement touches on everything from player safety to which substances should or shouldn’t be banned to what percentage of league revenue goes to the players. In simplest terms, it is a way for players to have a say in what happens in the league and lets them establish their rights. In a sport like the NFL that causes so many injuries, player rights are particularly important. If your career can end in an instant, it’s important that the NFL Players Association fights for players to be taken care of. If a CBA is not reached before a season starts there is a “lockout,” and no games are played. This has happened in almost every major sport at one time or another.
The panel was hosted to inform Marist students who are looking to one day work in the sports world about the business relationship players have with leagues. With the NFL currently negotiating its next CBA and causing sports CBA’s to be in the news a lot recently, Marist decided it was a good time for a teaching moment. The Labor Panel was a great experience for many Sports Communications students. It offered interesting insight on a complicated subject from people that work hands on with the issue.
“The Marist Labor Panel in NYC was a great opportunity to learn about an aspect of professional sports I am not often informed about,” said Marist junior Tyler Webb. “The struggle of athletes to secure benefits, whether it be financially-based or not, is a fascinating push-pull. I particularly was intrigued by the discussion of the WNBA’s new CBA, where benefits, such as higher player salaries, stood as major wins for the WNBA players. The generally pro-player CBA negotiated for the WNBA represents major progress for women in pro sports.”
Joining Michael Smith on the panel was a group of collective bargaining experts, Marist Director of Sports Communication Jane McManus and Marist Sports Communication Professor Leander Schaerlaeckens. Among those collective bargaining experts was Terri Jackson, who is the head of the WNBA Players association. Jackson, who is the mother of NBA player Jaren Jackson Jr., was key in the recent collective bargaining agreement the WNBA just completed and was quite instrumental in guiding the discussion.
Jackson was joined by Nolan Harrison of the NFLPA and Molly Levinson who works as a player representative for the United States Women’s National Team. According Marist junior, Alex Azarm– who was in attendance– Nolan Harrison talked about how the NFL CBA’s main objective is to find a balance between every player, owner and alumni. Two hot button issues that are currently being discussed are if the NFL should expand to a seventeen game season (news that just broke tonight), and if that happens, NFL players could potentially get life-long benefits.
Azarm said that Levinson talked about how the USWNT PA was just restarted in 2015, and how she is going to trial May 5th to fight for U.S women soccer players to be paid as much as the male players.
When it came to the question and answer part of the evening, students clamored to ask the experts questions. Alex Azarm asked if league representatives try to take things from other leagues that they see works. Terri Jackson of the WNBA PA said that they often try to use things they see works in the NBA, but they think it’s important to maintain their own identity as a league.
This Labor Panel was just one of the many impressive events that Marist College Center of Sports Communication have begun to host yearly. With the introduction of Jane McManus as the Dean, (who spent ten years at ESPN) the Sports Communication program at Marist has truly taken great strides forward. The combined experience possessed by all the Sports Communication professors at Marist College is very beneficial for its students, and continues to be an invaluable asset on nights like tonight.
