Baseball Labor Update--Owners make offer

[Drbio]

Owners offer to lower rate for transitional period

ESPN.com news services

Baseball owners made the first movement on their key luxury-tax proposal since they
gave it to players on Jan. 9, offering during Tuesday's bargaining session to lower the
percentage for a transitional period.

Owners also proposed to cut the percentage of money that the commissioner could
unilaterally give to teams from baseball's central fund, which currently is split equally to
all teams.

Players, fearful owners will change economic rules after the World Series, have begun
to think about possible dates for a strike, which would be baseball's ninth work
stoppage since 1972. August has been the time most mentioned as a strike date.

The union has still not decided whether to hold an executive board meeting July 8, the
eve of the All-Star Game. The sides are scheduled to meet June 19, 20, 26 and 27.

"We've told the players to expect a July 8 meeting, but it isn't final yet," union chief Don
Fehr told USA Today on Tuesday after the negotiating session in New York.

There have been eight work stoppages since 1972. Players met at the All-Star Game in
1994 but did not set a strike date until July 27. That year players walked out Aug. 12,
canceling the World Series and delaying the start of the 1995 season. The strike lasted
232 days.

Fehr has emphasized that setting a strike date is a last resort.

When management first made the proposals, it asked for a 50 percent tax on the
portions of payrolls above $98 million and for a $100 million annual discretionary fund.
They offered Tuesday to not start at 50 percent and work their way up to that
percentage, and to cut the discretionary fund to $85 million, one lawyer familiar with the
talks said on the condition he not be identified.

Management also told the union that folding two teams for 2003 remains a priority, and
that Montreal is still the No. 1 targeted team. They went through about six candidates
for a second team, but did not identify any as more likely than others, the lawyers said.

The session also produced the first agreements of the talks, although on issues that are
minor. The sides finalized language in the areas of the disabled list, exhibition games, the
length of bus trips, hotels and days on option.

Owners want the luxury tax to slow the growth in player salaries, which have risen
from an average of $1.12 million in 1996 to $2.38 million this year. They also want to
vastly increase revenue sharing, which would take away money from the high-revenue
clubs, presumably forcing them to lower payrolls.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.