BREAKING NEWS: Labor Peace To Be Announced Friday Night

Adam Markowitz
Wednesday July 25, 2012

BREAKING NEWS: Sources have confirmed to ArenaFan.com that a firm agreement has been reached between the Arena Football League and the Arena Football League Players Union. The deal was struck on Wednesday night and only needs to be finalized. An announcement is expected to be made on Friday night, quite possibly during Friday Night Football between the Utah Blaze and the San Antonio Talons on the NFL Network.

If this collective bargaining agreement does go into place, it will end a tremendous labor dispute between the AFL and the AFLPU that has raged on for well over a year. This season alone, the game between the Cleveland Gladiators and the Pittsburgh Power was forfeited due to the fact that the Players Union called for the Gladiators to go on strike, and the Week 1 game between the Power and the Orlando Predators was played with scab players after the owners fired both sets of players just hours before the game.

The AFL announced that an agreement had been made between the PU and the league owners on June 18th, but the agreement still had not been signed as of the end of the regular season. Ivan Soto, the AFLPU Executive Director, and Dan Newman, the owner of the New Orleans VooDoo had a lengthy exchange on Twitter on July 21st in which both sides admitted that there were still issues that needed to be worked out.

The threat of a postseason work stoppage was still in the cards as recently as a week ago, but with the ratification of this five-year CBA, that threat should now be history.

Stay tuned to ArenaFan.com, where we will continue to monitor and report on this developing story.