Arena Season Is Endangered

The Arena Football League’s 2000 season--the maiden season for the Los Angeles Avengers--is in jeopardy because of a labor dispute.

A group of players has formed the Arena Football League Players Assn., hoping to negotiate a legal settlement on current contracts and a basic agreement to cover future contracts.

Said Jeffrey Kessler, association attorney, “The league has placed [contract] restrictions on players that are illegal.”

If the owners are unwilling to negotiate a settlement, Kessler said, the association will file a class-action suit. He would not say when and where the suit would be filed.

“It’s up to the owners,” Kessler said Friday. “If they want to settle the legal claims, they have been told to call me as counsel for the association. We will talk about settlement. We have not filed [a lawsuit] yet but you can be confident the players will make a determination to best assert their legal rights.”

The association, however, does not see itself as a labor union and is not interested in collective bargaining, which are problems for the league.

Ron Kurpiers, the AFL’s deputy commissioner and general counsel, said Friday: “A group is attempting to organize the players as an association, not a union, for the purposes of threatening to file a lawsuit against the league so they can work out terms of employment through a settlement agreement.

“On the other side, ownership is saying it will not do anything under the threat of a lawsuit.”

Kurpiers said the league is, “immediately willing to negotiate with the players as a union and if the negotiations are for a collective bargaining agreement.”

The league conducts no annual player draft and all AFL players are free agents until they sign with a team. A signing team retains a player’s rights until he is traded, waived, released or signed by an NFL team.

League owners met this week in Chicago, where several suggested canceling the season if the association goes ahead with a class-action suit.

The AFL plans to begin its 14th season on April 13 with 18 teams. The Avengers, scheduled to play in Staples Center, are one of three expansion teams. Detroit and Carolina--Raleigh-Durham, N.C.--are the other new teams. Training camps are scheduled to open March 19.

Kessler, a New York attorney who represents players associations for the NFL, major league baseball, NBA, WNBA and Major League Soccer, said “well over 100” of the estimated 660 players in the league have joined the association.