EA To Get Exclusive NFL Player Rights?

Thanks to GameSpot for its news story reporting that EA may be on the verge of an exclusive contract for NFL football player likenesses. According to the piece, which quotes a Sports Business Journal article: "Electronic Arts is in final negotiations with Players Inc., the NFL Players' Association marketing arm, to exclusively license all NFL player rights for the next four years. The Journal set the price tag of the deal at $250 million each year, which EA would pay Players Inc.; in other words, a literal billion-dollar contract." The story goes on to note: "If that turns out to be the case, no non-EA Sports game could license NFL player likenesses--an almost certainly fatal blow to the Madden series' rivals." Update: 05/19 21:07 GMT by S : It seems the linked article has been retracted: "When contacted by GameSpot, NFLPA executives said that not only was the story false, but The Sports Business Journal has since run a retraction."

Comments

Monopoly

[Mr_Blank]

EA's competitors will go after the NFL and the player's association on the basis of the NFL unfairly using its Monopoloy. Have you ever heard at the end of a televised NFL game that "this broadcast is copyrighted by the NFL. Pictures, vidoes, and descriptions of this game my not be rebroadcast blah blah blah without written permission from the NFL". As far as I understand it, this applies even to the evening news stations. Imagine if FOX got an exclusive deal with the NFL to be the only broadcaster to be able to show video clips from the game. Every other televised news program and sports program would be in serious jeapordy with a segment of their customers. Here is where it gets interesting: The NFL (and NBA and Major League Baseball by the way) are given limited monopolies in the US by Congress. That monopoly power is powerful good for making money, but it also gives the leagues special responsibilities. If anyone or any other company thinks the NFL is abusing its monopoly power, then they can sue. Everytime the league gets sued it risks earning the ire and scrutinty of Congress which could revoke its monopoly license - imagine each team owener actually having to compete in the market place instead of being able to work closely together to set prices blah blah blah; the players union would run prices through the sky. Anyhow, for an example of the monopoly being tested in court read about the Maurice Clarett case. In a nut, if this deal goes through the other game manufacturers can sue that the NFL's monopoloy is unfairly hurting their businesses.

[[See Your Ad Here. Cheap]]

Re:Thats a real Shedload of cash.

[xaqar]

Um...EA makes Madden.

7-10 years ago football games sucked

[Syncdata]

Yes, in the heady days of 10 yard fight, and baseball simulator 1000, there were no team names, or player names, and it was fine.

But graphics then were terrible. You had no expectation that sprite A would look or behave like Jerry Rice.

Now however, when we can watch the Wide receivers eyes track the ball before he catches it on an instant replay, things like getting accurate names/team names matter greatly.

I've always been a fan of the game competing with madden, most recently ESPN/NFL2x, but if this deal goes through, the only other football games we'll see will be akin to NFL blitz. No company will invest the resources in a simulation without naming rights.

This is anti-competitive, but that's been EA's style all along. Can't compete with Command and conquer? Buy Westwood.

At least EA realizes that their utter marketplace ownership of video-football is not due to a superior product, and they need to somehow bolster their stance. Improve the game? Nah, why not just put sega/microsoft/989 out of the sports business.