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The NFL and its players will open talks in the next month for a new labour agreement in hopes of avoiding a work stoppage in America's most popular sport.

League owners voted unanimously last year to end their agreement with the NFL Players Association two years early in a move to cut salary costs. The existing deal now ends after the 2010 season.

"There isn't a day where I won't pray for labour peace," NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith said at a sports law conference in Chicago.

"This is a game that has grown dramatically because of that labour peace," he added. "But at the same time, our players understand that there may also be a war on the forefront."

Smith was part of a panel that included the heads of the four major US sports' unions, while executives from the management ranks spoke on a separate panel.

Dennis Curran, the NFL's senior vice president in charge of labor litigation and policy, told the conference the owners' bargaining committee would open talks with Smith in the next month. Smith said talks would begin soon.

Smith, a Washington attorney, was elected in March to a three-year term as head of the union, replacing long-time leader Gene Upshaw, who died last August of pancreatic cancer.

Upshaw had warned the players would not take less money and that a lockout by the owners might occur in 2011. The NFL has not had a work stoppage since 1987.

The NFL's success is reflected in the highest TV ratings among US sports and annual revenue of more than $7 billion. In opting to end the labour deal early, owners said player costs were too high and teams were being forced to spend ever-increasing amounts on stadium construction.

"We have to tweak the system," Curran said. "We can align the interests of the union and management as we have over the past 15 years."

In the past year, the league and its 32 teams have cut more than 370 jobs due to the recession, while league licensing and sponsorship revenue came in below expectations, he said. Nevertheless, player salaries rose 6 percent, he added.

But Curran said the owners would not share the league's financial data to support their arguments as the union has requested.

"The union has a very clear idea of our revenues," he said. "We're not going to open our books."

Smith pointed to surging franchise values and the sport's popularity and said any talks would start with the issue of financial disclosure.

"When we get to a point where we... understand the profit-loss per team, we will be partners," he said.

"Where we understand the average rate of return per game per team, we will be truly partners," Smith added. "Where we understand the profit margin per team per playoff game, we will be partners, but we're not there yet."

The NBA's owners are also looking to cut player costs and hope to sit down with union leaders this summer after the current season is completed, said Daniel Rube, the NBA's senior vice president and deputy counsel.

NBA players now get 57 per cent of all basketball-related income. The current labor deal runs through the 2010-2011 season and NBA owners have the option to extend it one year.

Hal Biagas, deputy counsel for the NBA Players Association, said, "We're happy to sit down with them once the season ends and start engaging in discussions and hopefully work toward getting a new deal, but a new deal is going to be something that works for the players and not only the owners."

Reuters