Players and owners ratify new deal

NBA players and owners have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement that promises players a significant slice of the billions of dollars being generated by the league, the NBA said on Friday.

While details have not been officially released, US media reported when the deal was tentatively agreed that players will keep between 49 and 51 percent of basketball related income (BRI), and can expect to see $1.5 billion more in player salaries in the first year of the new deal than they saw under the 2011 contract soon to expire.

With a nine-year, $24 billion television deal with ESPN and Turner Sports making for the most prosperous era in the history of the NBA, the parties had reached agreement on the deal last Wednesday, one day before an opt-out deadline.

The new deal also contains an opt-out clause after the sixth year.

The cordial negotiations were a far cry from those leading to the last contract in 2011, when owners locked out players in a work stoppage that lasted more than five months and caused the 201112 season to be trimmed to 66 games per team.

Athletes compete in the women’s 12.5km mass start competition, part of the IBU Biathlon World Cup, in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, on December 18. Russia on Thursday withdrew from holding a Biathlon World Cup event in March and the world youth championships after international protests over its doping record, the world governing body said. The Czech Republic and Britain had threatened to boycott the World Cup event if it was held in Russia, and the International Biathlon Union said the country had decided to back out of acting as hosts. The IBU said it had suspended two Russian competitors and launched an investigation into 29 others after they were named in the McLaren report on Russian doping.