Tony Clark

They're more than willing to ask questions, get answers to those questions.

To the extent that any dialogue needs to happen thereafter, it could and it did.

But in regards to whether or not the commissioner's office is interested in having us sit in on those meetings, you can ask him as to whether or not he's interested.

As a ballplayer before every game, I had read the scouting report, and then I appreciated what my history was against that particular pitcher that night.

And I prepared accordingly.

Rob's been in the game and the commissioner has been in the game for a long time.

I've been in the game for a long time.

We're preparing accordingly and we'll sit down as we always do with an eye on trying to find common ground.

A fair and equitable deal is always the goal that will continue.

The players, every board meeting, the players decide whether to what extent to retain licensing dollars as we get closer and closer to bargaining.

This player group

made the determination to retain all of their group licensing and there has been no distribution of late.

The players themselves decide that.

As a result of decisions we've made as an organization, we are in a position and more importantly the players are in a position against the backdrop of those retained dollars to be financially positioned in a way they never have before.

Well, we'll have to see.

We know going into every market, every market can be a little bit different, but we do recognize that for every team that is looking to improve itself, there's going to be an opportunity to do so this offseason.

We simply hope that it's all 30 teams that are interested in trying to be the last team standing with the wherewithal that all 30 teams have going into this offseason rather than a few.

Not the negotiation itself with whatever partners they're looking to engage with.

How those negotiations go with respect to the construct of those deals and how they may otherwise affect the system that we have, that would be the discussion that we participate in.

We've had the concern since day one.