Business of Sports December 30, 2010, 1:44PM EST

The Biggest Sports Controversies of 2011

From a looming football strike to Roger Clemens' steroid trial: What sports fans aren't looking forward to in the New Year

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For any number of reasons, sports fans have a lot to look forward to in 2011. There will be new champions to crown, new records to set, and new athletes to marvel at. But there will also be some controversial moments to watch for that reflect the less noble side of pro sports: greed, egoism, race, and the use of banned substances.

First up is the looming football strike. In 2010 the golden zeppelin that is the National Football League continued to rise with viewership is at an all-time high, driven in part by the estimated 29 million Americans who participate in fantasy football leagues. Twenty-seven NFL games this season have captured 20 million or more viewers, a milestone reached by only nine non-football TV programs this fall—seven of them being episodes of Dancing with the Stars. And 15 NFL games have thus far cleared the 25 million-viewer mark, compared with a total 9 NFL games during the 2009 season.

Alas, all indications point to an NFL work stoppage in 2011, as the owners and the players' union are nowhere near coming to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, and the current contract expires Mar. 3. The main issues at stake, according to officials from both sides who have commented on the process, are how future revenue will be divided, whether an 18-game season is viable, and escalating personal conduct policies.

Forget the TV honchos. Forget the fantasy player. Forget even the Joe Six Pack Sunday fans. How will this affect the "little guys" in the NFL's 31 communities, and elsewhere, whose livelihood at least partially piggybacks on the NFL? Especially in the league's smaller markets, such as Green Bay, Jacksonville, and Buffalo? Whatever else it is, the high-flying NFL is at heart a multibillion-dollar cottage industry.

What the Losses Could Entail

In late November, obviously hoping to drum up widespread support for the players, National Football League Players Assn. President Kevin Mawae sent letters to mayors and governors in every NFL market to give them a sense of what losing football could mean to their local communities and regions. According to the letters Mawae sent out, "each NFL city could lose more than $160 million in jobs and revenue if football shuts down." The NFL responded in a statement posted on NFLLabor.com that read in part: "Now that the union leaders have … issued press releases about their letter-writing campaign to mayors and governors, we are hopeful that they might find more time to talk to us. The union's request for state and local political leaders to intercede in the negotiations ignores and denigrates the serious and far more substantial problems that those leaders, and that state and local workers across the country, face. We can resolve our own issues, as we have done many times in the past, but the NFLPA has to want to participate in resolving them."

On a local level, tens of thousands of workers and businesses could be affected if an NFL work stoppage actually occurs and the 2011 season is cut short or even lost. Seasonal stadium workers, parking lot attendants, public safety officers, transportation providers, restaurants and bars, retailers, and even the banks that service stadium and infrastructure debt would experience losses. The absence of the $4 billion fantasy football market would affect hundreds of other websites, most of them homespun. Even your local bookie would feel the pain, as the estimated $100 billion wagered on NFL games each season, both legally and illegally, would go elsewhere (and not necessarily into your 401k).

The New York Times has noted that even now teams are "having trouble getting local sponsors to negotiate deals because of the uncertainty about next season, and once the season ends, the fallout will affect season-ticket and suite renewals, too." League-wide sponsors are certainly next, and then, those TV honchos may want to pay the NFL headquarters on Park Avenue a call.