NEW YORK — The NFL and its players' union started yesterday on a long road that they hope can avoid a work stoppage in 2011, when the current labor contract expires.

The talks began in New York with commissioner Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, the new executive director of the NFL Players Association, both present.

"We had a good meeting and agreed to meet again," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

They were mainly about procedural issues rather than substantive ones. One early subject of contention: the union's demand the NFL teams open their books and the league's position that the union already has all the relevant financial information.

"We are focused on getting an agreement that works for the long term," Goodell said Monday during a function at Giants Stadium.

"We're not specifically setting any deadlines or dates. Our issue is we know we have two more years of football. We would like to have an agreement that works for everybody in that period of time. If it takes up to the final moment, it takes up to the final moment."

The original agreement was to last through 2013, but the owners opted out in May 2008, citing economic problems that make the nearly 60 percent of revenues that go to the players excessive. Many teams as well as the league office have since laid off employees.

While there are indications that ticket sales for 2009 are off for some teams, the league recently signed a two-year television extension through 2013 that is reported to contain increases of from three to five percent.

If there is no agreement by March, the 2010 season will be the first without a salary cap since 1993, when the first deal containing free agency and the cap was signed. That followed more than five years without a contract following the 1987 strike, when the union decertified and took its case to federal court.

The late Gene Upshaw, the union's executive director, said before his unexpected death last August that if the cap went away, there would not be another. Smith has agreed with his predecessor's stand.

"If we move to an uncapped scenario, we will not go back," Smith said during a conference call with reporters in March, days after being elected as executive director.

If there is no cap, teams would spend as much as they want for star players. However, free agency would be extended from four to six years and there would be no minimum for spending, meaning some teams could spend far less on salaries than they are now.

"I don't think every team is going to start being like the Yankees and start throwing money around," Sean O'Hara, the New York Giants' player representative, said this week. "Some teams will do that, but on the flip side, others will say since we don't have to spend $102 million, we'll spend $80 million."

IN THE COURTS

YAHOO INC. SUES NFLPA OVER ROYALTY PAYMENTS

Yahoo Inc. has sued the NFL Players Association, claiming it shouldn't have to pay royalties to use players' statistics, photos and other data in its popular online fantasy football game because the information is already publicly available.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo filed its lawsuit Monday in federal court in Minneapolis.

According to the complaint, a licensing arm of the players union has threatened to sue Yahoo if it doesn't pay for the information. The last of Yahoo's licensing agreements with NFL Players Inc. expired March 1. But Yahoo claims it doesn't need authorization, due to a court decision in April in a similar dispute between NFL Players Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc.

Fantasy sports league participants create teams comprised of real players. As the season progresses, participants track their players' statistics to judge how well their team is performing. According to the judge's decision in the CBS Interactive case, an estimated 13 million to 15 million people participate in fantasy football games that gross more than $1 billion a year.

Yahoo's lawsuit wants the court to declare that its game does not violate any rights of publicity owned or controlled by NFL Players Inc., and that any such rights would be trumped by the First Amendment and federal copyright law anyway. It also seeks to bar NFL Players Inc. from interfering with Yahoo's fantasy sports businesses, from threatening litigation, or making any statements that Yahoo or its customers are infringing the rights of NFL Players Inc.