Labor strife looms in the New Year for the NFL, NBA and NHL. By this time next year, two of the three leagues could be dark.

The National Football League's labor contract expires on March 4, followed by the National Basketball Association's on June 30, Major League Baseball's on Dec. 11 and the National Hockey League's on Sept. 15, 2012.

Only Major League Baseball, interrupted by eight work stoppages from 1972-95, shows signs of peacefully reaching a new agreement.

NFL players, meanwhile, are bracing for a stoppage, going so far as to post a "Lockout Watch" countdown clock on the home page of the union's website.

"The players believe this lockout is going to occur," NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith said.

Coming out of the Great Recession, team owners want to reduce the percentage of revenue that goes to players. The goal has been voiced by NFL and NBA owners, and could spill over to the NHL.

"All we can say now is those seem to be the proposals from football and basketball," former MLB players' union head and new NHL players' boss Donald Fehr said during an interview with The Associated Press. "While a lot of the words and phrases are the same and while all three industries have caps of various types, all three industries are different and the nature of the internal economics is not the same."

The NFL was interrupted by strikes in 1982 and 1987. The NBA was stopped by preseason lockouts in 1995, 1996 and 1998, followed by a regular-season lockout in 1998-99 that extended to Jan. 6 and wiped out the first 464 games.

Ice hockey has had an even more tumultuous time. After a brief strike in April 1992 led to the postponement of 30 games, a 103-day lockout in 1994-95 caused the cancellation of 468 games. That was nothing compared to the lockout that obliterated the entire 2004-05 season.

Given its predominant place in the American sports scene, the NFL's labor talks are of interest to most. Running the most successful of the U.S. leagues, NFL management is worried that any gains achieved would be wiped out by fan backlash, similar to the one MLB experienced after the 7 1/2-month strike of 1994-95 eliminated the World Series for the first time in nine decades. MLB's average attendance didn't rebound to its pre-strike level until 2007.

"That's why we would all like to get it done. And that's why we're completely focused and making it the highest priority to get a collective bargaining agreement. The fans want football," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. "I think that we have been very clear about the fact that when there is uncertainty, that's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the fans. It's not a good thing for your business partners. It's not a good thing for the potential for revenue, going at it that way. It can be damaging to the game and that's something we're trying to avoid."

The NFL's deal was struck in March 2006 and was to have run through February 2013. But owners voted in May 2008 to exercise an opt-out clause that ends the agreement after the 2010 season. At the time of that opt-out vote, management said it was paying players $4.5 billion, or just under 60 percent of revenues as specified in the 2006 agreement.

Switching to an 18-game regular season, up from the 16-game format that has been in place from 1978, is a chief management goal along with halving the four preseason games that have comparatively low appeal. Players want more roster spots and a decrease in offseason workouts from the current level of 14 weeks.

NFL players struck in 1982, resulting in the cancellation of 98 games, and again in 1987, when 14 were called off before owners used replacement players for three weeks. After the union decertified, a federal jury in Minneapolis ruled in 1992 that NFL owners violated antitrust laws when they put a limited "Plan B" free-agent system in place after the strike. The sides finally agreed to a labor contract in January 1993, and they reached new deals long before expiration and without stoppages in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006.

Players already have voted, team-by-team, to authorize decertifying their union. This would allow them to file an antitrust suit without the six-month wait specified after the current contract expires. Smith has advised members to save their last three game checks in case of a lockout and to prepare for the discontinuation of medical coverage, forcing them to pay out-of-pocket under the federal COBRA law. The players' association estimated about $160 million in local spending and 3,000 jobs would be lost in each league city if the 2011 season wasn't played, figures the NFL disputed.

Rhetoric also is running high in the NBA, where commissioner David Stern says the league's goal is to reduce labor costs by nearly 40 percent, or $700 million to $800 million annually. Players currently are guaranteed 57 percent of NBA revenues, and the union has offered to decrease its percentage share, albeit with salary-cap loopholes.

NBA union head Billy Hunter is "99 percent sure" there will be a lockout, saying owners want to slash salaries, contract lengths and guarantees, raises, and the rookie salary scale.

"I don't really see that the argument's all that compelling for the changes that they're asking for," Hunter said.

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AP Sports Writers Jamie Aron, Rachel Cohen, Howard Fendrich, Brian Mahoney and Ira Podell contributed to this report.