Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, for example, initially could not agree on how to divide revenues and responsibilities between the federal government and the regions.

The way the owners feel, it makes sense is to divide revenues on a percentage basis, a salary cap.

It is inherently unfair, they say, to divide revenues for one quarter by all-time customers.

The new tariff scheme caused solar company Sunday Solar Energy to announce that it would invest $133 million to install photovoltaic solar arrays on kibbutzim, which are social communities that divide revenues amongst their members.

"The other major sports clearly recognized that they could not survive without such a system in which they divided revenues on a negotiated percentage basis," he said.

The central issue, he added, remains: "how we divide revenues, what will the player costs be.

How do we divide revenues between us?

Neither the owners nor the players would divulge details, but it appears that the issue has killed any progress toward agreement on a mechanism to divide revenues.

"It's a complex question about how to divide revenues of $2 billion," he said.

In 1986 Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Thomas H. Kean, who had Mrs. Whitman's job at the time, agreed to divide sales-tax revenues from the concessions on Ellis Island and Liberty Island.