The NFL and the players’ union have reached a stalemate in negotiations, and have agreed to extend talks for another week.

“There’s a commitment from both sides to engage in another round of negotiations at the request of the mediation service,” DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said at a news conference, according to The Washington Post. “We look forward to a deal coming out of that.”

Not everyone initially agreed to the extension, but the two parties ultimately reached a consensus to give themselves another week, until midnight on Friday, to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement that would avoid the game’s first work stoppage in more than two decades, reports the New York Times.

According to sources close to the talks, both sides have made some advances in non-economic issues such as the rookie wage scale and post career benefits and healthcare. However, they have yet to get any closer to reaching an agreement on how to divide the $9 billion NFL annual revenue and how much more the owners should get besides the $1 billion they currently get, says the New York Times.

If the two sides don’t agree, and the game shuts down for the first time in 23 years, the league could lose $400 million a week in revenue during the season, reports USA Today. If no deal is reached before the summer, and work stoppage takes place, there could also be a loss of an additional $200 million in revenue that is generated the offseason,

“If both sides give a little, everyone can gain a lot,’’ said Jeff Pash, the league’s general counsel and lead negotiator to the Boston Globe. “And that’s what we have to try to do next week. It’s a challenge, we’ve got very serious issues, we’ve got significant differences.’’

If the players’ union decides to decertify, and becomes a trade union with no authority to negotiate a deal, it could file an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, and the litigation could cost millions in legal fees, and compromise the 2011 season. Both sides want to avoid such a scenario.