NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday that owners would neither lockout players nor try to spark a strike by imposing new contract terms on the players' union, as he tried to assure fans that the season scheduled to start Sunday will be played to conclusion without a work stoppage.

"Our fans deserve to know that the 2002 season will be played to completion without interruption and they deserve to know that now before we begin the new season," said a statement from Selig.

A spokesman for the Major League Baseball Players Association did not have an immediate comment on the commissioner's statement. The players are generally seen as willing to continue to play another season under terms of the contract that has raised average annual salaries above the $2 million mark.

"A strike is not something we've even considered at this point," said union spokesman Greg Bouris.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig pledged Tuesday not to lockout players or impose a new contract this year in an effort to avoid baseball's eighth work stoppage.

The owners have argued that the current contract has caused losses that require a significant change in the contract and in baseball's economic structure. Selig testified before Congress last year that only five of 30 teams made money last year and that game-wide losses reached $519 million, figures that were disputed by the players' union as well as many outside observers.

The contract between Major League Baseball and the union expired in the days following last year's World Series. The two sides are holding talks on a possible new agreement, but most reports suggest they are still far apart on their proposals.

There has not been a new contract reached between the union and Major League Baseball in more than 30 years without a work stoppage of some form -- four strikes and three lockouts by owners since 1972. The last work stoppage, a strike by players in 1994 and 1995, eliminated the World Series that year for the first time in 90 years.

There was relatively little progress in negotiations during the off season while the two sides fought about the owners' proposal to eliminate two of the 30 major league teams. Those plans were eventually at least put on hold due to legal roadblocks that arose during the fight.

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The players have launched three of their four strikes in the past after the season had already gotten under way, when their leverage is greater, while owners have always locked out players during spring training, before a season began, when they did not risk losing any significant revenue. So a pledge of no lockout at this point in spring training is somewhat empty. But the promise not to seek to impose a new contract without an agreement from the union would remove one of the incentives for the union to go on strike during the season. The current labor contracts for individual players are in effect throughout the season no matter what collective bargaining agreement is reached.

Selig's statement suggested that he has not changed his negotiating stance with the union, in which he is seeking that teams will pay a penalty if they exceed team payroll limits, which would act like a salary cap, along with greater sharing of revenue between teams.

"The inability of the clubs and the players association to reach closure on a new basic agreement that would resolve the basic inequity of competitive imbalance that exists in our game today should not, I believe, be a burden borne by our fans," said Selig's statement. "I am hopeful that in the ensuing months both sides, without the threat of a labor disruption hanging over their heads, can peaceably solve the difficult competitive balance and economic problems we face."

However Selig is still committed to taking one action that is certain to prompt some kind of action from the players' union. Major League Baseball spokesman Patrick Courtney said that the commissioner still intends to enforce a rule on ball clubs that limits their debt to 40 percent of a franchise value.

Selig has said that he'll include the value of long-term contracts in the calculation of that debt, a definition that would place many teams out of compliance with the rule, and that could act as a de facto salary cap on future contracts. The players' union has vowed to fight that proposal, although no grievance has yet been filed and no strike threat issued over that proposal.