NHL To Reject Union Proposal

The National Hockey League will reject last week's National Hockey League Players' Association proposal on Tuesday, according to The Sports Network of Canada.

A confidential memorandum that was obtained by TSN displays the league's reaction to the union's proposal, which was offered during a meeting last Thursday in Toronto. The memo was sent to the governors and alternate governors of all 30 teams.

"In sum, we believe the Union's Dec. 9 CBA proposal, while offering necessary and significant short-term financial relief, falls well short of providing the fundamental systemic changes that are required to ensure that overall league economics remain in sync on a going-forward basis," NHL executive vice president Bill Daly wrote in the memo. <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

"While the immediate 'rollback' of 24 percent offered by the Union would materially improve league economics for the 2004-05 season, there is virtually nothing in the Union's proposal that would prevent the dollars 'saved' from being re-directed right back into the player compensation system, such that the league's overall financial losses would approach current levels in only a matter of a couple of years."

The league and union are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Toronto, at which time the NHL is expected to issue a counter-proposal. The deal that was proposed by the NHLPA last week featured an immediate 24 percent rollback of player salaries, a significant increase from the 10 percent that was rejected in September. Thursday's proposal did not, however, feature a salary cap, or the assurance of "cost certainty" that is being sought by the league.

The lockout reached its 89th day on Monday. Last Thursday's meeting was the first between the two sides of this labor strife since September 9.

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The league is going to lose this battle in the court of public opinion. The players offer was a shrewd proposal that will seriously hurt Bettman's premeditated union busting. If the season is lost 99% will blame it on the owners now. If the union didn't make this offer Bettman could have gotten away with using scabs next year, but it won't fly now.

Time to make a deal Gary. Maybe things get out of hand again in 3 or 4 years, but no one thinks that is certain except for you.

It is depressing to say the least, especially as a relatively new fan.

This royally sucks if true.

The worst part is that Tampa gets to keep the ref-assisted heisted cup from the great country of Canada one more season if these assclown American owners continue to *** up this great sport.

Good for the NHL. Let these chumps go get a real job and then see if they will come back and work for half of what they were making. The NHL and the owners are in business to make money not to go bankrupt by paying their "talent" way too much money.




The players will be back

Just for the record -- I'd still bet on scabs. Hint, hint Mr Golisano

Wild Bill,
I respectfully disagree. The players offer was nothing more like a shot of morphine, it eases the pain in the short term, but does not cure the disease. The PA's attempt of a 24% rollback was like an NDP promise, knowing they will never have control but look good from a PR point of view.
This whole situation is a complete mess with nobody wanting to look at the big picture problem. First of all, with no major TV contract, both parties are in a position of weakness. If you have a solid product, you shouldn't have to beg or give the farm away for a TV contract, you should have the networks fighting for your TV rights. However, Hockey will never fly in the states for one reason, it's competing with the NBA and there's no shot in hell they will win over those loyal fans. Let's face it, after Baseball season, the regular sports fans turns to either College Hoops or NBA for the mid week sports fix. I'm a true believer, the NBA is so solid today because of one person, Michael Jordan. If you recall in the 80's you would do anything to watch a Bulls game, because you wanted to see Jordan pop 50 points a game, dunk from the foul line and dazzle people with the amazing dunks. I can give 10 reasons why people won't watch NHL hockey down south, but we all know why. Hockey up in Canada would outdraw the Popes visit up here, so there's no selling or marketing to be done up here, but they are fighting a lost cause in the States. However, you do have some markets that are worth spending ad money in the States like Detroit, Minnesota, New York, Boston and a few more winter states.
The worst part about this lockout, if you support the owners, everything you say is right. If you support the players, everything you say is right. It's like a political party right now and the result is a split "locker room" type thing. It's really sad seeing ex players and ex gm's and ex club president trying to prove their story is right.
Truly sad, as the NHL can't afford this lockout for the future of the game down south.
Ron

you have a better chance at seeing Go................... Ah forget it

this is bad news.....

No one cares about hockey, lets face it

I care about it, just not now. Neither side has lost a thing yet and that is why neither side has been fighting much so far. About 70% of the revenues can be earned if they just start playing on Feb 1. Ron Raymond, highly respect a lot of your opinions, but I have to say the owners are in a bad spot now. They had most of the public on their side, but not any more if they keep making these wild dissertations about how the costs aren't "certain". Here the players are saying we will take numbers we don't even agree with and cover you. You say you need $250 million to break-even; this gives you even more. Any new contracts going forward start from this number. You guys see what numbers work and don't work for your franchises, be a little smarter.

My feeling is the owners should take this, maybe put in a couple small points here and there and start playing. If in 3 years the numbers are getting out of whack again, then the ball is in the players court. The owners can say "we tried your idea, it doesn't work. Now try ours or else". The reason I fret is because I suspect Bettman wants nothing less than to bust the union. He has had huge leverage to do so, look the players blinked first. This is a massive pay cut and addresses just about every owner concern except for what happens 5 to 10 years from now. I agree with your point that the game has an attractiveness problem, but my sense is that intractable owners refusing to negotiate won't make the game more attractive to the public in the long run. If the players did little more than trim the salaries a bit and say nothing else will change the owners could have busted the union. But you don't have that anymore. The owners just lost the PR side of the battle and should just accept that and now make a deal. Once again if it doesn't work in 3 years, go ahead and do this dance again from a far superior negotiating position. If anything the players left themselves screwed because if the owners really wanted to bust the union, they could intentionally sabotage the economics of the game again and get what they want down the road. But for now they should fold, play nice, and get the game back on the ice before this gets any worse.

Wild Bill,

This is what I mean, it shouldn't be about PR to see who looks good, players or owners. This is about the game of Hockey finding an economic system that will work for every team. The owners want to put in place a system, where small market teams like Edmonton or Nashville has the same chance of winning the Stanley Cup against rich and "deep pocketed" teams like Toronto, NYR, and Detroit.

If you ask me, I think this is about creating parity for the wagering community. Let's face it, society is seeing their number 1 and 2 vice of choice decline with Cigarettes and Alcohol for health and drinking and driving reasons, so the next vice to benefit from is gambling to off set high taxes in either the States or Canada. I don't think money is the main reason for this lockout, I think it's part of the lockout, but I think there's a hidden agenda here and it's in the form of gaming. Heck, give it another 10 years and I think every state and province will have their own brothels.

These owners have their fingers in so many pies that nothing but some creative accounting can fix their loses. I'm torn as well to which side to support. In one corner, you have owners who are running a business and when you work for somebody else you are put into a position of weakness, as you have a choice to work for that person or organisation or not. However, the players have kept this product on life support through the 90's and if it weren't for them playing the game and keeping the history and traditions going, who knows where hockey would be today, so they have a reason to fight for what they want.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter whose fault is it about the current situation, you have to look towards the future and say, "ok, where do we want to go from here." I think we hold sports to highly in society and we've lost focus on real life situations. Hell, if you don't want to play hockey for 1 million a year, then go to work like the rest of us. Ask a soldier, doctor or a nurse if they care about the hockey lockout.

Ron