Posted on 02/16/2005 8:37:11 AM PST by Loyalist
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's 11 a.m. ET deadline has passed without any word if the league and players are any closer to breaking the labour stalemate threatening to wipe out the hockey season.
It's unclear whether the two sides are currently negotiating.
On Tuesday, Bettman delivered a "take-it-or-leave-it" final offer to the players union. The league's proposal included a $42-million US per team salary cap without "linkage."
In a letter sent to NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow, Bettman said the offer was non-negotiable and if the players hadn't accepted it by 11 a.m. on Wednesday the hockey season would be cancelled. Bettman also warned Goodenow that future offers would decline in quality for the players if the union rejected the league's final proposal.
Bettman has scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. ET in New York.
Should he cancel the season, it would mark the first time in major professional sports history in North America that an entire season had to be scrubbed because of a labour dispute.
Both sides exchanged and rejected multiple offers over the past 48 hours and the salary cap gap now stands at $6.5-million US per team – a total of $195 million league wide.
The NHL's so-called final offer includes a $42.5-million per team salary cap, while the NHL Players' Association countered Tuesday night with a $49-million figure. The union's latest offer was $3 million lower than it proposed Monday night.
Both sides rejected each other's offer, but Canadian Press, citing an industry source, claims a deal can be made at $45 million.
However, in Bettman's letter he explained to Goodenow that the league's proposal offered "no flexibility."
Goodenow then sent a letter to Bettman outlining the union's position and counter-offer.
"We wish that the NHL had offered a 'no linkage' proposal before yesterday so that negotiations in that arena could have commenced sooner," Goodenow wrote.
"In that spirit, and in a final attempt to reach an agreement, we are adjusting our offer of yesterday in two respects."
Along with the $49 million cap, the NHLPA restructured the exception provision so that teams can spend over the cap twice during the six-year term.
Bettman quickly shot down that offer in a second letter saying the league couldn't afford the proposal.
But Goodenow wasn't buying Bettman's figures in his latest response.
''The notion that 'every club' will spend at the $49 million level is contradicted by years of actual payroll experience,'' said Goodenow.
''I am at a loss to understand how you suggest your offer earlier today represents a $75 million dollar increase when it only impacts the spending of nine teams!''
Goodenow concluded his reply by telling Bettman "you will receive nothing further from us."
Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHLPA, wasn't so diplomatic in his criticism of Bettman.
"It was Gary's choice at crunch time to refuse engaging in any negotiation and instead hide behind a series of ludicrous hypothetical fears to completely mischaracterize the impact of what we had proposed," Saskin said.
NHL fans, players and owners spent Tuesday buzzing about the radical concessions by the union and league that many thought served as the common ground needed to salvage the hockey season.
Last Wednesday, Bettman said if a deal gets done teams would play a 28-game season with each team playing a home-and-home series against its conference rivals.
with files from Canadian Press
We'll know a deal has been reached if we see a white puff of smoke from the Zamboni :)
No HOCKEY?
YAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!
I recall reading a few weeks ago an ice skating rink burned down when its Zamboni's propane tanks exploded. I guess we now will have a new Pope at the Ice Palace?
Speaking of Zambonis... it's people like the Zamboni Driver and the Ticket Taker and the Popcorn Vendor and the Security Guards that are hurt most by the lock-out. Not the billionaire owners, the millionaire players, or the wealthy luxury box season ticket holders.
Aw Shucks! No NHL Hockey. I'm deeply saddened.
there's something that sounds inherently conflicting about an ice-rink burning down.
But, it is what it is..LOL
Bones
It's all those beer-fart soked seat cushions, those things are bombs just waiting for a spark.
It is always good to see a bunch of millionaire jocks and their greedy agents and union cut their own throats trying to squeeze another thirty five cents out of the owners. I'm sure these hockey guys have all sorts of skills and professions to fall back on. Did they even get to talking about the drugs, dope and steroids?
I foresee a ring on the hand on one player's hand smacking the metal false teeth in another hockey player's mouth and FLOOEY!
That's what the glass is really for, protecting the seats from on ice sparks. Probably some part of the zamboni went over the glass.
We'll see if we can dredge up a play-by-play fishing thread for you to get excited about.
My wife was watching the cooking channel when she called me over and remarked that the chefs in the show were chefs exclusively for top NHL players. I then came to the conclusion that hockey as we know it is finished. People who have chefs to cook their meals and are on strike just doesn't add up in my book!!
Negotiating through the press is a sign that the owners and players are working more on looking better when the season is called rather than trying to settle their labor differences in bona fide negotiations.
It doesn't look good for this season to be salvaged IMHO.
We'll see if we can dredge up a play-by-play fishing thread for you to get excited about.
I guess this means ESPN will be showing more reruns of the World Series of Poker.
I appreciate that. I tried fishing years ago as a kid, and it just never rang my chimes like playing hockey.
Both of us would rather be actively involved in each of the sports than watching it, though.
1: A recent survey of New Yorkers when asked their opinion about the cancelled hockey games so far found that most of them didn't even know that hockey had been cancelled.
2: Spring training starts today. And we're talking about the hockey starting.
TS
Local ESPN station here in Pittsburgh reporting that the owners have been sent a memo stating that the season will be cancelled.
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