NHL and NHLPA meet for six hours
Canadian Press
4/19/2005
NEW YORK (CP) - There was no progress to report from Tuesday's NHL labour talks and things apparently ended badly.
Still, the NHL and NHL Players' Association agreed to meet with a little more frequency to help find an end to the seventh-month lockout, starting with another session next week.
Hopefully things won't pick up where they left off Tuesday.
Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, according to a source, sparked a heated exchange between both sides when he said the NHLPA's concept did not deliver the linked system his side was looking for - that player costs do not take up more than 54 per cent of league revenues.
The union responded by saying its concept was not supposed to deliver that figure, or the league's version of ''linkage.''
That pretty much ended the six and half hour meeting.
''While we discussed many of the issues related to the concept that we introduced at our last meeting, we were unable to make any progress today,'' said NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin. ''I remain concerned that the NHL is not serious about developing new concepts together and remains fixated on measuring all of our proposed concepts against a linked hard-cap system. I fail to see how we can make any progress if the NHL maintains their single-track approach.
''I expect Bob and Gary will be speaking again soon to discuss any next steps.''
NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will likely pick up the phone before the end of the weekend to decide when both sides will talk again.
The league and union had not met since April 4 in Toronto, when the NHLPA put something on the table that found some merit, at least on the surface, from the league side.
''While we continued to discuss various issues relating to the concept that was introduced at our April 4 meeting, no substantive progress toward a new agreement was made,'' Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said in a statement. ''The parties have agreed to arrange a more aggressive meeting schedule over the next several weeks in an attempt to move the process forward.''
Tuesday's talks, which began just past 11 a.m. EDT and ended around 5:30 p.m. were held on the eve on another board of governors meeting, also here in New York. The league's 30 owners are scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. at a Manhattan hotel.
The subject of replacement players will once again be front and centre at Wednesday's meeting, although it's not clear that all 30 teams are in favour of going that route.
Either way, Bettman remains adamant that the NHL season will begin next October regardless of what transpires.
''My stance on starting the season hasn't changed,'' he told reporters after Tuesday's labour talks. ''What I have said is that we are planning to start the season on time and that is a plan that will continue to be in place. But I do have a board meeting tomorrow and we have a number of issues and options and matters to discuss with the board so I can talk more about that tomorrow.''
Bettman said replacement players didn't come up during Tuesday's meeting, and if the NHLPA's latest concept leads to a workable framework, they won't be needed.
On April 4, the union introduced a floating team-by-team payroll range that has a lower and upper limit linked to league revenues. Based on last season's revenues of $2.1 billion US, the upper salary cap would be $50 million per team, with a minimum base of $30 million.
But the cap changes depending on year-by-year revenues. Given that revenues are expected to take a major hit because of the damage from wiping out an entire season, the cap figure will likely be lower in the second year of the new deal. If, say, revenues are $1.5 billion the first season back, the union plan would lower the upper cap number to around $35 million and the base number to $15 million.
On the other hand, if NHL revenues grow down the road, the upper limit on payroll would rise accordingly.
In the end, the payroll range would be altered year-by-year depending on revenues.
The league has two major issues with the concept and sources said they were not close to being resolved in talks Tuesday:
- The league wants a smaller gap than $20 million between the upper and lower limit;
- The league also wants a lower upper limit than $50 million to start next season, instead of basing it on last year's revenues.
The two sides would also need to agree on what constitutes revenue, which has been a major point of contention since the beginning of this process more than two years ago.
A payroll tax is also likely to be included in the middle of the payroll range.
Daly, Bettman, Jacobs and league outside counsel Bob Batterman were at Tuesday's meeting as well as New Jersey Devils CEO and GM Lou Lamoriello, board of governors chairman Harley Hotchkiss, Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold, NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell and NHL general counsel David Zimmerman.
Goodenow headed his side alongside Saskin, associate counsel Ian Pulver and outside counsel John McCambridge.
Cheers,
Aquaman
Canadian Press
4/19/2005
NEW YORK (CP) - There was no progress to report from Tuesday's NHL labour talks and things apparently ended badly.
Still, the NHL and NHL Players' Association agreed to meet with a little more frequency to help find an end to the seventh-month lockout, starting with another session next week.
Hopefully things won't pick up where they left off Tuesday.
Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, according to a source, sparked a heated exchange between both sides when he said the NHLPA's concept did not deliver the linked system his side was looking for - that player costs do not take up more than 54 per cent of league revenues.
The union responded by saying its concept was not supposed to deliver that figure, or the league's version of ''linkage.''
That pretty much ended the six and half hour meeting.
''While we discussed many of the issues related to the concept that we introduced at our last meeting, we were unable to make any progress today,'' said NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin. ''I remain concerned that the NHL is not serious about developing new concepts together and remains fixated on measuring all of our proposed concepts against a linked hard-cap system. I fail to see how we can make any progress if the NHL maintains their single-track approach.
''I expect Bob and Gary will be speaking again soon to discuss any next steps.''
NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will likely pick up the phone before the end of the weekend to decide when both sides will talk again.
The league and union had not met since April 4 in Toronto, when the NHLPA put something on the table that found some merit, at least on the surface, from the league side.
''While we continued to discuss various issues relating to the concept that was introduced at our April 4 meeting, no substantive progress toward a new agreement was made,'' Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said in a statement. ''The parties have agreed to arrange a more aggressive meeting schedule over the next several weeks in an attempt to move the process forward.''
Tuesday's talks, which began just past 11 a.m. EDT and ended around 5:30 p.m. were held on the eve on another board of governors meeting, also here in New York. The league's 30 owners are scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. at a Manhattan hotel.
The subject of replacement players will once again be front and centre at Wednesday's meeting, although it's not clear that all 30 teams are in favour of going that route.
Either way, Bettman remains adamant that the NHL season will begin next October regardless of what transpires.
''My stance on starting the season hasn't changed,'' he told reporters after Tuesday's labour talks. ''What I have said is that we are planning to start the season on time and that is a plan that will continue to be in place. But I do have a board meeting tomorrow and we have a number of issues and options and matters to discuss with the board so I can talk more about that tomorrow.''
Bettman said replacement players didn't come up during Tuesday's meeting, and if the NHLPA's latest concept leads to a workable framework, they won't be needed.
On April 4, the union introduced a floating team-by-team payroll range that has a lower and upper limit linked to league revenues. Based on last season's revenues of $2.1 billion US, the upper salary cap would be $50 million per team, with a minimum base of $30 million.
But the cap changes depending on year-by-year revenues. Given that revenues are expected to take a major hit because of the damage from wiping out an entire season, the cap figure will likely be lower in the second year of the new deal. If, say, revenues are $1.5 billion the first season back, the union plan would lower the upper cap number to around $35 million and the base number to $15 million.
On the other hand, if NHL revenues grow down the road, the upper limit on payroll would rise accordingly.
In the end, the payroll range would be altered year-by-year depending on revenues.
The league has two major issues with the concept and sources said they were not close to being resolved in talks Tuesday:
- The league wants a smaller gap than $20 million between the upper and lower limit;
- The league also wants a lower upper limit than $50 million to start next season, instead of basing it on last year's revenues.
The two sides would also need to agree on what constitutes revenue, which has been a major point of contention since the beginning of this process more than two years ago.
A payroll tax is also likely to be included in the middle of the payroll range.
Daly, Bettman, Jacobs and league outside counsel Bob Batterman were at Tuesday's meeting as well as New Jersey Devils CEO and GM Lou Lamoriello, board of governors chairman Harley Hotchkiss, Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold, NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell and NHL general counsel David Zimmerman.
Goodenow headed his side alongside Saskin, associate counsel Ian Pulver and outside counsel John McCambridge.
Cheers,
Aquaman