Gary Bettman

rival.

are you going to make it three lockouts on your watch? :nono: :nono:

uninnocent-

If MLB and the NFL could work out a deal prior to the start of their respective seasons, and the NBA managed to reach an agreement, why can't the NHL do it too? The last thing this sport needs is another BS lockout. Don't let it happen, Gary!

Bathgate66

apparently so , if sept 15th rolls in on us without a CBA agreement

i posted this in blueshirts thread but here goes



Thirty-seven days.

That's how much time remains for the NHL and its players' association to bridge a wide gap in collective bargaining negotiations or face another lockout.

Commissioner Gary Bettman made it clear during Thursday's bargaining session in New York that the league is prepared to lock out its players when the current agreement expires Sept. 15.

"I re-confirmed something that the union has been told multiple times over the last nine to 12 months," Bettman told reporters after a two-hour meeting. "Namely, that time is getting short and the owners are not prepared to operate under this collective bargaining agreement for another season, so we need to get to making a deal and doing it soon. And we believe there's ample time for the parties to get together and make a deal and that's what we're going to be working towards."

The clock is ticking.

It makes next week's meetings in Toronto particularly important, with NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr expected to deliver the union's first official proposal on Tuesday. It won't look anything like the one the NHL handed over July 13.

The union found very little, if anything, it liked in that document, which called for a lowering of the players' share in revenue, introduced new contract restrictions and called for an extended entry-level system.

One change the players will seek is a broadening of the revenue- sharing system between teams. Fehr raised that issue Thursday during the talks at NHL headquarters as a way to illustrate why the NHLPA wasn't in favour of the league's proposal.

"We made a presentation directly related to the owners' proposal -- a revenue-sharing system as it would be combined with the player compensation system that they had proposed," said Fehr. "In the course of doing that, (we) indicated to them that for a couple of different reasons it didn't look to us like it was the way to go.

"In particular, the biggest reason was that it seems to us, both overall and on a club-by-club basis, all of the revenue-sharing payments -- both the new ones and the existing ones -- would be paid for by player salary reductions."

That was by design.

Bettman indicated that "fundamental economics" are more of a key element to the negotiations than revenue sharing.

"The fundamental proposal, our initial proposal, relates to the fact that we need to be paying out less in player costs," he said.

The NHL lost its entire 2004-05 season to a lockout and seems to be facing the growing possibility of another one. It would be the third on Bettman's watch.

Fehr has floated the idea of continuing negotiations while players report to training camp if a new deal wasn't in place by Sept. 15.

"Under the law, if an agreement expires, that may give someone the legal ability to go on strike or in this case to impose a lockout," he said. "There's no requirement that they do so and if nobody does anything you (can) continue to work under the old conditions."

However, with the NHL unwilling to do that, negotiations will need to pick up pace. Even though the sides have been meeting regularly since the end of June, very little progress has been made on what they refer to as the "core economic issues" -- how revenues should be divided.

"There's a meaningful gulf there," said Fehr. "I'll leave it at that for now."

uninnocent-

I'm hoping this is just them playing hardball, trying to show the union that they mean business and want the deal done by the start of Training Camp. I'm sure if they're close to an agreement then Training Camp will continue as planned, without a deal. But when it's close to the start of the season proper, a full-out lockout may ensue. This is all speculation, of course; if they're far apart there's nothing to prevent a labour disruption.

neilybabes86

it figures our NYR have legit chances of making noise and this..... :nono: :fp:

just get an arbitrator next week at the meeting and settle it


and they wonder why we get no coverage :fp:

Dr. Delight

This would be crippling to the league.

How much more money does the ownership/league want to take away from the players.

StevieG

That fucking clown Bettman should lockout the owners!!! They're the ones shelling out huge contracts for average players and then crying that they're broke.

Unfortunately the public blames the "greedy players" and always sides with the owners. Hopefully Fehr won't take any of Bettman's bullshit. The players made major concessions last time.

Bettman needs to go, long overdue.

rival.

neilybabes86 wrote:

it figures our NYR have legit chances of making noise and this..... :nono: :fp:

just get an arbitrator next week at the meeting and settle it


and they wonder why we get no coverage :fp:

oddly enough, i think the rangers could benefit the most out of this. gaborik gets the time he needs to heal his shoulder, and nash gets the time he needs to mesh with his new teammates.

Indifference71

What a fucking disaster this would be for the NHL. It doesn't sound good right now, but these things can always change very quickly and hopefully it does.

rival.

Dr. Delight wrote:

This would be crippling to the league.

How much more money does the ownership/league want to take away from the players.

kills kills kills the league. i think some fans that were pushed away after the 2004 lockout were slowly coming back. this would put the fork in many many fans.

last seasons playoffs averaged 2.6 million viewers, up 33% from the previous year.

say goodbye to that extra 33%.

neilybabes86

rival. wrote:

neilybabes86 wrote:

it figures our NYR have legit chances of making noise and this..... :nono: :fp:

just get an arbitrator next week at the meeting and settle it


and they wonder why we get no coverage :fp:

oddly enough, i think the rangers could benefit the most out of this. gaborik gets the time he needs to heal his shoulder, and nash gets the time he needs to mesh with his new teammates.

in a short season? i suppose so

but it will still cripple the sport so much more than it already is

all teams would be fresh going into the playoffs

lukin2006

I normally don't support Bettman, but in this instance I fully support the NHL.What's going on is ridiculous. 10-13 year guaranteed contracts in a sport where 1 hit your care your career is over, what Philadelphia did with offer to Shea Weber handing him 26 million or so in the that was to be paid out within the first couple years of the contract and yet the cap hit would have been 7 million.

Indifference71

rival. wrote:

Dr. Delight wrote:

This would be crippling to the league.

How much more money does the ownership/league want to take away from the players.

kills kills kills the league. i think some fans that were pushed away after the 2004 lockout were slowly coming back. this would put the fork in many many fans.

last seasons playoffs averaged 2.6 million viewers, up 33% from the previous year.

say goodbye to that extra 33%.

Yeah, there couldn't be worse timing for this to happen. Ratings are as high as they have been in a long time...a lockout would fucking kill all of the momentum that has been built up.

norm

didn't the league make like 3 billion dollars last year? i really don't think they're gonna go broke anytime soon...this is just greedy owners looking for anyway to not put money into their teams

Indifference71

lukin2006 wrote:

I normally don't support Bettman, but in this instance I fully support the NHL.What's going on is ridiculous. 10-13 year guaranteed contracts in a sport where 1 hit your care your career is over, what Philadelphia did with offer to Shea Weber handing him 26 million or so in the that was to be paid out within the first couple years of the contract and yet the cap hit would have been 7 million.

There's definitely some things that need to change. The whole long term contract/cap hit thing is ridiculous. The owners are crying about these contracts, yet they are the ones signing players to these ridiculous contracts.

Indifference71

norm wrote:

didn't the league make like 3 billion dollars last year? i really don't think they're gonna go broke anytime soon...this is just greedy owners looking for anyway to not put money into their teams

The league as a whole is doing well, but there are a lot of teams that are losing a lot of money. They have to make major changes to the whole revenue sharing system.

norm

Indifference71 wrote:

norm wrote:

didn't the league make like 3 billion dollars last year? i really don't think they're gonna go broke anytime soon...this is just greedy owners looking for anyway to not put money into their teams

The league as a whole is doing well, but there are a lot of teams that are losing a lot of money. They have to make major changes to the whole revenue sharing system.

they need to contract some teams

lukin2006

The sport will survive...revenue is up. Why would the owners get rid of Bettman, their making more money now Than ever and they'll probably make even more after a lock out. I agree the owners want a lot of these things to protect themselves from each others, but it's really only a handful of teams that offer theses ridiculous contracts, so I would say the majority of owners want to protect themselves from the minority.

Dr. Delight

In all honesty I dont see the league starting up until before/around the time of the Winter Classic. That is the NHL's Superbowl as far as league exposure/ad revenue.
If the lockout goes beyond that, it could be devastating.

The revenue sharing and over saturation of teams in this league is killing it. Teams that are bleeding money and require the help of the league to shovel cash their way to stay afloat need to go.

Meanwhile teams that do make money are held hostage to a salary cap and even more hilariously, have to fork over revenue sharing to these sad sack franchises that Gary Bettman himself forced on the league in the "expansion years". All he wanted back then was more teams in new areas so that they had to hand over franchise fees to the league to help pump money to their bottom line. While a couple of teams have had success, the majority have not.
Is their really a need for Florida to have two teams? How about the huge hockey market of Ohio?

Don't get me started on the rules changes that have drastically changed the shape of the game I once loved the most. Today I find myself a bigger fan of the NFL, which I once could not tolerate.
I've been watching this NHL product since 1983, and I have seen a lot.

A lockout this year just may be the final straw for me. I'll just walk away for good this time.

g under p

Cut down the number of teams in the NHL they are far too many. At the very least 4 teams.

Peace

lukin2006

g under p wrote:

Cut down the number of teams in the NHL they are far too many. At the very least 4 teams.

Peace

I agree...they have the opportunity to start now...fold Phoenix...