December 14, 2004
NHL CBA Talks Update
Today's meeting finished up at 4:30 p.m. U.S. EDT. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL have their press conference at 5:15 pm., while the NHLPA goes at 5:30 p.m. Stay tuned for updates.
UPDATE: I'm listening to Bettman's press conference on ESPN News.
Paraphrasing except where otherwise noted:
"Made counterproposal which was rejected by NHLPA."
"We are committed to the log term health of our game and 30 franchises."
Says offer of pay cut was signficant and meaningful move -- need something of that order of magnitude to get league healthy. 24 percent rollback is recognition that player costs are too high and not sustainable under current revenues. For business to be viable, average salary needs to be $1.3 million, not current level of $1.8 million
Union's proposal was constructive, but rest of the proposal does nothing to change the status quo.
Changes they (the union) propose (luxury taxes, etc.) are not enough. If we (the NHL) accepted union's proposal we'd be back to the same point in two seasons or less -- and probably with fewer teams than the league has now.
ESPN has switched from Bettman press conference to interview with EJ Hradek in Switzerland where he's travelling with the NHL All-Star team touring Europe. Hradek is downcast, and thinks we're in for a very long work stoppage -- not a surprise.
More soon, when ESPN switches to NHLPA press conference at 5:30 p.m.
UPDATE: Here's a passage from the TSN story:
"We'll keep working at it," said Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president and chief legal officer. "It's hard to draw any conclusions from this meeting other than we're still not any closer to a resolution.
"Bob (Goodenow) was polite but it was brief when the union came back into the room," Daly added. "We'll see where we go from here."
There are no future talks planned at this time . . .
Toggling between ESPN News and CBC Radio One. To put things in perspective, the big news on ESPN is Pedro Martinez to the Mets. Hockey takes a back seat, no surprise.
UPDATE: Click here for the details on the NHL counteroffer -- complete with 19 exhibits in PDF format. Click here for the Cliff Notes version. For a comparison of the NHL proposal with the union's version, click here.
FROM THE HIP ANALYSIS: If the players are tried to divide the owners between the haves and have nots with their proposal, it should be clear that the owners are attempting the same strategy with the players. If you take a quick look at the league's side-by-side comparison, you'll see that while the NHLPA proposal cuts all salaries equally, the owners counteroffer falls far more heavily on the biggest contracts in the game.
From the NHL talking points:
Scaled rollback for all players under contract earning more than $800,000 annually
43.8% of players will have no reduction in compensation (players earning less than $800,000)
75% of players will have 20% or less reduction in compensation
91.8% of players will have 24% or less reduction in compensation
Total rollback of $509 million over three years
Wow. Certainly looks like the outline of a union busting strategy to me. Prune the biggest contracts -- which as Tom Benjamin pointed out on his old blog, doesn't always correspond with the best players -- and leave the youngest and cheapest talent in the game. If the biggest stars don't like the deal, let them play in Russia.
It makes me think of this quote from The Godfather that Chris Lynch used this morning over at American Digest:
"Tom, don't let anyone kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his - the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal. That's what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal."
And so will the players, at least for now. Looking for word from Bob Goodenow and the NHLPA, but haven't gotten hold of any yet. Stay tuned.
OT UPDATE: Click here for some highlights from the Bettman press conference. I'm checking out for now, but check in later for the NHLPA take.
EVENING UPDATE: Click here for video of the Bettman/Bill Daly press conference.
LATE NIGHT UPDATE: Here's a statement from the NHLPA's Bob Goodenow:
In short, the League took elements they liked from our proposal, changed others in their favour, added new mechanisms skewed against the players and then slapped a salary cap on top of everything. The League continues to demand a system in which owners and general managers take no responsibility for properly running their clubs.
Put simply, our proposal provides the basis for a negotiated deal. The NHL’s response did not and we have rejected it."
For good measure, here's some excerpts from Bettman's press conference earlier today.
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Don't have a link and don't have the souce channel but a friend was reporting from Canada about Goodenow being on Television -- and sweating -- making comments about the proposal.
His opening statement, in a nutshell: "The NHL is lying"
Posted by:
at December 14, 2004 10:46 PM
Yup.. Each side keeps saying the same thing over and over. But, the players position keeps eroding as time marches forward.
Oh well. Labor has already lost this fight regardless of the damage done to the NHL. The question is, how long does it take for the players to realize it.
This is not to say that I like the owners offer, but, frankly, something very similar to this is what will eventually end up being put in place, either by the NHLPA caving in, or the league breaking the union.
Ta,
Posted by:
at December 15, 2004 08:02 AM
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05:16 PM