still nervous
Players' association mulling over two offers from NHL
By IRA PODELL, AP Sports Writer
March 18, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) -- After receiving a choice of two proposals from the NHL, the players' association went home to try to think of something better.
``We're going to do some brainstorming,'' union senior director Ted Saskin said.
The league and the union met for 2 1/2 hours Thursday in New York, but only 20 minutes was spent together. It was then that the NHL presented two six-year offers: one that linked player costs to league revenues and one that didn't.
A source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the ``de-linked'' offer contained a hard cap of $37.5 million per team, $5 million lower than commissioner Gary Bettman's final, nonnegotiable proposal made on Feb. 15 -- the night before he called off the season.
The removal of linkage was what got the union to agree for the first time to accept a salary cap, but the sides are still nowhere near an agreeable number.
The other offer was more along the lines of what the league wants -- a collective bargaining agreement with linkage to ensure ``cost certainty'' for its 30 clubs. In that proposal, players would be guaranteed 54 percent of league revenues, the source said.
Neither proposal really wowed the players' association.
When the players agreed to a salary cap last month, they countered the league's offer of a hard cap at $42.5 million with a soft cap of $49 million.
``The proposals they made today were nothing new,'' Saskin told the AP. ``It was basically a reformulation ... actually worse in content than ones we had previously rejected.''
The NHL, however, did make some concessions. The new, non-linked offer included a minimum payroll of $22.5 million and provided a mechanism to negotiate the cap upward if there was certain revenue success, the source said.
Both proposals included the players' offer of a 24 percent rollback on existing contracts. They also addressed issues such as the entry-level system, qualifying offers, salary arbitration, and free agency.
Saskin and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow returned to Toronto after the meeting and are prepared to get together with the union's executive committee next week.
After that, they will get in touch with the league to resume talks. The union leaders weren't ready to say if they would come back with a counteroffer.
``We want to find common ground rather than just have people firing the same proposals back and forth,'' Saskin said.
The NHL wants to have a deal done in time to hold the draft on schedule in June and relaunch the league with fresh new rules aimed at opening up the game and generating more fan excitement.
``We told them if they wanted to pursue negotiations of a de-linked salary cap, then we would need to do that pretty quickly and reach an agreement in the next several weeks,'' NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told the AP.
Once the season was wiped out, both sides said all offers were off the table. But the NHL reinstated a proposal without linkage, and gave it a short shelf life.
``De-linked means we're taking some financial risk and exposure,'' Daly said. ``As more damage is done and it becomes more unpredictable as to what our revenues will be, our willingness to entertain and accept that exposure and risk becomes less and less.''
The draft can't be held without an agreement with the players' association. If talks continue to fail, the NHL might seek to have a labor impasse declared. If successful, the league could try to implement its own system and open training camps in the fall with replacement players.
That will be a topic again when the league's board of governors meets April 20. The idea of replacements was one of several up for discussion when the board convened March 1 in New York.
``We had provided each of the clubs with workbooks where we asked them to give us a lot of different information -- projections, scenarios,'' Daly said. ``We expect to receive that information back from the clubs by the end of this month and we'll process that.
``Then we'll be in a better position to discuss business alternatives come April 20.''
This was the third trip to the bargaining table for the sides since the season was canceled. They got together three days later, without Bettman and Goodenow, in an attempt to end the cancellation. But those efforts -- highlighted by input from Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux -- were futile.
By IRA PODELL, AP Sports Writer
March 18, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) -- After receiving a choice of two proposals from the NHL, the players' association went home to try to think of something better.
``We're going to do some brainstorming,'' union senior director Ted Saskin said.
The league and the union met for 2 1/2 hours Thursday in New York, but only 20 minutes was spent together. It was then that the NHL presented two six-year offers: one that linked player costs to league revenues and one that didn't.
A source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the ``de-linked'' offer contained a hard cap of $37.5 million per team, $5 million lower than commissioner Gary Bettman's final, nonnegotiable proposal made on Feb. 15 -- the night before he called off the season.
The removal of linkage was what got the union to agree for the first time to accept a salary cap, but the sides are still nowhere near an agreeable number.
The other offer was more along the lines of what the league wants -- a collective bargaining agreement with linkage to ensure ``cost certainty'' for its 30 clubs. In that proposal, players would be guaranteed 54 percent of league revenues, the source said.
Neither proposal really wowed the players' association.
When the players agreed to a salary cap last month, they countered the league's offer of a hard cap at $42.5 million with a soft cap of $49 million.
``The proposals they made today were nothing new,'' Saskin told the AP. ``It was basically a reformulation ... actually worse in content than ones we had previously rejected.''
The NHL, however, did make some concessions. The new, non-linked offer included a minimum payroll of $22.5 million and provided a mechanism to negotiate the cap upward if there was certain revenue success, the source said.
Both proposals included the players' offer of a 24 percent rollback on existing contracts. They also addressed issues such as the entry-level system, qualifying offers, salary arbitration, and free agency.
Saskin and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow returned to Toronto after the meeting and are prepared to get together with the union's executive committee next week.
After that, they will get in touch with the league to resume talks. The union leaders weren't ready to say if they would come back with a counteroffer.
``We want to find common ground rather than just have people firing the same proposals back and forth,'' Saskin said.
The NHL wants to have a deal done in time to hold the draft on schedule in June and relaunch the league with fresh new rules aimed at opening up the game and generating more fan excitement.
``We told them if they wanted to pursue negotiations of a de-linked salary cap, then we would need to do that pretty quickly and reach an agreement in the next several weeks,'' NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told the AP.
Once the season was wiped out, both sides said all offers were off the table. But the NHL reinstated a proposal without linkage, and gave it a short shelf life.
``De-linked means we're taking some financial risk and exposure,'' Daly said. ``As more damage is done and it becomes more unpredictable as to what our revenues will be, our willingness to entertain and accept that exposure and risk becomes less and less.''
The draft can't be held without an agreement with the players' association. If talks continue to fail, the NHL might seek to have a labor impasse declared. If successful, the league could try to implement its own system and open training camps in the fall with replacement players.
That will be a topic again when the league's board of governors meets April 20. The idea of replacements was one of several up for discussion when the board convened March 1 in New York.
``We had provided each of the clubs with workbooks where we asked them to give us a lot of different information -- projections, scenarios,'' Daly said. ``We expect to receive that information back from the clubs by the end of this month and we'll process that.
``Then we'll be in a better position to discuss business alternatives come April 20.''
This was the third trip to the bargaining table for the sides since the season was canceled. They got together three days later, without Bettman and Goodenow, in an attempt to end the cancellation. But those efforts -- highlighted by input from Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux -- were futile.