NHL and NHLPA to resume talks on July 21st....

[Jazz]

NHL and NHL Players' Association to resume talks July 21 in New York[/u][/color]

PIERRE LEBRUN
Thursday, July 15, 2004
source: CANADA.COM

TORONTO - The two sides in the NHL labour talks are heading back to the bargaining table next week in New York.

The NHL and NHL Players' Association haven't met since May 25 in Tampa during the Stanley Cup final. "We remain hopeful that our meeting next Wednesday will result in progress being made toward a resolution," Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president, said Thursday from New York.

"Either way, we believe it is now important to begin meeting more regularly because time is getting short, and the only way this can be resolved is if the parties continue to talk."

The current collective bargaining agreement, twice been extended over the last 10 years, expires Sept. 15 - the day after the World Cup championship game in Toronto. If there is no resolution to collective bargaining talks by then, a lockout is expected.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will both be at next Wednesday's meeting. The key issue facing them is what the NHL likes to call "cost certainty."

The NHLPA refuses to buy into any system that either resembles a salary cap or guarantees a percentage of revenues to the league's owners.

"The NHLPA has approached all meetings with a view towards negotiating a fair agreement for both sides," NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin said Thursday in Toronto. "To date, the NHL has been fixated on a cap and that will not allow us to make any progress.

"Hopefully the NHL will take a more flexible approach in our upcoming discussions."

The solution to the impasse may only come if the league settles for a luxury tax system, something the union is willing to embrace.

Should that happen, the question will be at what figure does the payroll tax kick in? Should it be $40 million US, $45 million, $50 million, or more? It definitely has to have more bite to it than Major League Baseball's luxury tax, which last year only penalized clubs that had a payroll of more than $117 million. As a result, only the New York Yankees were taxed.

As it stands right now, the NHL wants a labour agreement that ensures costs won't overrun revenues. The union says the league's proposal, no matter how it is worded, amounts to a hard salary cap - which it has refused to accept.

The NHLPA says it has proposed a system that includes revenue sharing, a luxury tax, a one-time five per cent rollback in salaries and some changes to the entry-level system.

But the league wants a system that guarantees that costs "bear a rational relationship" to revenues.

According to the league's numbers, which the union doesn't buy, 75 per cent of total revenues in 2002-03 went to player costs, leaving only 25 per cent to pay for coaches, travel, building costs, marketing and advertising. That's not enough to make money, in the NHL's eyes.

[roots]

Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president, said Thursday from New York.

"Either way, we believe it is now important to begin meeting more regularly because time is getting short, and the only way this can be resolved is if the parties continue to talk."

no really? glad he has such a firm grasp on labour relations and negotiations. oops natural reaction to crap on management . At least they are heading in the right direction. BELIEVE ..THERE WILL BE A SEASON

[Brimsek39]

please be a season, please be a season (full),....

[Jazz]

NHL and NHL Player's Association meet Wednesday[/u][/color]

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

NEW YORK (CP) - Collective bargaining is slated to resume Wednesday when the NHL and NHL Players' Association meet at 10 a.m. EDT at the league's head office.

The two sides haven't met since May 25 in Tampa during the Stanley Cup final. The collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15 - the day after the World Cup championship game in Toronto - at which point a lockout would go into effect until a new deal is struck.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman are both scheduled to be at Wednesday's meeting.

The gap remains as wide as ever. The NHLPA refuses to buy into any system that either resembles a salary cap or guarantees a percentage of revenues to the league's owners.

Owners appear ready to fight long and hard for a system that guarantees them "cost certainty," having invested more than $300 million US in a war chest in case of a lockout.

The NHL wants a new labour agreement that ensures costs won't overrun revenues. The union says the league's proposal, no matter how worded, amounts to a hard salary cap - which it has refused to accept.

The NHLPA says it has proposed a system that includes revenue sharing, a luxury tax, a one-time five per cent roll-back in salaries and some changes to the entry-level system.

The league says that 75 per cent of total revenues in 2002-03 went to player costs, leaving only 25 per cent to pay for coaches, travel, building costs, marketing and advertising - therefore not enough to make any money in the NHL's eyes.

The current collective bargaining agreement has twice been extended over the last 10 years.

link: www.canada.com/sports/hockey/story.html?id=959CD75A-C8CC-45BB-9598-0623567A23DD

[Jazz]

Four-hour meeting but very little progress in NHL labour talks[/u][/color]

PIERRE LEBRUN
Wednesday, July 21, 2004

- Talks resumed on the NHL labour front Wednesday but little progress was made despite a set of new league proposals.

Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president, and league commissioner Gary Bettman presented new material to Bob Goodenow, the executive director of the NHL Players' Association, but the union wasn't swayed. "We had a four-hour meeting, probably the most substantive talks we've had to date in this process," Daly said from New York, where the meeting took place. "We gave them a memo and an outline of six new systemic concepts, six new systems that we feel would each achieve our objective in collective bargaining."

But NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin downplayed the NHL's new ideas.

"They did put forth six new different system concepts but unfortunately each one of them begins and ends with a salary cap and that doesn't provide any basis for any progress," Saskin said from New York.

"We're not interested in negotiating a salary-cap system. So we didn't make any progress in that regard."

Neither side would divulge specifics of the six new proposals.

The two sides, which hadn't met since May 25, agreed to meet again Aug. 4 in Toronto.

The collective bargaining agreement, twice extended over the last 10 years, expires Sept. 15 - the day after the World Cup championship game in Toronto - at which point owners would likely impose a lockout until a new deal is struck.

Daly took some comfort in the fact the NHLPA left Wednesday's meeting wanting to know more on the league's new concepts.

"They've asked us to provide them more detailed backup information on the some of the modelling we've done on these systems," said Daly. "We think that's a hopeful sign, because some of these systems are based on concepts that, to date, they had suggested were non-starters.

"At a minimum they're prepared to look at them and discuss them in detail with us, and so I think that's good thing."

Saskin said the league should not read too much into that.

"What's important for us is to make sure we fully understand the concepts they're putting forward," he said. "Because maybe if you look at the rationale behind certain concepts you can structure different ways to address the concerns."

In other words, Wednesday's concepts put forward by the league would have to be significantly modified before the NHLPA could buy into them. The NHLPA refuses to accept any system that either resembles a salary cap or guarantees a percentage of revenues to the league's owners.

Owners appear ready to fight long and hard for a system that guarantees them cost certainty, having put aside more than $300 million US in case of a lockout.

The NHL wants a new labour agreement that ensures costs won't overrun revenues. The union says the league's proposal, no matter how worded, amounts to a hard salary cap. Saskin said all new concepts presented Wednesday represented much of the same.

"All of their system concepts are predicated on having total player compensation not exceed an agreed upon percentage of what they're prepared to declare as league-wide revenues," Saskin said.

"They call it cost certainty, we call it a salary cap. It's a cap on player compensation."

The league says that 75 per cent of total revenues in 2002-03 went to player costs, leaving only 25 per cent to pay for coaches, travel, building costs, marketing and advertising - not enough to make any money in the NHL's eyes.

So the league is adamant it wants a new system that guarantees a link between costs and revenues, and that was the case in Wednesday's six new concepts.

"They are all systems that would provide the league with the element of cost certainty we need as part of our next collective bargaining agreement," Daly said.

The NHLPA proposed a system back on Oct. 1 that included revenue sharing, a luxury tax, a one-time five per cent rollback in salaries and some changes to the entry-level system.

"We still believe that our proposal of Oct. 1 remains the best framework in which to address the owners' stated concerns," Saskin said.

A luxury tax system would have to have more teeth than the one currently employed in Major League Baseball, which last year only penalized clubs that had a payroll over $117 million. Only the New York Yankees were taxed.

"In the modelling we did with league representatives, it contemplated many more teams being subject to luxury tax," Saskin said.

But there was no word of it in Wednesday's meeting.

"The luxury tax was not part of any systemic concept we discussed today," Daly said.

In the meantime, the league has warned office staff in Toronto and New York that they may lose their jobs if there's a lockout.

"We did have staff meetings in all of our offices yesterday talking about what would happen in the event there is no agreement on Sept. 15," Daly said.

"We're just trying to plan from a business perspective as prudently as we can."

A lockout seems unavoidable at this point.

"Hopefully at some point we'll be able to find a compromise between our respective positions," Saskin said. "It's something we're going to work hard towards achieving."

Daly echoed Saskin's hope.

"I think today was good in the sense that we had a good candid dialogue and we have to continue to work at it," Daly said. "We remain hopeful that if we continue to work at it, good things will happen."

link: www.canada.com/sports/hockey/story.html?id=CFCCB1B8-AB96-4924-9AB0-DD0F4D654230

[Jazz]

Not that we need more opinions about this, but there is more food for thought nonetheless.
____________________________________________________

Pat Quinn optimistic an agreement can be reached to avert labour disruption[/u][/color]

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

OAKVILLE, Ont. - Pat Quinn isn't part of the doom-and-gloom crowd predicting a lockout of players by club owners when the NHL-NHLPA collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 16.

The coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs prefers to be optimistic. "I think they can come to an agreement and I hope so because, otherwise, a lot of damage could be done," says Quinn.

While CBA talks resumed for the first time since June in New York on Wednesday, the tanned and relaxed Quinn teed off in his annual charity golf tournament at Glen Abbey.

"All of the rhetoric has been tough and people have been laid off already," Quinn said of the labour situation. "But, in Toronto, we're ready to go (to training camp) Sept. 16.

"We're hopeful something gets done."

link: www.canada.com/sports/hockey/story.html?id=030BB6B7-FB06-4F97-8CA6-AE8228FE793D

[Jazz]

Everything will be OK?
Have no fear, NHL will play[/color]

By MIKE ULMER

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has a lot on his plate with upcoming labour negotiations to avoid a lockout of players this September. (CP File Photo/Frank Gunn)

NHLPA head Bob Goodenow is huffing.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is puffing.

Both of them are bluffing.

That's the take from Caroll Carl, a Gatineau-based labour negotiator who has conducted more than 200 contract negotiations over 28 years.

Carl is a consultant, a management guy who represented The Toronto Sun's parent company, Quebecor, in the contract talks that brought editorial employees their first contract.

I called Carroll Carl because I figured a fresh set of eyes might help in perusing a labour picture that everyone claims will implode Sept. 15.

Whom to believe, billionaire owners or millionaire players?

"How about," Carl said, "none of the above."

Players and management will settle, Carl believes.

Everything you read, listen to and watch about the negotiations in the days leading up to Sept. 15 will be theatre, empty posturing and rhetoric.

First, in any negotiation, the real work happens only with the hammer poised over the participants heads.

"You might make a horrible misstep early," Carl said, "but you have plenty of time to correct it. The most important work is done in the last week before the deadline. The deal will get done in the hours before the deadline."

The NHL will tell you it is ready to shut down its operations, perhaps for years, to gain a salary cap. Or, as Bettman likes to call it, cost certainty.

Off the record, officials say it's better to lose a little money with empty buildings than a lot more with fairly full ones. Since those, especially in the South, are as rare as gay Republicans, why not shutter the operation until the players cave? As if.

The league can bring as many reports about money-losing franchises as it likes. Who knows, they may even be provable.

The important thing, Carl said, is that owners don't care about losses.

"They keep on saying they don't want to lose money but clearly, they really don't hate losing money," he said. "Because they keep doing it."

The notion of a financially vulnerable league is predicated on the faulty notion that owners depend on their franchises for their livelihood.

NHL teams are merely one component in communications portfolios or, in the case of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., another cash cow for a staggeringly wealthy Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board.

Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks made his money in leveraged buyouts. Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano found his fortune in the payroll services industry. Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is a captain of the pharmaceutical industry. Their teams are diversions, not core businesses.

Why let a lockout spoil the fun or soil the ego boost that initially enticed them?

The players say they are the real champions of market-driven free enterprise, but they nonetheless have offered salary concessions and a profit-sharing scheme. What a great bunch of guys.

But players have seen salaries significantly dragged by the spectre of a lockout. As well, owners have, in the public's mind, successfully tied the notion of high ticket prices to player salaries.

The same megabucks that seemingly would make players financially invulnerable to a lockout will, in the end, soften resolve, Carl predicted.

The more you make, the more you lose by not working. Who will be willing to piddle away more money than their father made in his lifetime?

"The players would be losing millions and millions of dollars," Carl said.

In short, they, too, should be ready to deal.

"There's just way too much money on the table not to get this done," Carl said.

So sit back and enjoy the show.

link: slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2004/07/23/554350.html