NHL fires first labor shot
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NHL fires first labor shot
In an attempt to possibly bury or drown out negative press on the night of an Eastern Conference final Game 2, the NHL has thrown the first dagger in what appears to be a long summer of labor negotiations.
On Wednesday, the NHL officially notified the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) in writing that it would like to terminate the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Had either side not notified one another of a desire to terminate the current contract within 120 days of the Sept. 15, 2012 expiration date, the deal would have rolled over into another season.
The NHLPA could have also provided the league with notice, but chose not to do so, apparently ready to accept the status quo.
“As you know, this is no surprise,” NHLPA leader Donald Fehr said in an email to players and agents on Wednesday, according to Sports Business Daily.
No matter how big or small the changes, the league will be operating under a new CBA whenever the puck drops on a new season.
The two sides were supposed to begin informal negotiations during January’s All-Star break but have yet to do so. The NHL has claimed, through commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly, that they are ready to begin negotiations at any time.
Clearly, the NHL’s owners would like to see more financial concessions from players, who currently earn 57 percent of the league’s revenue. The NFL and NBA both rolled their players back to somewhere near 50 percent with their respective lockouts last year. The NFL started their season on-time; the NBA shortened their schedule.
The NHL is set to surpass $3 billion in revenue for the first time this season. Though that is just a fraction of what the other three major sports leagues earn per season, it would be the league’s 7th straight season of record revenue.
In 2004-05, the NHL locked out players for an entire year, rolled back salaries 24 percent and instituted a hard salary cap. That cap has risen from $39 million in 2005-06 to $64.1 million in 2011-12.
Even this season, major market teams like the Flyers are still not spending as much on player salaries as they were in the uncapped, pre-lockout seasons in the early 2000’s.
While it is no surprise, the NHL fired the first shots on Wednesday of what appears to be a long and dangerous battle – even before this playoff season has yet to conclude. Neither side can afford to lose another season. But there’s no telling when the last shot will be fired.
QUICK NOTE: The Flyers have yet to announce any injuries or surgeries for their players, though the list is expected to be long. They were eliminated from the playoffs on May 8.
For the latest updates, follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @DNFlyers
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You decide: Flyers Stay or Go Poll: Are Flyers or Phillies more disappointing?Comments (52)
Bettman seems like such a slimeball, how'd he get his job?— pitzdidg
Both sides are preparing for a work stoppage...The billionaires fighting the millionaires because they can't decide how to divide 3 billion dollars...And the fans suffer....again.- Thank goodness Ken Spencer was here to give us this cliche! None of us could have deduced that concept on our own! — logicandreason
- Thank goodness Snipes is enlightening us with more of his brilliance..Like Leaky is a better playoff goalie than Henrik Lundqvist...LOL Yo Snipes! Watch your hero choke the Cup away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5aLHImCKDc
- Both sides are preparing for a work stoppage...The billionaires fighting the millionaires because they can't decide how to divide 3 billion dollars...And the fans suffer....again.
- The owners are right and they are the true risk takers who deserve at least 50% of the pie.
The players do not deserve the majority of revenue..afterall they are employees and people sometimes forget that, who can currently be more easily replaced in this "youth" speed driven league.
— sdeens - — sdeens--"The owners are right and they are the true risk takers who deserve at least 50% of the pie."
I would like to think you are being sarcastic, but I'm pretty sure you're just an idiot. Have you read any of the articles about player concussions or post-mortems of players who had suffered brain injuries? Risk takers . . . yeah. Risking money. What an a-hole.
— stonelamb - Bettman is a jerk and he's ruining this league by turning it into the NBA on ice.— Fly Guy
- This falls more towards the NFL than NBA. NHL is making money and don't have structural issues, just locked up a ton (for them) of TV money for a decade, no chance this gets beyond early training camp. Record TV ratings, full stadiums, they will find a way, just will take some time. When the last season was lost they had big structural issues.— zonaindie2
- all I care about is whether they will be able to drop Bryz. If so, it's worth it.— djembe323
- I'm still waiting for the price cuts on ticket prices promised when the last CBA was signed— Patriot72
- @stonelamb, you clearly don't know anything about "risk". Without owners there is NO sport, got it? They have ALL the financial risk and this is a business despite what you may think. Yep, I'm pretty sure you're an idiot!— JBinPA
- At the least, you'd have the City of Glendale, AZ, and the former owners of the Atlanta Thrashers nodding in agreement with you.
— icarus - JBinPA:
Just how much "risk" are they taking? They pulled in 3 billion dollars. 28 of the teams are solidly in the black.
I'm pretty sure you're a Tea Bagger.
— backhand - Most importantly... who do the Flyers Amnesty when the CBA goes into place?? Bryz, Pronger, or even Meszaros.— FABER
- How did that cypher Gary Bettman ever become Commissioner of anything?— richw38
- The Flyers are already in a work stoppage, GO KINGS!— barry1757
- Funny how Carter really never did well in the playoffs and nets a hat trick. Now lets see if continues to produce for the Kings. I am pulling for the Kings to win the cup, they are like FLYERS WEST COAST..... Now how many of our boys will be under the knife this summer? Kimmo kneee and or back?— srcdaddy1216
- I wouldn't start a Carter bandwagon just yet. One of his hat trick "goals" just happened to go in off his shinpad from a great shot by Kopitar, and the other two were Phil Esposito specials. — icarus
- I would not mind if NHL had NFL like contracts.— Nitroglycerin
Absolutely, this is America, where greed is the norm and trumps all. Got to make the rich richer. Squeal squeal, oink oink.- SCrdaddy - Jeff carter has 4 goals in this years playoffs and 3 came in one game. He has still been a non factor for the kings much like his time here. His stats are hollow and padded due to one good game.— JohnnyThunderCak
- Look at the Kings record since his trade Professor. Not every contribution ends up in the back of the net.
Comment removed.- If the only thing he brought was good luck, its apparently been worth it so far. I'm not particularly a fan of Carter's, but there's no denying the impact. Carter's biggest impact is probably on a line he doesn't play on, that's the contribution he made. Maybe any player could've done that, but fact is, its Carter.
His arrival allowed Sutter could move 2nd/3rd/4th line guys to more natural positions, lines and roles. Carter made Richards' 2nd line more of an offensive threat than it had been all season. Prior to that, if teams could keep Kopitar/Brown/Williams off the board, LA was lucky to take a point out of the game. Richards was saddled with checkers, AHL callups most of the season and guys like Stoll. Since Carter's arrival, even without him putting it in the net, the Kings avg went from 2 or less goals/game to 3 or over, thanks largely to Brown's line, and Brown particularly, exploding. Then Penner decided to play to his size, so now Richards has two bigger guys on his wings, Penner a big forechecker guy and Carter as a shooter. I think Carter's hat the other night was on orders from Sutter for him to get in the crease with his size, instead of snapping wristers all the time. All 3 were in pretty tight, one bounced off his boot in the crease. The kind of goals no-skill hacks like Hartnell seem to be loved for, I might add.
- Comment removed.
- macdad, don't forget the new top flight defensemen Carter has made since his arrival. Everybody has been made better! And all because the Kings now have the "natural" (and gifted) center Jeff Carter playing wing! Too bad they didn't try that in Philly...wait...they did, and he cried he wasn't happy. Uh oh, watch out LA! — icarus
- Both sides need to come to some kind of agreement and not mess up another season. Hockey took a long time to recover from that, and if it happens again it will be set even further back. Owners take risks in putting money into the team, getting attendance up, selling gear, etc. The players are the ones taking the physical risks-risk of injury, especially concussions (that affect you even after you are done playing). Bettman has been in charge for how many years now, and despite some of his idiotic decisions, the league has continued to grow in populartiy and revenue. Lets face it though--owners can own a team for a lot longer than a player can play the game. A good example is Ed Snider--he's owned the Flyers for 40+ years and how many players have come and gone over those years? There's alot of money to divide up and I would think that there is enough to make both sides happy.— ena1977
- Flyers can't provide a surgery list until Holmgren knows whether he needs a proctology appointment to extract a Stanley Cup.
- Comment removed.
- "The NHL is set to surpass $3 billion in revenue for the first time this season. Though that is just a fraction of what the other three major sports leagues earn per season"
While any relationship of a smaller number to a larger number is technically a fraction, colloquially the phrase "just a fraction" indicates a substantial difference. In reality, the NHL's revenues are about 85% of the NBA, 46% of MLB, and 29% of the NFL. Those are all far more than "just a fraction".— Pelti - 50-50 and raise the cap a good start,the cap is there to keep the watered down NHL in business. Too many teams in bad hockey cities,the teams willing to spend have their hands tied,becuase of cheap owners,who will just keep milking the cow they play musical cities 2 in atlanta 2 in winnipeg,2 in colorado,they choose the wrong cities nashville ,columbus and 2 in florida,— angrywhtguy
- @JohnnyThunderCak No one has seemed to point this out. Obviously we were used to his garbage time goals here. Take that game out and he has ONE GOAL. Glad he is gone.
— NYFlyersFan - Hey JudgeReinhold, you say that America is greed, and while I won't necessarily disagree with you, do you have ANY idea of what the KHL in Russia pays NHL players? It's a much shorter season and they get TONS of money to play and the owners make even more.— LAFlyer
- They would be stupid, Players and the league to have a lock out just as the NHL is finally getting more coverage and slowing working it's way back up in the ratings of prior years. Look at what the lockout did to coverage and ratings, it killed it. Please don't derail the train. Now all we need back is the old Patrick, Norris, Adams and Smythe Divisions.— LAFlyer
- Two words for Darth Bettman- Amnesty Clause.....— Mike Boryla
- Mr. Weasel don't give a damn if the season is delayed or cancelled just as long as he's in the spotlight and all cameras are on him. It's truly astonishing what a little egotistical freak he actually is.
— rubberbullet 
Flyers made $3.2M operating income on $111M in revenues last season. Any move up on the salary expense is going to put the team inthe red. Right now, only 12 out of 30 teams make any money. If you look at the list in the link below, many smaller market teams are going to get hammered even more if they raise the players salary expenses. I can't imagine the current situation improving for those guys. Even the Flyers are going to get slammed. I wonder if there are too many Teams in the league in markets where hockey is not as popular?
http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/list/- Over-expansion, unbalanced schedules, back-to-back games, back-to-back matinee games, Shanahan's mind-numbing "discipline" (preceded by my-kid-is-a-Bruin-Campbell's Boston exemptions), a preposterous playoff seeding scheme, relentless micro-rule tinkering, incompetent officiating (even by NHL "standards"). All Gary Bettman. He made this the NBA a long time ago. Now he's working on one-upping Vince McMahon.— icarus
- Hey icarus,don't make fun of wrestling...it's all real,
ha ha ha...— mean mean pride,mean mean pride. - Players would still be playing if they made thousands instead of millions--because they love the game. The owners would be doing something else if they were only making thousands--because they love money.— stonelamb
- FlyerFan4Life,
You like links--look at this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-WbtKwS0GY— WhatWhiners - Scott Stevens? Don't they have a paper in N.J.? Go plan your parade around the parking lot. Maybe this year you can strut down the middle of Newark, its nice to have options I guess.— NYPHILLYPHAN
- This comment has been deleted.— scott-stevens-is-god
- Actually, Rocky was a character. Sylvester Stallone is an actor. But that's okay. Keep trying. — icarus
- Who cares? If you thought there was dead silence when the NBA didn't start on time, wait to you see how little hockey is when they don't start on time and literally no one cares. The press will barely cover it. The fact is the season should only be 50 games anyway.— UncleStosh
- Your lucky with your ticket prices... to see the Maple Leafs you are dropping 400.00 for 2 tickets, if you can get the tickets. These are not even good seats.— shmoo
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Frequent Flyers is your home for news and analysis of all things orange and black.
Reach Frank at seravaf@phillynews.com.
Frank Seravalli
Daily News Sports Columnist
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