A way to help NHL labor talks; more games scrapped
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
A way to help NHL labor talks; more games scrapped
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL and the players’ union get more childish by the day.
They lashed out in a war of words after the league quickly dismissed the NHLPA’s counter-proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday in Toronto.
The league says it has offered a 50/50 split of hockey-related revenue. The players say they are agreeable to 50/50 if they are guaranteed their full salaries without escrow being involved. The owners say the players’ counteroffer was “misrepresented” and will actually give them 56 to 57 percent of the $3.3 billion pie.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
On the positive side, at least they are talking about real numbers.
On the flip side, each side is skewing the numbers to fit to their respective argument.
The owners say the players will not take a rollback in salaries, but that some of the money will be deferred.
The NHLPA says the players are taking a 12 percent pay cut.
I don’t pretend to be a lawyer or an accountant, but I do know how to simplify things. The players averaged $2.5 million last season. With a 12 percent cut - and, again, the NHL says that won’t happen - they would average $2.2 million.
In a collapsing economy.
The players’ union should consider accepting that cut and then bargaining to gain ground in other areas - uch as length of contracts (the league wants five-year maximum deals, the players could argue for, say, eight years) and getting to free-agency earlier.
Both sides need to be meeting if they are going to salvage an 82-game season. Instead, they walked out in a huff on Thursday and did not schedule any future talks.
Childish.
Games canceled. The NHL on Friday canceled games from Oct. 25 through Nov. 1. The league had previously canceled the season's first two weeks.
The Flyers have had nine games canceled, including six at home.
Friday's announcement was a mere formality because the NHL wasn't going to try to play the Oct. 25-to-Nov. 1 games, anyway. The league has said it hopes to have a settlement by Thursday and start an 82-game season on Nov. 2.
Follow Sam Carchidi on Twitter @BroadStBull.
I miss it terribly— MD20202020- Stop the presses!
Carchidi actually makes an argument for the players taking less money. That could actually be a turning point.
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— Quixote II - Simple solution- put ALL the players on a base salary + incentives/commission for wins, goals assists. Watch how even the 4th line goons will play like the second coming of Gordie Howe. Exciting hockey again even with this watered-down excuse that is now the NHL. And get rid of the shootout and bring back ties. Hockey for some of us is about the traditions that made the game so great before over expanding.— frankiebike
- Don't even miss hockey. Hey Ed how's that empty stadium working out for you?— mrh1955
- You can always tell who's ever negotiated a contract & who hasn't. Sam obviously hasn't.— Tags27
- Sam-----the collapsing economy is not the point even if that comment were true (it isn't unless you support Mitt Romney). Athletes have short careers and have to make it while they can. I am sure the Flyers will love you after reading your nonsense. You get your full check every pay day without an escrow fund or hold back, don't you, but the MIckey Mouse NHL can practice I won't pay you what I contracted for and you think that is OK.— hankhammer2
- So Sam, you are not faulting the Owners for LOCKING OUT THE PLAYERS!?!?!The Players were willing to keep playing and negotiate. Gary Bettman is the root of all evil when it comes to WHY WE THE FANS DON'T HAVE HOCKEY!!!!Why more people give him and the Owners a pass on this is beyond me. These same Owners that are crying about losing money are the same ones that rushed out to sign players before the end of the last CBA to take advantage of the changes THEY THEMSELVES planned to put in the new CBA. Gary Bettman is a cancer to the game of Hockey and as such, he should be removed. Maybe then, we could see real movement, not the farce of a 50/50 split while changing the definition of Hockey Related Revenue which would shrink the numbers even more. Anybody with 1/2 a brain should look at the WHOLE offer Bettman and the Owners put out there. I think most will see the offer as pig in a poke, which it really is.— flyerrod
- i dont understand why the players are always the victims? you act like they are god, they are never wrong, what is it exactly does the players do for you anyway? give you a car? house? they get paid millions of dollars to play hockey, you really think they care about you? they can play in a empty rink for all they care, they dont care about you, they care about themselves.
if they cared about you, they wouldnt have to worry about money even if it's less, they are still getting paid and hockey will still be here. yeah, blame the owners they are always the bad guys when they are trying to save their franchises from going under, there's a reason why the owners locked them out. you dont want to hear it.— lonewolf83 - "there's a reason why the owners locked them out."
Care to share that reason?
Most of your post is taken right from Robert Dinero's comments in "A Bronx Tale" when telling his son that Mickey Mantle didn't care about the kid so he shouldn't idolize him.
And why the concern for billionaire owners who made bad business decisions by starting hockey teams in Nashville, Columbus, and Florida? If you believe in free enterprise you would want the market to dictate which franchises survive and thrive, and which ones disappear.— backhand
