NHL labor war crawling to a finish
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
NHL labor war crawling to a finish
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL labor war is crawling toward a conclusion, but no one knows if the ending will put the players back on the ice.
Or just ice the season.
Optimists say the stalemate will come into better focus after the players’ vote on dissolving the union is finalized Thursday. The results may not be known until Friday, and the players would have until Jan. 2 to file the “disclaimer of interest.”
Pessimists say the vote may trigger a long legal process that could spell the end of the 2012-13 season.
Thursday was the 95th day of the lockout, and the sides have not had any face-to-face meetings in a week.
"It disappoints me and saddens me because it's just more days lost," Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, said in an email to Canada’s QMI Agency. "But I'm not sure what meeting does from our side. There is nothing left to give.”
Daly said Donald Fehr, executive director of the players’ union, “is aiming toward a 'deadline' showdown."
Ah, but what’s the deadline?
The deadline for salvaging a partial season depends on when the regular season ends. It is scheduled to end April 13, but the 1995 regular season _ delayed by a lockout _ didn’t start until Jan. 20 and finish until May 3.
Daly did not answer an email from The Inquirer, asking if the NHL could extend the regular season past April 13 _ or if it was locked into that date because of TV commitments for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
If the season had to end April 13, then a 14-week, 48-game campaign would have to start around Jan. 5. That would put the deadline for a new collective bargaining agreement at around Christmas, giving players time to return from Europe and have a short training camp.
If the end of the regular season can be pushed back, then the season could start later.
On Wednesday, Daly said the season must start by “mid-January” to have a 48-game season.
Meanwhile, amidst a lot of posturing and legal mumbo jumbo, the negotiations have stopped.
The players, in a five-day online voting process that ends Thursday, will decide whether to ask their executive board to dissolve the union. A two-thirds majority is needed, and it would give the players the ability to file a “disclaimer of interest” in the courts and claim the lockout is illegal
Locked in a labor dispute with the owners last year, NBA players voted to disband the union, but it had a new CBA 12 days later.
The NHL, after getting wind of the players’ plan to dissolve the union, filed a class-action suit Friday in an attempt to block the disclaimer.
The NHL is unsuccessful in proving to the courts that the lockout is legal, it wants all players’ contracts to become void, causing them to become unrestricted free agents.
Can you say CHAOTIC?
The league, which has added $300 million to the players’ “make whole” provision, wants a 10-year CBA and a five-year maximum on individual contracts _ seven years if teams are re-signing their own players. The players want an eight-year CBA and an eight-year maximum on individual contracts.
There are also issues over amnesty buyouts (the players want them, the owners don’t), caps on escrow and the cap’s ceiling.
Games have been canceled through Dec. 30, and more cancellations could come this week.
Contact Sam Carchidi at scarchidi@phillynews.com. Follow on Twitter @BroadStBull.
Never thought it would happen, but after 45 years of rabid adoration of the sport I love the end is here for me. I do not miss it, I do not care if ever restarts, I will not watch the crappy reruns of shows on the Nhl network and I will not ever trust the league or its players again. Bettman is an idiot and Fehr is the second idiot in command. The best thing that could happen to the NHL is if both of them disappeared never to return.- It is quite clear that the NHL and the Players do not care about the fans at all. I hope that there is no season this year and the fans in high volume markets have the guts to boycott all NHL games. How many small market teams will go out of business. Why didn't the NHL have replacement players to put pressure on the almighty Union? Boycott the NHL and watch the IHL and other organizations that put respectable Hockey for prices the fans can pay and are not hosed by the Millions of dollars whims who do not play when they get a minor injury. Break the Union as they are not for the fans. The Fans will end up paying more money regardless who wins.— jpelle36
- i blame obama— michael57
- You belong in the same idiot compound as Bettman and Fehr. Take your political BS somewhere else.
- Ed's new wife cares.He's just hanging around the house in his underwear watching the weather channel.She's got to get him out of the house a little more.— Ouwachon
- To those who post "Who cares?" I will speak on behalf of the only person I can: Me. I care. So there. I just debunked your whole theory. Now move on.— toph314
- "Hockey this year" is "who gives a sh*t" spelled backwards.— Ouwachon
- I can`t wait to turn on baseball and be put to sleep every night— 0544_dancona
- The NHL is quite a joke and anyone who takes it seriously now needs to get a life.....players take whole games and weeks off leading up to the playoffs to get rested....the playoffs are wayyyy too long with wayyy too many loser teams involved. You only change those behaviors by cutting the number of teams making the playoffs by 50-75% and alienating a few markets who will never witness a playoff game again. Your league will shrink by 75%, but hey, atleast the 25% that remains will know what icing is and probably be profitable.........MLB is coming soon again, a new long warm season to enjoy America's game.....now if they'd only make the regular season count for more by reducing the number of MLB teams in the playoffs/WS and finish them by Halloween........— Mark1npt
- It IS interesting that the postings I'm seeing could pretty much care less about the NHL right now; yes, the league really is hurting itself further.
Shame on the NHL.— mrjarn - It's Bush's fault.— Poppys
- Fortunately the Reading Royals and Hershey Bears are around to fill the NHL void, and they do it at a much lower $$ cost.— King0629
- The league is too big anyway. Let the rich teams sign the players and see what's left.
- 55 days til pitchers and catchers report.
- Errr...what's hockey? Who even cares? The only thing interesting is the playoffs and who wants to look at those when they take two months and end just before the July 4th weekend?— RAJ-a-holic
- What is hockey again???— roque32
- With all the BS going on in this world of ours (school shootings, fiscal cliff, economy going to the dogs, unusual weather phenomena) these knuckleheads are fighting over dollars that will eventually get settled- just do it now. They're hurting everyone.— mrjarn
- Dutch, in many cities you are correct. But Ed could double the ticket prices in Phila. and they will still come.— TEMPLE55
- "The NHL is unsuccessful in proving to the courts that the lockout is legal, it wants all players’ contracts to become void, causing them to become unrestricted free agents."
I think that sentence should read
"[If] the NHL is [successful] in proving to the courts that the lockout is legal, it wants all players’ contracts to become void, causing them to become unrestricted free agents."
In any event, that would indeed become chaotic, but on the bright side, we can unload Bryz!
Perhaps we could sign Shea Weber?
— backhand - The NHL is nearly bankrupt. The players just assume that the fans will return and pay high ticket prices, but that is not going to happen. Since half the teams have not made a real profit in years there is little cash avaiable to support the league through a long gradual return of the fans. If the fans do not come back, the league will not make it.— Dutch-wayne
- Thirteen of the thirty teams in the NHL lost money last year. Four teams made between $1.8M-$4.6M. The remaining thirteen made between $9.1-$81.9M. Of those, six made more than $20M. The Flyers made $10.1M.
The NHL is hardly "nearly bankrupt".
These figures are taken from Forbes Magazine, and the possibility exists that some of these teams are using questionable accounting procedures to make it appear they are losing money.
As far as your belief that the fans will not return is concerned I would point out that after the last lock-out NHL revenue soared from $2.1B to $3.3B. Hockey fans will return. The dilettantes may not.
— backhand
