National Hockey League, players 'very far apart'
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National Hockey League, players 'very far apart'
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Representatives of the NHL and the players union have reached a new low: They can’t even agree on how negotiations are progressing.
The sides did not meet on Tuesday _ the 59th day of the lockout _ but their leaders’ statements show vastly different interpretations of the labor talks.
Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, said in an email to The Inquirer on Tuesday that the sides are "very far apart."
Steve Fehr, special counsel to the NHL Players Association, implied that a labor deal may not be far off while attending a sports management conference in Toronto on Monday. Fehr said the labor dispute can be wrapped "very quickly" once the sides make a breakthrough in negotiations.
Both Fehr and Daly say they are "open" to having a mediator help reach common ground.
Pressed on why there has been a delay in hiring one, Daly said, "I guess the simple answer is that neither side has felt that the introduction of a mediator would help the process. We haven't discussed it, though, for a couple of months now."
Asked, in a follow-up email, why that wasn’t the case, Daly did not respond.
A mediator was used prior to the NBA’s labor settlement last year.
In an email exchange with CSN, Daly claimed the union was asking for 65 percent of hockey-related revenue in the first year of the new collective bargaining agreement.
On Tuesday, Daly was asked to elaborate.
"The players are asking for guaranteed dollars and a ‘raise’ year over year," he said.
Daly added that no future meetings with the NHLPA were scheduled at this point.
Meanwhile, NHL players continue to head overseas. The latest Flyer is defenseman Bruno Gervais, who will play in Germany.
More than 200 NHL players are being paid to play in Europe. Coupled with former NHL players now in the AHL - and the fact that players received escrow checks recently that paid them, on average, a little over $200,000 - there does not appear to be much urgency from their side.
The sides appear close to settling the amount the teams will provide for revenue sharing, but they have numerous other issues, including the maximum length of contracts, years needed to get to free agency, and how to divide hockey-related revenue, which reached a record $3.3 billion last season.
In order to start the season Dec. 1, it is believed a collective bargaining agreement will have to be in place by Nov. 20 to give players time to return from Europe and have a one-week training camp.
NHL games through Nov. 30 have been canceled.
Contact Sam Carchidi at scarchidi@phillynews.com. Follow on Twitter @BroadStBull.
- Do you actually believe that canard that Daly threw out about the players wanting 65% of HRR?
Get this through your skull, the owners want to renege on contracts they signed as recently as June 30th with every player. The players aren't asking for 65% of HRR, they are quite willing to settle for 50%, but they owners have to honor their prior contractual commitments made to the players.
An NHL franchise has one, and only one marketable commodity: Players. They are the sine qua non.— backhand - Interesting, but Daly's purported claim that the NHLPA wants 65% of HRR has been redacted from Sam Carchidi's article above.
Did someone rush to print sensational news before verifying its authenticity?
When I worked for the Inquirer back in the hot-type days, that would have been cause for a "correction", a very serious thing in the journalism business.— backhand 
Schnitzelboy, yes we should have more of a say in these sports labor disputes, since there is a large public investment in these teams. I've advocated for a long time that cities should receive a higher percentage of the proceeds.— retzlaff- Indeed, most sporting arenas are paid for with public financing, usually by sucking the taxpayers into guaranteeing long-term low-interest bonds. Cities also have to grant tax and zoning exemptions to sports teams or else they won't build the arena. Their main selling point in that scam is to proclaim all the jobs they create (minimum-wage jobs at that). Most of the construction work goes to out-of-state contractors (think iron workers here) who bring in their own laborers.
We need to cease public financing of sports arenas (where are the Tea Baggers when you need them?) and remove the exemptions from anti-trust laws that the sports industry has enjoyed (and flagrantly abused) since the late 1900's.— backhand - SAD!!!— cooperhawk
- I miss the games and the personalities players, coaches, commentators. Neither side in this is totally right or wrong. If the players really are pushing for 65% of revenues they are CRAZY, certifiable. Never gonna happen. Get real or forget the season. And if the players honored to play for The Stanley Cup and the owners and league dignitaries who are entrusted with the NHL can't find their way out of this and the every five years nature of this dung sling so be it. I can get over hockey going away. Just another show I liked the network cancelled. I am enjoying the back-to-back University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux weekend games on NESN. I am not likely to ever engage another sport as I have NHL hockey. No sport to me compares. It is such a waste that it is this way. Nothing like schnitzel-just had pork schnitzel Saturday night on vacation in New Hampshire!— RI_flyers_guy
- buttman is too proud to admit it and too dumb to change it but the source of the NHL's problems is the expansion into stupid markets like atl, phoenix, nashville, etc.... they tried to move into bigger markets thinking they could expand the sports growth but in reality they gave up the hardcore fans in places like hartford and quebec in an attempt to be more like the NFL . it was a brain dead idea. they need to go back to the old NHL. the league will continue to have major problems as long as they keep teams in cities they don't belong— Ryan
- Expansion has made a lot of money for NHL owners, going back to the first expansion in 1967. Ed Snider is reported to have paid a $6 million fee. Current fees are in the $200 million range (Quebec City and Markham, Ontario).
Once the NHL owners collect their share of these franchise fees, they could care less whether the franchise survives or not. Why should they? They already received all the money they are ever going to get from those corporate entities. In existence, these teams simply bid up the price of free agent talent. The original owners can live without that.
Think of it as a franchise to open a McDonald's. You pay your franchise fee, and you buy all your product from McDonald's corporate. If you make a ton of money, good for you. If you go broke, tough luck sucker. Next!
But I'd really like to read your assessment of "...teams in cities they don't belong". What cities are we talking about here? Be diligent, because you may be surprised who's making money and who's not.— backhand - I believe the strike pushes Hockey below the WNBA in the professional sports pecking order.— TEMPLE55
- I wish Jim Balsillie would use some of his money to organize a rival league. This is utterly ridiculous. These owners don't care about the game. All they care about is money and making their wallets fatter. F every last one of them.— Fly Guy
