Today's Meeting: Reasons for Optimism?

NHL requests another meeting on Tuesday. PA's offer reportedly includes at massive 24% rollback in current salaries and much bigger luxury tax, 75 cents per dollar. Their offer in September included at 5% rollback and a luxury tax, 20 cents per dollar.

[www.tsn.ca]

The full proposal from the NHLPA is on their website:

[www.nhlpa.com]

Bettman said in his press conference among other things: "I still don't believe in a luxury tax."

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

Bettman said in his press conference among other things: "I still don't believe in a luxury tax."[/q]

Not believing in it is different than language saying he will not accept it. I think the mere fact they have already scheduled a meeting for next week is a very good sign.

If anything, this proposal shows that that the PA isn't screwing around anymore. The reason for the meeting next week is because the NHL team needs to go over the proposal in great depth before they can offer any kind of response. So what they come back with next week will tell us whether there is in fact reason for optimism.

Sounds to me like the PA has decided that the owners are willing to stick this out if necessary and as a result have started to offer more significant concessions. I don't know whether the latest is within the owners' ballpark, but it's movement which is definitely a good thing.

Sounds like you answered your own question, Ari (which sounded rhetorical in the first place...).

The optimism won't come until next week.

Saw a large billboard off 95 in Providence today that read:

No strike.
No lockout.
Brown hockey.

Don't know if anyone saw this, but INCH had this story (kind of related to the billboard near Brown, at least theme-wise):

[Q]True story from last week: A Bulldog fans calls the Dish Network customer service line to ask if the UMD-Wisconsin games will be televised. The customer service professional, seemingly bewildered by the question, ask what sport. Upon hearing the reply, “college hockey,” the Dish Network employee replies, “I thought they cancelled hockey for the season.” Expect to see a satisfied DirecTV customer watching the Bulldogs sometime soon.[/Q]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

Sounds to me like the PA has decided that the owners are willing to stick this out if necessary and as a result have started to offer more significant concessions. I don't know whether the latest is within the owners' ballpark, but it's movement which is definitely a good thing.[/q]

Sounds to me like the PA is positioning itself to file a lawsuit when the owners try to declare a deadlock and unilaterally impose their own labor rules.

[q]Sounds to me like the PA is positioning itself to file a lawsuit when the owners try to declare a deadlock and unilaterally impose their own labor rules.[/q]Go on, ruin my optimism. Unfortunately you could well be right.

[www.nytimes.com]

Use www.bugmenot.com to get around the registration (get the bugmenot extension if you are one of the smart ones using FireFox)!


This article seems to indicate that the players have offered not just a bandaid, but perhaps a bandaid with thick gauze padding. The players' proposal would bring several teams out of debt (though not very small market ones like Buffalo) and set-up a system that could reduce salaries in the future.

The scary part of the article is where they speculate that Bettman may want to scrap everything, hire replacement players next year, and build an agreement from scratch. Hopefully, his Cornell intellect will shine through and he will work with the current players' proposal to get hockey functioning this season.

There is market space for hockey. Once football ends, all that there is for a couple months is basketball. While the college game will always be popular, NBA ratings have been plummeting. I hope Bettman sees this and starts the NHL on the long path to recovery.

Bettman seems to think the league can't get on the "long path to recovery" without a radically restructured deal. He might be right . We'll see.

A "confidential" memo obtained by TSN outlines the NHL's negative reaction to the NHLPA's proposal. [http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=107996]

I don't see how the lockout will end unless the FBI or RCMP apprehend the gunman that has been coercing the owners to sign players to expensive contracts.