RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling CROSSCHECK 07.08.05: Agreement nears

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) - The NHL's lengthy labor strife finally may be coming to an end.

According to a report in Thursday's Los Angeles Times, the NHL and the Players Association have agreed in principle on a new collective bargaining agreement that includes a hard salary cap.

Citing "sources familiar with the labor negotiations," the newspaper said the agreement features a hard cap linked to 54 percent of league revenue, a 24 percent rollback in existing player contracts and qualifying offers, and a provision that would prevent any one player from earning more than 20 percent of the team's cap figure in any given year.

While speaking to TSN of Canada, both sides denied a new CBA has been reached. A union spokesman told the Toronto television station "it's an inaccurate report," while NHL vice president of communications Bernadette Mansur simply said the report was not true.

According to the LA Times, the deal includes a provision in which 15 percent of every player's paycheck would go into an escrow account until revenue is calculated following each season. Only if league-wide spending on salaries were to fall short of 54 percent of revenue would the escrow money revert to the players; otherwise, the excess amount would be paid to teams from the account.

The report said the salary cap would be $37 million but would not include medical and dental benefits and pension payments, while the salary floor would be close to $24 million.

The paper said the agreement is expected to be announced next week. It also stated there will be an 18-day break next season to allow players to participate in the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, pre-empting the 2006 All-Star Game in Phoenix.

Further, the paper reported each team will have an equal chance at the No. 1 pick, likely Canadian phenom Sidney Crosby, in the draft lottery.

After the 2004-05 campaign was wiped out due to the labor dispute, the sides have held frequent sessions in an attempt to prevent another disastrous situation.

On February 16, commissioner Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 2004-05 season, making the NHL the first major North American sports league to have an entire season wiped out due to a labor dispute.

After convening with the NHL's Board of Governors in April, Bettman announced the league would not resume play until a CBA was in place, erasing the belief replacement players would be used for the 2005-06 campaign.

In March, the league officially canceled the 2005 draft, which was slated to take place in Ottawa in June.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The NHL and the players' association are closing in on a new collective bargaining agreement, but both sides denied a report Thursday that a deal had been reached.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the sides had completed negotiations to end the lockout that wiped out all of last season. But the league and the union said that is premature.

``The report is inaccurate,'' players' association spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said.

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The league and the union have been at the bargaining table every week for the past few months and have indicated they are close to a deal. The sides resumed negotiations in New York on Monday, and those talks continued Thursday.

``The media report that the NHL and the NHLPA have an agreement in principle is simply not true,'' Bernadette Mansur, the NHL vice president of communications, said in an e-mail statement.

The newspaper, citing anonymous sources close to the negotiations, said the agreement would feature a hard salary cap linked to 54 percent of league revenue, a 24 percent rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers. It would also include a provision that would limit the salary of any player to 20 percent of the team cap figure in any season.

The salary cap would be $37 million and wouldn't include medical and dental benefits and pension payments, the Times reported.

The newspaper added that details were to be presented to the NHL executive committee in New York on Monday, and that players would meet to decide whether to approve the deal.

``There is no BOG (board of governors) meeting scheduled at this time,'' Mansur said.

Under the reported agreement, the league's All-Star game would be dropped next season and players would be allowed to represent their home countries at the Turin Olympics in February, the Times said. Each team would also have an equal chance in the lottery for the No. 1 pick in this year's entry draft.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the hockey season Feb. 16 because of the lockout, which started Sept. 16. The NHL became the first major pro sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labor dispute.

By Mac Engel, Star-Telegram Staff Writer
July 6, 2005

Salary cap

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's primary goal will be realized. "We are preparing to put a team together working under a hard cap," Stars general manager Doug Armstrong said.

League sources said there will be a hard cap of approximately $39 million, and it will be tied to estimated league revenue of $1.7 billion. Should that total increase or decrease, the cap moves accordingly. And every team must be under the cap.

The basement will be a $23 million cap, or $16 million under the maximum.

Expect few teams, if any, to be at the top end of the cap in the first season. They will want some wiggle room to acquire players and learn exactly how the new system works.

The big losers, as expected, will be the players.

Sixteen teams had payrolls over $39 million in 2003-04, with the Detroit Red Wings topping out at $77.8 million. Ten teams eclipsed $50 million; only the Nashville Predators were under $23 million.

Salary rollbacks

The 24 percent rollback of all existing contracts offered by the union last year will be in place. So if Stars wing Bill Guerin was scheduled to make $9 million this season, under the new agreement he would earn $6.8 million.

One time buyouts

The NHL will expand on what the NBA recently offered its clubs. Teams must be under the salary cap at the start of the 2005-06 season, without existing contracts being grandfathered, even with the rollback. To meet the cap requirement and sign enough players to complete a roster, teams are expected to be given a period to buy out existing contracts.

Thus, many players with more than one year remaining on their contract will likely be bought out at two-thirds of the value, reduced by the 24 percent rollback. On the Stars that may mean saying goodbye to Guerin, and to Pierre Turgeon. Guerin has two years and $18 million remaining on the original five-year, $45 million contract he signed in the summer of 2002. Combined with the rollback, he would be bought out at $9 million.

That's a hefty sum to swallow. Turgeon would be a buy-out hit of $3.1 million. Expect high-salaried players such as Derian Hatcher, Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Yashin, Bobby Holik and others to become free agents because of this buyout plan.

Free agency

It will be akin to a real fantasy draft. Expect more than 400 players to be available after buyouts. That's more than half of the union membership. The current age for players to become free agents is 31, and it will remain that for this season. It's expected to be lowered to 29 in the summer of 2006 and 28 in '07.

Olympics

The NHL does not want a two-week stoppage in its first season back from the lockout, but the players are pushing hard to participate in the 2006 Winter Olympics. This is one of the few battles the players will win. As a result, there will not be an All-Star Game until 2007.

Schedule

It will be an 82-game regular-season schedule. The only difference is teams might play division opponents eight times instead of six.

Rule changes

At some point, expect the following to change:

• A shootout after a five-minute overtime.

• No-touch icing.

• Reduction of the neutral zone.

• Moving the nets closer to the boards.

• Reduced size of goalie equipment.

• Red line will be discounted, thus allowing two-line passes.

• Introduction of a competition committee.

NHL officials sound as if they want to see if these changes increase scoring before making what they feel is a drastic move in expanding the size of nets. If these changes do not work, nets may be expanded for 2006-07.

New uniforms

Reebok has taken over as the NHL's exclusive uniform provider and is working on a new, sleek, tight-fitting jersey to replace the conventional sweater. The league-wide uniform change isn't expected for another year.

Ticket prices

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks announced a 5.28 percent reduction on season tickets, and those prices will be frozen through 2006-07. End-zone seats were reduced from $25 to $9.50. The Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks have both said they will lower ticket prices.

Then there are the New York Islanders, who will not reduce season ticket prices. This flies in the face of what Bettman had been all but promising if the NHL could attain "cost certainty."

"The inflation [in payroll] caused ticket prices to go up," Bettman told the Star-Telegram in January. "I believe in a number of markets prices will go down. I also believe the inflationary spiral will abate, and prices will be more affordable."

Stars president Jim Lites said fans should anticipate "significant reductions" for Stars home games. He said that a new price structure will be announced shortly after the CBA is completed.

Draft

The formal event, originally scheduled for Ottawa, might be back on. As for the draft order, it's anybody's guess. It could be a weighted lottery system involving all 30 teams, with the worst teams over the past five years having the best odds of landing the higher picks. Don't be stunned when the New York Rangers land the first pick, and the rights to draft the latest next Wayne Gretzky -- Sidney Crosby.

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NHL LOCKOUT TIMELINE

Oct. 1, 2003: NHL players and owners meet for the first time to work on a collective bargaining agreement to replace the contract due to expire in September 2004.

Feb. 13, 2004: The NHL releases a report by a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman stating that the 30 teams combined for $272.6 million in operating losses in the 2002-03 season. Forbes magazine later estimates the losses at $123 million.

April 17, 2004: The Stars lose to the Colorado Avalanche 5-1, dropping their Western Conference quarterfinal series 4 games to 1 and ending their season.

May 6: Stars president Jim Lites says the team eliminated "12 or 13" front-office positions.

June 7: The Tampa Bay Lightning defeats the Calgary Flames 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between two small-market teams. The Lightning claim the NHL championship and start an extended off-season for the league.

Sept. 9: The NHL Players' Association proposes a system that does not include a salary cap, the union's first new proposal in more than a year. The owners reject the proposal and negotiations break off.

Sept. 15: The collective bargaining agreement expires and owners lock out players for the second time in 11 years. Commissioner Gary Bettman says NHL teams lost a combined $224 million in the 2003-04 season.

Nov. 12: Forbes magazine estimates NHL owners lost only $96 million in 2003-04.

Dec. 9: Negotiations resume between owners and players, with the union proposing a 24 percent rollback in salaries and a luxury tax.

Dec. 14: The owners reject the union's luxury tax proposal, countering with a salary-cap plan that includes facets of the union proposal. The players' association rejects the NHL's offer.

Jan. 20: Officials from the union and NHL meet without Bettman or union chief Bob Goodenow.

Jan. 21: The groups meet again, then suspend talks.

Feb. 2: Owners present a proposal that includes a salary cap and salary rollbacks. The union rejects the proposal.

Feb. 3: The sides meet again, this time with Bettman and Goodenow present.

Feb. 4: Talks break down.

Feb. 9: The union rejects a proposal offered by Bettman, who warned that if an agreement wasn't being drawn up by the following weekend, the season would be in jeopardy.

Feb. 10: Two days of talks end without an agreement.

Feb. 13: The two sides meet with federal mediators, with no progress reported.

Feb. 14-15: The NHL drops its demand to link salaries to revenues and the union agrees to accept a salary cap. However, the sides remain divided on the parameters of the cap. Bettman gives the union a deadline of the next morning to accept or reject the league's "final" offer.

Feb. 16: The NHL cancels the 2004-05 season.

March 7: The NHL Players' Association accepts an invitation from the league to return to the bargaining table. The league openly talks about the possibility of using replacement players to open the season if an agreement has not been reached.

March 27: The NHL files an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that a players' association policy that would penalize members who became replacements is coercive and in violation of their rights.

April 19: Bettman announces that the league's priority is pursuing a labor agreement with players and, although the season still might not start on time, the league will not use replacement players.

May 5-6: The league and players meet twice in two days and agree to meet twice the next week and twice the following week.

May 11: In continuing discussions, the league and players talk about the formation of a competition committee. Payroll issues also were talked about "in the context of a new economic system," a phrase the league has used throughout the talks.

By LARRY LAGE, AP Sports Writer
July 9, 2005

DETROIT (AP) -- Detroit Red Wings goalie Manny Legace criticized players' union head Bob Goodenow on Saturday for failing to reach a labor deal that could have saved the canceled 2004-05 season.

``We lost a season for no reason,'' Legace told The Associated Press. ``We should've crumbled last September when the owners wanted a salary cap.''

Despite at least one report indicating the NHL's labor situation is essentially resolved, the league and the players' association deny that is true.

The Los Angeles Times, citing anonymous sources close to the negotiations, said Thursday the agreement would feature a hard salary cap linked to 54 percent of league revenue, a 24 percent rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers.

The salary cap would be $37 million and wouldn't include medical and dental benefits and pension payments, the newspaper reported.

``They're not going to announce anything until it's 100-percent finished and I'm sure they're not going to do it before the All-Star game,'' said Legace, referring to baseball's All-Star game Tuesday night in Detroit. ``I'm hearing it's all but done and the lawyers have been looking over it, and that it could take 14 to 20 days.''

Legace said Goodenow did a great job negotiating for the players in 1994, but the NHLPA executive director failed them during the current negotiations.

``It makes no sense what we ended up doing,'' Legace said. ``For years, Bob was telling us, 'No cap. Owners aren't telling us the truth about their books.' Then out of nowhere, he gives the owners a 24-percent rollback and it looked like we were panicking.

``Then after saying we wouldn't even consider a salary cap, he backed down on that at the last minute just before the lockout. It was too late, and now we're taking a worse deal.''

Legace said when he was a players' representative for the Red Wings during the 2003-04 season, he publicly said the union should accept a salary cap.

``Bob came to one of our games and screamed at me in our dressing room after I said that,'' Legace said. ``He freaked out on me. He thought I was showing a sign of weakness.''

NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said the union declined to respond to Legace's comments.

Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the season Feb. 16 because of the lockout, which started Sept. 16. The NHL became the first major pro sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labor dispute.

Quote:

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backwards17 said:
hockey sucks and so do I

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To the person behind the alt:

Negotiations between the NHL and the players union continued through the weekend in an effort to bring the 298-day lockout to an end and ensure there will be a hockey season beginning in the fall.

According to several reports through last week, the details of a 6-year deal have been agreed upon and attorneys from both the league and NHLPA are going over the document to be sure it is exactly the way they want it. An announcement that an agreement has been reached could come as early as this morning, but it is more likely to happen Wednesday, sources have said.

According to some sources, the league wants to hold off until Wednesday when the baseball All-Star Game is completed and before MLB play resumes.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has called an executive committee meeting for today in New York so league officials have an opportunity to examine the deal.

Some of the details of the deal have been reported. Some of the more important points include:

• A team salary cap next season between $37 million and $39 million, with a minimum of between $21 million and $24 million.

• Player salaries leaguewide must be capped at 54 percent of revenues. The cap will be based on revenue projections, with a projection for next season of between $1.7 billion and $1.8 billion, down from the $2.1 billion in 2003-04. In following years, the cap will be set by the previous year's revenues, moving the cap up or down depending on revenue growth.

• All existing player contracts will be rolled back 24 percent, including all qualifying offers this summer for restricted free agents. No player can earn more than 20 percent of his team's salary cap.

• Players will deposit a yet-to-be determined percentage of their salaries into escrow at the start of the season. Either the teams or the players will get money back at the end of the season, when the season's revenue is determined.

The deal appears to contain everything the owners wanted from the start, and the players are beginning to criticize the union leadership. Last week, Los Angeles Kings center Sean Avery said that NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow "brainwashed" the membership.

During the weekend, Detroit goalie Manny Legace said Goodenow should have struck a deal that saved the season.

"We lost a season for no reason,'' Legace told the Associated Press. "We should've crumbled last September when the owners wanted a salary cap.

"It makes no sense what we ended up doing.''