NHL season to be officially cancelled

[googe]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=114925

2/14/2005

The National Hockey League will conduct a news conference with Commissioner Gary Bettman on Wednesday at 1pm et from New York where it is expected he will officially cancel the 2004-05 regular season and playoffs.

Individual NHL clubs are said to be planning their own local news conferences immediately following Bettman's announcement.

TSN has learned that NHL executive vice-president Bill Daly and NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin met Monday at an undisclosed location in a last-ditch attempt to save the season. As of 6:45pm et, the two sides are still behind closed doors. As in some previous meetings, Bettman and union chief Bob Goodenow are not in the room.

Players who spoke with Goodenow were told Monday that representatives of the two sides were getting together.

The NHL and NHL Players' Association met with U.S. federal mediators in Washington on Sunday but still could not make any progress, despite five hours of talks.

According to a statement from the NHLPA, Scot B. Beckenbaugh, acting director of the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, requested the meeting.

Bettman and Goodenow were not in these meetings either. Daly and league outside counsel Bob Batterman represented the NHL with Saskin and union outside counsel John McCambridge representing the Players' Association.

Saskin later released a statement saying that no progress was made as a result of the meeting.

Daly also released a statement, which echoed Saskin's.

If the season is canceled on Wednesday, the NHL would become the first major professional league in North America to ever cancel an entire season from beginning to finish.

[habsfan]

its about damn time, hopefully both stubborn fuckin sides pull their heads out of their asses and manage to save the next season

[Def_3]

man, what horrible business men, they all got their foot in their mouth now, and are begining to relize how much money they will lose this year and next, as they will expect a 30-50% loss in revenue in the coming year as well

serves those goofs right


THE FLAMES ARE THE CUP CHAMPS IN MY EYES ANYWAYS

[hockeybronx]

Originally posted by Def_3
man, what horrible business men, they all got their foot in their mouth now, and are begining to relize how much money they will lose this year and next, as they will expect a 30-50% loss in revenue in the coming year as well

serves those goofs right


THE FLAMES ARE THE CUP CHAMPS IN MY EYES ANYWAYS

Actually in a statement made by Bettman a while back, he concluded that the NHL as a whole would lose less money by not playing than playing.

By the way, the Lightning won the cup

[Gondi Stylez]

the inevtitable has been delayed till wed... dumbasses on both sides!

[88CRX]

Originally posted by hockeybronx


Actually in a statement made by Bettman a while back, he concluded that the NHL as a whole would lose less money by not playing than playing.

i dont believe anything there saying anymore. they both stretch the fact and stats in their own favour.

[no_joke]

This is just getting silly. They should have called it all off a month ago.

Well, Pro Hockey, it was fun while it lasted. I might look you up in case you decide to come back one day. And don't be shocked in case I don't quite recognize you.

[BumpinTalon]

no kidding. the NHL may be making a statement that negotiations have reached an impasse and impose a settlement, though. if they decide to play we'll get hockey til the end of August!!

[kenny]

I can't believe the players finally buckled, but they are now agreeing to a salary cap -- the same day that the season was supposed to be cancelled.

[RiCE-DaDDy]

did anyone catch the recent yahoo poll??

like will the NHL have a season next year?

Yes 17% 20776 votes
No 17% 20143 votes
I don't care 66% 79589 votes

lol no one cares

[Kirbs17]

Damn yanks.... I miss it so much.

I think its rather intriguing that the league offered a 40 million cap, with no linkage, and the the PA offered a 52 million cap WITH linkage, and they couldnt comprimise somewhere. Damn people. I think both Bettman and Goodenow should be shot and dumped somewhere, and new people should take over.

I liked Roenicks and Melynks comments on The score today. Roenick went on sayin that if there is no hockey for the entire year of 2005, then its basically about time to cancell hockey in the States. He again confirmed that basically no one in America gives two shits about hockey.

Melynk was saying that he beleived the entire 700 player-base of the NHLPA should take a vote as to what sort of economic system they want in the league, and further said that everyone involved would be shocked at the results. Personally Im heavily infavor of that sort of mentality.

Enough ranting, time to watch NHL network, and see when the next pointless recap of some mid 70s stanley cup finals are on.

[CRXguy]

According to an NHLPA statement, Daly began the process Monday by offering a $40-million salary cap without ''linkage'' - a fixed link between player costs and league revenues, which has long been the centrepiece of the NHL's bid for cost certainty.

The union counter-offered with the $52-million team-by-team salary cap. The players' proposal also featured more aggressive payroll tax thresholds and tax rates on team payrolls.

''It is indeed unfortunate that with the major steps taken by both sides today we were unable to build enough momentum to reach an agreement,'' Saskin said in a statement released early Tuesday morning.

Shit, they're only $12million apart!

Meet halfway you dirty bastards!

[Phy]

Well, they might give a shit in Detroit. They love their Red Wings. I think it'll be a real humbling experience, tho, when they all pull their heads out and get back to hockey, and the "fans" are like, "What? Hockey's back? Man, who cares..."

[BumpinTalon]

actually I think people are exagerrating the 'no one cares' bit... nobody cares at the moment, but I bet when it gets back on the television people will care again. it might even be better to play a short season, when teams like the Flames who lose lots of guys to attrition (they play too hard ) will be able to shine because the season will only be 35 or 40 games instead of 80 some and they won't have time to lose all their players.

[bspot]

Originally posted by Kirbs17
Damn yanks.... I miss it so much.

I think its rather intriguing that the league offered a 40 million cap, with no linkage, and the the PA offered a 52 million cap WITH linkage, and they couldnt comprimise somewhere.

The PA offer linkage? No, not gonna happen.

It was 52 million with a luxury tax structure, leauge offered 40.

They are meeting again today and I'll take bets from ANYBODY that there WILL be a deal reached this week.

For anyone really into the flames check out www.calgarypuck.com, great forum.

[/////AMG]

Sorry to be a dumbass, but I've been missing out sinc eI moved away. So I know Flames aren't in this season, but whats up with all this bulklshit with them cancelling the whole season? What happened, how? How does it connect to the Flames too (if it does)?

[bspot]

Originally posted by /////AMG
Sorry to be a dumbass, but I've been missing out sinc eI moved away. So I know Flames aren't in this season, but whats up with all this bulklshit with them cancelling the whole season? What happened, how? How does it connect to the Flames too (if it does)?

Well the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) expired at the end of last season. So time to make a new one. The problem was, the owners were losing a shitload of money so they wanted a salary cap. The players love money too much so they said they would never accept a cap. They did nothing until December when they started tabling offers.

Since then it has been:

NHL: Cap
NHLPA: No Cap

NHL: Cap
NHLPA: No Cap

NHL: Cap
NHLPA: No Cap

NHL: Cap
NHLPA: No Cap

NHL: Cap
NHLPA: No Cap

for 2 and a half friggen months.

Lately it has been "if nothing is done this week there isn't time for a season and it will be canceled... unless its done next week... or the week after that... or the week after that..."

Bettman has finally set a date to cancel the season, tomorrow. So now the players FINALLY realized they are fucked, so they are willing to take a cap, they just want a really high one. So if they can get the # right, we get a 28 game season. If not, maybe start playing next January.

Fun stuff! Your missing out on a whole lot of that we hockey fans have been going through.

[Ajay]

If the NHLPA doesn't agree to the cap or the NHL can't agree to a number with the NHLPA to get the cap that's just terrible because this is the closest they have ever been to making a deal and being on the same page.

Big move by the owners to get off linkage and big move by the union to accept a cap albeit a soft style of a cap. The number is what needs to be negotiated. But if they cannot come up with a deal the union is screwed cause if the season is cancelled it's not like the union is going to get a better deal than this one next year when they start negotiating again.


No deal = no better alternative to the players. Think in a way the NHL has succeeded in breaking the union cause a fair amount of the bigger name players (Pronger, Iginla, Roenick) are now in favour of a salary cap. They just wanna play and I wanna see them play!!

[CRXguy]

Just an update from TSN.

NHL ups the cap to 42.5M. Take it or leave it.

[PGTze]

Originally posted by CRXguy
Just an update from TSN.

NHL ups the cap to 42.5M. Take it or leave it.

NHLPA should take that offer, they would be fools not too. That sounds like a pretty reasonable deal to me. There's nothing wrong with a cap as long as it's set high enough, if they don't take this then I'm gonna have to side with the owners 100%.