Deadline passes for NHLPA to accept NHL deal
TSN.ca Staff with CP files
2/16/2005
NEW YORK - The National Hockey League's deadline for the NHL Players' Association to accept its $42.5 million hard cap proposal has passed, with all signs pointing to commissioner Gary Bettman announcing the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season at a 1pm et/10am pt news conference in New York (live on TSN and TSN.ca).
The league has already sent out memos to its teams saying that it has not contacted the union since Tuesday night, and the season will be cancelled. Neither side has made contact with each other since wrapping up a public letter-writing campaign, with the NHL and the union standing pat with a $6.5 million gap.
"It's too bad... but at least we have an answer," Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund told TSN. "It's too bad for us players that we can't be out there to perform but there's a bigger picture, too."
The only letter that came on Wednesday was a press release from the NHLPA saying it had scheduled its own news conference for 4pm et/1pm pt in Toronto.
The league and Players' Association came off a tumultuous 48-hour period which saw both sides break down barriers that had existed for more than two years.
The league took less than an hour to reject the NHLPA's offer of a $49-million team-by-team salary cap Tuesday night, sticking to the $42.5-million submission it made earlier in the evening.
"If every team spent to the $49-million level you have proposed, total player compensation would exceed what we spent last season and, assuming for discussion purposes, there was no damage to the game, our player compensation costs would exceed 75 per cent of revenues," Bettman wrote in his second letter of the day to NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow. "We cannot afford your proposal.
"Our offer of earlier (Tuesday) was a $75-million increase over the offer we made (Monday). I hope you will accept it, and that we can move forward and negotiate the myriad of other issues that need to be addressed."
Two hours after that rejection, Goodenow fired a letter back at Bettman.
"Your claim that the clubs cannot afford our proposal is based on your hypothetical fear of what would happen "if every team spent to the $49-million leve the players have proposed,"' wrote Goodenow. "The notion that every club will spend at the $49-million level is contradicted by years of actual payroll experience under the old CBA system..."
Goodenow then added, "You will receive nothing further from us."
Goodenow had taken just over four hours to turn down the league's offer of a $42.5-million salary cap, an offer Bettman warned did not warrant further negotiations.
The league's offer features a $42.5-million cap, with a luxury tax of 50 per cent on payrolls from $34 million to $42.5 million. Offers from both sides in the last two days included a salary rollback of 24 per cent on all existing player contracts and covered six full seasons.
Aside from dropping its cap figure from $52 million to $49 million on Tuesday night, the union also restructured the exception provision so that teams can only go over the cap twice during the six-year term and "for up to only 10 per cent over the limit of $49 million (to $53.9 million), at the tax rate of 150 per cent."
The rest of the luxury tax would worked like this: 25 per cent on $40 million-$43 million, 50 per cent on $43 million-$46 million and 75 per cent from $46 million-$49 million. The deal also included a minimum payroll of $25 million.
The NHLPA's previous offer Monday allowed provisions for teams to spend as much as 10 per cent more than that on three occasions in a six-year period. The luxury tax worked at 25 per cent on $40 million-$44 million; 50 per cent on $44 million-$48 million; 75 per cent on $48 million-$52 million and 150 per cent on $52 million-$57.2 million.
The league's $42.5-million salary cap would be the figure for all six years of the new collective bargaining agreement.
Counting the rollback of 24 per cent, four teams are currently over the $42.5-million figure before signing any free agents. Detroit ($43.38 million), New Jersey ($46.32 million), Philadelphia ($50 million) and Toronto ($46.6 million) would be over. Dallas ($40.77 million) and Colorado ($40.27 million) would be on the bubble without signing anyone else.
Through Wednesday, 840 of the 1,230 regular-season games have gone by the wayside.
If an agreement can still be reached, the league has a shortened schedule ready to go that would see teams play 28 regular-season games, playing only within their conference. The playoffs would stay the same.
Cheers,
Aquaman
TSN.ca Staff with CP files
2/16/2005
NEW YORK - The National Hockey League's deadline for the NHL Players' Association to accept its $42.5 million hard cap proposal has passed, with all signs pointing to commissioner Gary Bettman announcing the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season at a 1pm et/10am pt news conference in New York (live on TSN and TSN.ca).
The league has already sent out memos to its teams saying that it has not contacted the union since Tuesday night, and the season will be cancelled. Neither side has made contact with each other since wrapping up a public letter-writing campaign, with the NHL and the union standing pat with a $6.5 million gap.
"It's too bad... but at least we have an answer," Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund told TSN. "It's too bad for us players that we can't be out there to perform but there's a bigger picture, too."
The only letter that came on Wednesday was a press release from the NHLPA saying it had scheduled its own news conference for 4pm et/1pm pt in Toronto.
The league and Players' Association came off a tumultuous 48-hour period which saw both sides break down barriers that had existed for more than two years.
The league took less than an hour to reject the NHLPA's offer of a $49-million team-by-team salary cap Tuesday night, sticking to the $42.5-million submission it made earlier in the evening.
"If every team spent to the $49-million level you have proposed, total player compensation would exceed what we spent last season and, assuming for discussion purposes, there was no damage to the game, our player compensation costs would exceed 75 per cent of revenues," Bettman wrote in his second letter of the day to NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow. "We cannot afford your proposal.
"Our offer of earlier (Tuesday) was a $75-million increase over the offer we made (Monday). I hope you will accept it, and that we can move forward and negotiate the myriad of other issues that need to be addressed."
Two hours after that rejection, Goodenow fired a letter back at Bettman.
"Your claim that the clubs cannot afford our proposal is based on your hypothetical fear of what would happen "if every team spent to the $49-million leve the players have proposed,"' wrote Goodenow. "The notion that every club will spend at the $49-million level is contradicted by years of actual payroll experience under the old CBA system..."
Goodenow then added, "You will receive nothing further from us."
Goodenow had taken just over four hours to turn down the league's offer of a $42.5-million salary cap, an offer Bettman warned did not warrant further negotiations.
The league's offer features a $42.5-million cap, with a luxury tax of 50 per cent on payrolls from $34 million to $42.5 million. Offers from both sides in the last two days included a salary rollback of 24 per cent on all existing player contracts and covered six full seasons.
Aside from dropping its cap figure from $52 million to $49 million on Tuesday night, the union also restructured the exception provision so that teams can only go over the cap twice during the six-year term and "for up to only 10 per cent over the limit of $49 million (to $53.9 million), at the tax rate of 150 per cent."
The rest of the luxury tax would worked like this: 25 per cent on $40 million-$43 million, 50 per cent on $43 million-$46 million and 75 per cent from $46 million-$49 million. The deal also included a minimum payroll of $25 million.
The NHLPA's previous offer Monday allowed provisions for teams to spend as much as 10 per cent more than that on three occasions in a six-year period. The luxury tax worked at 25 per cent on $40 million-$44 million; 50 per cent on $44 million-$48 million; 75 per cent on $48 million-$52 million and 150 per cent on $52 million-$57.2 million.
The league's $42.5-million salary cap would be the figure for all six years of the new collective bargaining agreement.
Counting the rollback of 24 per cent, four teams are currently over the $42.5-million figure before signing any free agents. Detroit ($43.38 million), New Jersey ($46.32 million), Philadelphia ($50 million) and Toronto ($46.6 million) would be over. Dallas ($40.77 million) and Colorado ($40.27 million) would be on the bubble without signing anyone else.
Through Wednesday, 840 of the 1,230 regular-season games have gone by the wayside.
If an agreement can still be reached, the league has a shortened schedule ready to go that would see teams play 28 regular-season games, playing only within their conference. The playoffs would stay the same.
Cheers,
Aquaman
