This may not concern many on here, but I'll post it anyway
NHL puts season on ice
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/17/05
NEW YORK — Despite professional sports' long and bitter history of confrontation between players and owners, a major North American league had never lost a full season to a labor dispute.
Until Wednesday.
On what he called "a sad, regrettable day that all of us wish could have been avoided," National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the rest of a season that never began.
"I think this is a tragedy," he said.
While labor disputes in other sports have had extreme consequences, including the cancellation of baseball's World Series in 1994 and the use of NFL replacement players in 1987, Bettman said he took the unprecedented step of wiping out a full season because "we're done losing money as a league."
The hockey league's owners, claiming $500 million in losses during the past two seasons, locked out the players in September and vowed not to play again until a new economic system could be negotiated.
The two sides finally had made some progress in negotiations this week but did not reach an agreement on a salary cap by the Wednesday deadline Bettman had set.
"It is my sad duty to announce that because the solution has not yet been attained, it no longer is practical to conduct even an abbreviated season," the commissioner said at a news conference in a Times Square hotel. "Accordingly, I have no choice but to announce the formal cancellation of play for 2004-2005."
The head of the players union, Bob Goodenow, said Bettman and the owners did "the unthinkable."
The cancellation of the full season means, among other things, that the Stanley Cup will not be awarded for the first time since 1919, when a flu epidemic stopped the final series.
While this season's fate was decided Wednesday, a whole range of questions arose about the league's future.
What about next year?
Negotiations between owners and players are expected to be on hold for weeks, if not months, and some have expressed doubts about whether a deal will get done in time for next season.
Bettman, speaking calmly and often professorially during the hourlong news conference, said the league will "explore and pursue all available options" to make sure it plays next season. That includes "as a legal, theoretical matter" the possibility of declaring an impasse in negotiations, unilaterally implementing new work rules and attempting to open the season with replacement players, he said.
"But I'm not here to issue any veiled threats," Bettman said.
An attempt to declare an impasse and use replacements likely would be challenged in court by the players union.
Although Bettman said the league would lose less money in this canceled season than it would have lost by playing under the expired labor deal, he acknowledged the decision could have a serious effect on future business, such as season-ticket sales and sponsorships.
"We're going to have to re-earn our place in our fans' world," Bettman said.
One group uniquely affected by the cancellation: the Atlanta Thrashers' new owners, who now have the distinction of owning a team that will play no games in the first season after they bought it.
"Extremely disappointing," said Bruce Levenson, one of the owners.
"But the fuller context of that," he said, "is we knew when we bought the team that the system was broken. We knew there was going to be a difficult process to get it fixed. And we knew it was important for our team to get a new system.
"I would have hoped it would have gotten fixed sooner. But we have come too far this time — whatever is ultimately arrived at, I'm absolutely convinced it will be in the long-term interests of hockey and, really, of our fans."
Neither side budged
On the night before the season was canceled, an exchange of e-mail messages between Bettman and Goodenow moved the two sides within $6.5 million per team on the troublesome salary-cap issue — the owners proposed a cap of $42.5 million and the players counter-offered with a cap of $49 million.
Neither side budged.
The difference in dollars adds up to $195 million a year league-wide. And the union's proposal would have allowed teams to exceed the cap by 10 percent in two of six years.
"The fact of the matter is, we went as far as we felt we could afford to go," Bettman said. "At some point, you have to stop. This came down to dollars and cents, and in the final analysis we don't have the level of dollars and cents to give the players what the union is demanding."
Countered Goodenow: "The players never asked for more money. They just asked for a marketplace to exist where they could negotiate for what their value was to their teams. The league's threats, ultimatums, take-it-or-leave-it tactics and refusals to negotiate ultimately prevented a deal here."
Bettman said a concession the owners made earlier this week will be removed from future offers. After years of demanding that a salary cap be linked to a percentage of league-wide revenue, the owners agreed Monday to eliminate the linkage. But future offers will include the link, Bettman said, because of the impossibility of projecting the impact of a lost season on revenue.
"The best offer is off the table," he said.
And so is the season.
——————————
IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES
$6.5 million
How far apart the players union and the owners were. The owners wanted a $42.5 million salary cap and the players said they could live with $49 million.
480
The number of Thrashers season ticket holders (out of 8,000) who have asked for a refund.
1919
The last year the NHL did not award a Stanley Cup, when a flu epidemic forced the finals to be canceled.
1,230
Number of games in an NHL season.
$500 million
How much the owners claim they lost in the past two years.
i hope the NBA is taking note of this, b/c their labor agreement w/ the players is gonna be expiring after this season... :arrow: you gonna have some angry **** people if they don't have a season, but i'm very sure that their situation won't end up like the NHL's...
okay i guess im in the huge minority, but i kinda miss hockey, i used to go to caps games all the time cuz a **** cant afford wizards tickets (damn you abe polien(sp?). but watchin a hockey in person is 20x's better than on TV, and solid snake, what do you consider to be real sports?
okay i guess im in the huge minority, but i kinda miss hockey, i used to go to caps games all the time cuz a N*gga cant afford wizards tickets (damn you abe polien(sp?). but watchin a hockey in person is 20x's better than on TV, and solid snake, what do you consider to be real sports?
they're fun to go to...but hawks tickets are rather cheap...go figure...but although i'm not a big hockey fan, i always catch myself going to yet another thrashers game...if ya'll ain't never been...PLEASE go!!! win or loose they're FUN!
okay i guess im in the huge minority, but i kinda miss hockey, i used to go to caps games all the time cuz a N*gga cant afford wizards tickets (damn you abe polien(sp?). but watchin a hockey in person is 20x's better than on TV, and solid snake, what do you consider to be real sports?
i'm actually with you in the huge minority.... i'm part of that 1/4 that cares about the game... it **** b/c my cousin plays for the Buffalo Sabres (after playing w/ Washington and Edmonton) and i remember when the Carolina Hurricanes went to the Stanley Cup... who would've thought that Cup mania would hit NASCAR and college hoops country the way it did... shame they dismantled the freakin team though and yeah hockey is a sport... i mean there's just as much contacts and when the fights break out... it's just game over.... i'm too through :
and yeah hockey is a sport... i mean there's just as much contacts and when the fights break out... it's just game over.... i'm too through :
