Thread: The Official CBA Negotiations/Lockout Super Thread

Any word on whether or not they'll meet... ever again?

Originally Posted by FishMonger

Any word on whether or not they'll meet... ever again?

Shelly Anderson ‏@pgshelly
No details, but heard that BIll Daly-Steve Fehr contact recently has been of substantial nature, even qualifying as light negotiations.

Originally Posted by Bogey

Shelly Anderson ‏@pgshelly
No details, but heard that BIll Daly-Steve Fehr contact recently has been of substantial nature, even qualifying as light negotiations.

Well so long as they aren't discussing their Halloween costumes I guess that's progress.

Friedman speculates on which teams may be hardliners.

30 Thoughts: Lockouts chock full of familiar refrains | Hockey | CBC Sports

Here's a tidbit from the "30 Thoughts" portion I found interesting:

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts on a conference call last week, courtesy Adweek: "I can tell you we're pretty disappointed with regard to the lockout. I don't think we should say a heck of a lot more. I think that we're just hopeful that the ownership and the players can get together and get on with the season." Comcast owns NBC and the Philadelphia Flyers.

I think we can safely assume that Comcast has expressed its "disappointment" to the NHL. This is the kind of pressure needed to push the owners towards settlement.

Originally Posted by aragorn

yep... bring up some replacements or something already. Neither the players or owners seem to care.

Replacements??? Keanu Reeves plays hockey too?

Originally Posted by Rawley19

Replacements??? Keanu Reeves plays hockey too?

Yep! Youngblood

Originally Posted by D0wntime

yes. the latest proposal included de-linking 13% of player salaries from HRR. The remaining 87% would be a strict 50/50 split of HRR. The NHLPA proposal assumes that the 13% would diminish over time as contracts expire and as revenues increase. So, while you are technically right there is a world of difference between the PA's latest proposal and their earlier proposals that did not link salaries to revenues. I don't think that you can say the same thing of the owners' proposals. Their movement from 43% to 50% looks good on paper, but when you consider that they have never sought to provide incremental decreases that would honor existing contracts but still move the league toward a 50-50 split, it's clear that one side is making a lot of movement (and dancing) and the other is mainly dancing.

I think the key point to be made is that the latest NHLPA proposal, especially option three, has the players agreeing to a 50-50 split of HRR as they are currently defined (at least for a large bulk of the salaries). This is huge. On the other hand, the players are still assuming a lot about future revenues (as are the owners btw), which would give the owners pause. There is a deal to be made here, though. If the players and owners could work together to come up with a plan to honor existing contracts and diminish the players' percentage of revenues over time so that in three or four years we are at 50-50, it would benefit both sides. Also, the owners should institute a much more robust revenue-sharing model in the first year or two which would allow struggling teams to cope with the demands that elevated salaries would have on the first few years of the new CBA. Each year, that pot of shared revenues could also diminish over time, settling at the latest figure proposed by the league in their last offer.

if i could add one last point, it wouldn't surprise me if one of the reasons why revenue sharing isn't a bigger part of the NHL's proposal is because the larger market teams are frustrated with smaller market teams who are signing contracts that they cannot afford, especially in the weeks heading into the lockout. Part of that frustration comes from the overwhelming sense of entitlement that large market teams have regarding the NHL.

What part of the NHL's offer isn't a true 50/50 while honoring the current contracts? The "make whole" provision does exactly that. It just does it over time instead giving the players the 13% up front.

Originally Posted by Rawley19

Replacements??? Keanu Reeves plays hockey too?

Originally Posted by drums4dmf

Yep! Youngblood

That was Rob Lowe.

Originally Posted by beedee

That was Rob Lowe.

Keanu was in goal. (And actually played beer league in Burbank for a while too).