The Official CBA Negotiations/Lockout Super Thread

Gary Bettman interview


Read the whole thing here:
Exclusive: NHL commissioner discusses lockout issues - Winnipeg Free Press





"FP: Was the aggressive nature of your first offer to the players a mistake?



GB: I think the view some have of our first offer is fairly naive as it relates to collective bargaining. A sophisticated negotiator would have looked at it and said, 'Obviously they want a 50-50 split.' If we're at 57 and they propose 43, they must be telegraphing where they want to end. If your intention was to use it in an inflammatory way, you could do that. If your intention was to make a deal, you could pretty much chart out what the course should be."



"FP: Last week stories broke to the effect that you told Don Fehr it was time to take a two-week break from negotiations. Now you're set to talk on Monday night. What happened to change things?



GB: What happened is that conversation was clearly misportrayed and mischaracterized. Don called me on Tuesday to have a conversation. It wasn't a negotiation. It was nothing more than a simple conversation. In the course of that conversation he said he didn't know what to do or how to proceed. I said maybe we should take a little downtime, a couple of weeks, especially since we had just five sessions in six days and nothing was produced. In light of that fact he didn't know how to proceed, I said that as a suggestion. He gave it a long pause and then said, 'I don't think so.' I said OK. So this notion that we proposed a moratorium is nothing more than union rhetoric. We were always willing to go back to the table. The lines of communication are open. They know they have our best offer, which is a 50-50 sharing and the other issues that we've proposed to them. They proposed 17 issues last week and we agreed to 13 of them. We know where the negotiations led to, they know they have our best offer. We've always said if they have something to discuss, we're always available to meet."

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Originally Posted by CUP4LA:2601789

GB: What happened is that conversation was clearly misportrayed and mischaracterized. Don called me on Tuesday to have a conversation. It wasn't a negotiation. It was nothing more than a simple conversation. In the course of that conversation he said he didn't know what to do or how to proceed. I said maybe we should take a little downtime, a couple of weeks, especially since we had just five sessions in six days and nothing was produced. In light of that fact he didn't know how to proceed, I said that as a suggestion. He gave it a long pause and then said, 'I don't think so.' I said OK. So this notion that we proposed a moratorium is nothing more than union rhetoric. We were always willing to go back to the table. The lines of communication are open. They know they have our best offer, which is a 50-50 sharing and the other issues that we've proposed to them. They proposed 17 issues last week and we agreed to 13 of them. We know where the negotiations led to, they know they have our best offer. We've always said if they have something to discuss, we're always available to meet."

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Well lookie there.

I'm sure that Fehr will rebuttal with this now is just a case of Gary Bhettoric...

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Originally Posted by jt

There is no global warming...republicans say so.

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Obama is Santa Claus, Democrats say so.

For those interested in fiscal details,
2012 NHL Lockout: Creative Business Structure, Profitability, The NHL And The Florida Panthers - Defending Big D

or how to make a profit while losing money

How many thought this was real news at first.

Bailey LA Kings ‏@BaileyLAKings
A deal has been made!!!! Twinkies!!!!!! “@CNBC: BREAKING: Hostess and Bakers Union agree to mediation, preventing shut down.”

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Originally Posted by aaron

For those interested in fiscal details,
2012 NHL Lockout: Creative Business Structure, Profitability, The NHL And The Florida Panthers - Defending Big D

or how to make a profit while losing money

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I'd love to see the audited financial statements.

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Originally Posted by nosoupforyou

I'd love to see the audited financial statements.

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Sorry, you will have to take Piston's word for it

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Originally Posted by aaron

Sorry, you will have to take Piston's word for it

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I have questions about this quote:

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I expected to see that the Panthers were making good money on their arena deal; I was surprised to find that what was far and away [AOC's] worst fiscal year coincided with the NHL lockout. If the Panthers were losing money but the arena business was profitable, we would not expect to see a major drop in [AOC] revenue in 2005; instead we saw a significant dip. (Note: judging by the email commentary I’ve received, this point is being missed by many readers. If the Panthers were acting as a drag on revenue, the 2005 lockout year should have been quite profitable for SSE; instead it was easily their worst fiscal year of the decade – JW.)

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It is confusing when people throw in revenue and profit into the same statement interchangeably. of course revenue is going to drop if all those people aren't buying tickets. argh, show me a financial statement!

Oh these fools have been going about it all wrong. Just let the Owners and Players wives step in there and they'd settle it all fast, just to get the guys out of the house.