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Bettman, NHL make new offer in hope of full season - Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo's take on it. So far the Fehr quotes look ok. The Bettman quotes appear similar to when he first received the NHLPA offer.
Can they even do a compressed schedule with all the arena commitments? It's not as though there are 15 free dates each week for all 30 arena's are there?
Edit
I totally read this wrong, 15 dates/month should be possible.
How confident are you that this is going to go forward?
Well, we certainly hope it will. We've given it our best shot.
What was the reaction?
The reaction was that they obviously need to study it, and so we told them that we're available to them. But they're going to need some time to review it, and I respect that portion of the process. Obviously, they've got to understand the offer and get comfortable with it.
Was it just the core economic issues in terms of the offer?
We had a number of significant elements that we believe can and should serve as the basis of a deal to get us playing hockey.
Why do this today?
Because if we want to have an 82-game regular season, if we want to preserve an 82-game regular season and you back up the timetable in terms of the schedule, we needed to do it.
By the way, in terms of the schedule, so everybody understands, the compression that would be involved is one additional game every five weeks.
Beyond that, we don't think it would be good for the players or for the game. But if you look at what our ability would be to schedule 82 games and you work back from November 2nd, if we didn't do it now, if we didn't put an effort on the table that we thought was fair and could get us playing hockey, if we didn't do it now, then it probably wasn't going to happen for a while. Because, again, it's done in the spirit of getting a full season in.
Is it 50-50 across the board?
It's 50-50 across board.
How long of a contract will this be?
I'm not going to get into the specifics. We proposed a long-term contract. We think that's in everybody's interest. We think that's what our fans want.
Can you explain how you address the roll back or the escrow?
There is no roll back, and I'm not going to get into the specifics. It would not be constructive at this point in time. The union has some work to do, and we respect the process. I probably have gone further than I usually have in terms of discussing what we've proposed than at any other time. But I'm not comfortable going any further. I'm more concerned about the process right now and getting us back on the ice.
How worried are you they might say no and more of the season will be lost?
I don't even want to go there.
Is the league amenable to playing an abbreviated schedule?
We're focused on getting the puck dropped on November 2nd and playing a full 82-game regular season and full playoffs. That's what this offer is all about.
Have you made plans to meet later in the week?
We're going to be on-call to them. They have some work to do internally. Obviously, we didn't put this proposal, this offer, together overnight, and they're going to need a little time to review it. I'm hoping that review will get us to a positive and constructive place.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/i...atest-proposal
Hope!!
If the season starts Nov.2 the @LAKings will raise the Stanley Cup Banner on Sat Nov 3, 2012 against the @StLouisBlues.
I worry that if this deal falls apart, that spells the effective end of this season.
If the season starts Nov.2 the @LAKings will raise the Stanley Cup Banner on Sat Nov 3, 2012 against the @StLouisBlues.