Lockout: Blend of plans to be on table

NHL talks likely to resume next week

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

By Ira Podell, The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- When NHL labor talks resume, a new plan will be up for discussion that attempts to blend elements from both sides' vision of how players will be paid.

Negotiations likely will resume next week, at which time a new, hybrid concept -- which addresses the relationship between player costs and league revenues -- will be brought to the table, a source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity yesterday.

The NHL has maintained that it prefers a link tying player costs to league revenues, while the union mostly has rejected that idea. This new, mixed plan would appear to incorporate elements from both concepts.

Previous compromise discussions failed to yield progress toward ending the lockout that began seven months ago.

It was thought that talks would resume this week, but, as of yesterday, there was difficulty in scheduling a meeting, the source said.

The likely bargaining session next week would come at a busy time for the NHL, which already has a board of governors meeting planned Wednesday.

The last bargaining session, April 4 in Toronto, went better than others since the 2004-05 season was canceled in February. NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said there was now a good understanding across the table of where the sides are and that he was hopeful there would be continued progress.

Last Thursday, commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Bob Goodenow had dinner with some general managers and players in Michigan, where the general managers convened for a meeting.

Bettman and Goodenow had a drink together at the hotel bar later that night and tentatively planned to have more official talks soon.

On March 17, the NHL made two proposals to the players' association -- one containing a link between player costs and league revenues and another without the relationship.

But the "de-linked" offer had a short shelf life, and the deadline for the union to accept that kind of deal expired Friday.

It was the second time that type of offer was made to the players' association, and the second time the NHL pulled it off the table. The league first made the overture two days before the season was canceled, and the union responded by dropping its opposition for a salary cap.

The latest unlinked proposal set each team's salary cap at $37.5 million. The linkage offer limited player costs to 54 percent of the league's revenues.

In a related matter, the National Labor Relations Board is still investigating two charges the NHL has made against the players' association.

One challenged a union policy the NHL says would unfairly penalize members who became replacement players -- forcing them to pay back money they receive during the lockout. The league called that policy coercive and in violation of player rights.

The other charge came in response to reports that the union was threatening to decertify agents that represented replacement players.

After investigating the league's claims, the NLRB will decide whether to issue a complaint and whether to seek preliminary injunctive relief.

The NHL already has discussed using replacement players next season should an agreement not be reached with the union.

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If you can't play with the big dogs,stay the hell on the porch

"Bettman and Goodenow had a drink together at the hotel bar later that night and tentatively planned to have more official talks soon."

 

I wonder . . . how many of comic Larry Miller's "five stages of drinking" did they pass through over the course of the evening? (I've edited them for context)

LEVEL 1: It's 11:00 on a weeknight, you've had a few beers. You get up to leave because you have labor negotiations the next day and one of your friends buys another round. One of your LOCKED OUT friends. Here at level one you think to yourself, "Oh come on, this is silly, why as long as I get seven hours of sleep (snap fingers), I'm cool.". 

LEVEL 2: It's midnight. You've had a few more beers. You've just spent 20 minutes arguing against the red line. You get up to leave again, but at level two, a little devil appears on your shoulder. And now you're thinking, "Hey! I'm out with my friends! What am I working for anyway? These are the good times! Besides, as long as I get five hours sleep (snaps fingers) I'm cool.". 

LEVEL 3: One in the morning. You've abandoned beer for tequila. You've just spent 20 minutes arguing FOR the red line. And now you're thinking, "Our waitress is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen!" At level three, you love the world. On the way to the bathroom you buy a drink for the stranger at the end of the bar just because you like his face . . . he looks like Jeremy Roenick. You get drinking fantasies. (like,"Hey fellas, if we bought our own bar, we could live together forever. We could do it. Gary, you could cook . . . we could have a bar hockey team.") But at level three, that devil is a little bit bigger....and he's buying. And you're thinking "Oh, come on, come on now. As long as I get three hours sleep...and a complete change of blood (snaps fingers), I'm cool.". 

LEVEL 4: Two in the morning. And the devil is bartending. For last call, you ordered a bottle of rum and a Coke. You ARE the red line! This time on your way to the bathroom, you punch the stranger at the end of the bar. Just because you don't like his face . . . he looks like Jeremy Roenick! And now you're thinking, "Our busboy is the best looking man I've ever seen." You and your friends decide to leave, right after you get thrown out, and one of you knows an ...after hours bar. And here, at level four, you actually think to yourself, "Well....as long as I'm only going to get a few hours sleep anyway, I may as well....STAY UP ALL NIGHT!!!! 
Yeah! That'd be good for me. I don't mind going to that labor negotiation meeting looking like Tie Domi. Yeah, I'll turn that around, make it work for me. And besides, as long as I get 31 hours sleep tomorrow ...................cool. 

LEVEL 5: Five in the morning. after unsuccessfully trying to get your money back at the tattoo parlor ("But I don't even know anybody named Panger!!!"), you and your friends windup across the state line in a bar with guys who have been in prison as recently as...that morning. It's the kind of place where even the devil is going, "Uh, I gotta turn in. I gotta be in Hell- at nine. I've got that brunch with Hitler, I can't miss that." At this point, you're all drinking some kind of thick blue liquor, like something from a Klingon wedding. A waitress with fresh stitches comes over, and you think to yourself, "Someday I'm gonna marry that girl!!" One of your friends stands up and screams, "WE'RE DRIVIN' TO TORONTO!!!!!"- and passes out. You crawl outside for air , and then you hit the worst part of level five- the sun. You weren't expecting that were you? You never do. You walk out of a bar in daylight, and you see people on their way to work, or jogging. And they look at you-and they know. And they say..."Who's Panger?" Let's be honest, if you're 19 and you stay up all night, it's like a victory like you've beat the night, but if you're over 30, then that sun is like God's  flashlight. We all say the same prayer then, "I swear, I will never do this again (how long?)  as long as I live!" And some of us have that little addition, "and this time, I mean it!"

 

 

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Play hard, shake hands, drink beer.

"LA needs two hockey teams like Switzerland needs two navies" -- Norman Chad (from "My 10-Point Plan to Save Gary Bettman from Himself")


If you've read this far, you probably could use a hobby