NHLPA To Accept a Salary Cap

[LMU]

Players to agree to accept cap, but talks break down

[ROCHitman]

The PA needs to allow the members (the players) vote on these proposals for once.

So far, the designees (Saskin and co.) are the only ones who've been saying 'yea' or 'nay' to these offers from the league. I'm betting that a majority of the players are so eager to get back to wotk that they'd approve the current deal.

I'm guessing the deadline will be extended to Friday. It won't hurt to shave 1 or 2 games off the 28 game schedule.

[wheateater]

OK, so one side wants a cap at $40 mill, and the other wants it at $52 mill. Hmmm. Why can't they agree to meet somewhere in the middle, say between $44 and $48 million? Or even a simple $46? Aww, forget it. It's too damn late, anyway. Where the hell was this talk in September? The last five years? Way to go, NHL and NHLPA. You procrastinated just long enough to officially piss me off...

Oh, and ROC, I don't think they'd take any games off that sked. They'll play no fewer than 28 games (2 vs. each conference opponent), so it doesn't really matter if the season ends on, say, April 26 or April 30.

[Suigi]

Wow, this is a nice change.

The NHLPA offers a cap, but the NHL turns it down!

At least they're negotiating...

[ROCHitman]

If the season can be saved and they don't run the risk of losing millons of fans for years to come....they will go under 28 games. They'd be idiotic not too.

Take a look at this.

Has to be one of the most ludicrous ideas for contraction I have ever heard -

By Tim Kawakami, Mercury News

How do you save the struggling teams? You don't. If the owners need 30 teams when only 22 are viable, they can prop them up themselves, as reportedly could happen to Anaheim.

The players shouldn't agree to a hard cap (say, $28 million) designed to keep these teams alive because the Nashvilles, Floridas and Buffalos haven't proved that they deserve to be kept alive.

My long-term solution: Hold a thrilling 12-team single-round elimination playoff featuring every on-the-brink franchise. But not for playoff extinction. For real extinction.

The six winning teams get league subsidies that must be poured back into payroll. The six that get knocked out get truly knocked out -- they cease to exist.

Now that'd get ownership motivated to win!

[Gary]

boy do all idiots work for the San Jose Mercury News?

[DEAD!]

boy do all idiots work for the San Jose Mercury News?

They're just SF Chronicle rejects

[Brian in Boston]

The NHL Lockout? The prospect of the league's entire 2004-2005 season being cancelled? I can now honestly sum up my feelings with a disaffected, "Who gives a flying fuc&?" Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing the entire league fold. With any luck a new, financially stable, professional ice hockey league would "arise from the ashes".

Bottom line? This hockey-loving born-and-bred New Englander has washed his hands of the NHL. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever sit down and watch another game again. I couldn't care less.

[Discrim]

Wow, this is a nice change.

The NHLPA offers a cap, but the NHL turns it down!

At least they're negotiating...

whoa, did they switch suits on us just now?

[Cyclopsis Joe]

Y'know, I've badmouthed Hockey (a lot), but if the NHL goes under and a new league takes it's place, I could get into it.

I was starting to watch it a little while ago (a year or two perhaps) and all I kept hearing about was Money this, and money that.

Why would anyone care? It's a game. Baseball's the same way, unfortunately.

[CC97]

NHL's Counter-proposal Salary Cap Upped, Apparently Final Offer (tsn.ca)

[Waffles]

Barry Melrose thinks tomorrow's announcement is to announce the season will be saved.

As much as I'd love see hockey come back this season, I think it would be better for the league to have some time to restructure. I don't think a desperate quick-fix to save 30 games is what this league needs in the long-term.

[ROCHitman]

NHL's Counter-proposal Salary Cap Upped, Apparently Final Offer (tsn.ca)

A first I thought Gary was reniging on his previous offer of 44.7 but realized that these "benefits" are not listed in that short blurb.

It's actaully funny to read the dialagoue between the two in print form.

Makes you believe they are gonna share a beer or two after all is said and done.

Bettman's Letter to Goodenow

[DEAD!]

Bill and Ted were working this out last night? Sweet.

[TFoA]

Bill and Ted were working this out last night? Sweet.

Lol, it seemed like the perfect time to use it.

[chriscj83]

Bill and Ted were working this out last night? Sweet.

the wyld stallyns are MOST triumphant

[Stampman]

I may be cynical, but here's why I think the NHLPA acceoted a cap--they know it's too late so the season will be turfed, but they're trying to score a PR coup--they can say--"We accepted a cap!"

Then when negotiations start up agian they can change their minds again, and say, "We tried, it didn't work"

[NJTank]

They need to work this out some how play with the numbers a bit compromiose the players cant win and if the seaon is cancled iot will take eons to recover and if it is cancled neext year will be in jeopardy too and if the NHL continues tos tay off the ice it will beome as irrelevant as NLL and Indoor Soccer

[jkrdevil]

The problem in this whole mess is trust. The players don't trust the owners to calculate the revenues accuratly. As soon as the NHL dropped the link the players agreed to the cap. Personally, I think the players have been wanting to play, but they haven't been able to negotiate because the owners haven't wanted to.

Just announced the players countered the 42 million cap with a 49. Hopefully they can get this done by 11.

[wheateater]

Bettman almost immediately rejected that $49 mill offer. Since he said there is no more time to negotiate in his letter to Goodenow, it finally appears to be dead, which is a shame, 'cause I tend to agree with the industry analysists who believe both sides could work with a $45 million cap. What a damn shame. We're gonna lose our hockey because of $3 or $4 million (unless Bettman goes back on his "it's too late" stand).