Commissioner Gary Bettman takes concrete stance, confirms No Season with No CBA -NHL Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) and commissioner Gary Bettman took a concrete stance on Thursday, August 9, 2012, that no regular season will go on unless a new collective bargaining agreement is agreed upon by the involved stakeholders.
Prior to the announcement, the Players’ Association side had been assuring fans that the season would be able to continue under a clause, but that specific part of the current CBA requires the consent of both stakeholders. If the league and team owners do
not want to work under the deal, which is to expire on September 15, the NHL will be seeing another lockout.
"I reconfirmed something that the union has been told multiple times over the last nine to 12 months, namely that the time is getting short and the owners are not prepared to operate under this collective bargaining agreement for another season, so we need
to get to making a deal and doing it soon," Bettman said in Manhattan, New York, at the league offices. "And we believe there's ample time for the parties to get together and make a deal, and that's what we're going to be working toward."
For many, this could be termed to be a scary and worst case scenario type of situation as the predictions of pro-lockout hockey pundits are finally coming true. There are many things which are still under discussion and have the two sides totally separated
on.
Recent discussions over player retirement benefits, health and life insurance along with a number of other player related personal matters, a major clash was seen between the two stakeholders, not giving off any sort of positive vibe at all.
The NHL was quick in presenting its perfect scenario proposal, which included cutting player rights to the extent of no arbitration, five-year entry-level deals along with a number of other clauses that had the labour union in shock and awe.
With a little over a month remaining till the current CBA comes to an end, fingers are crossed that a new deal be reached soon. Otherwise hockey fans can try and find interest in something else for the upcoming year.
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