First 2 Weeks of Regular Season Cancelled by League -NHL Update
What fans had been fearing since the start of the lockout officially when the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end on September 15, 2012, has finally come true as the National Hockey League (NHL) cancelled the first two weeks of the upcoming
regular season.
In less than a decade, the NHL has now faced its second lockout and this time around it seems like it just may last another full hockey year as well since the two stakeholders, the league and Players’ Association, are just not able to sit down and discuss
the issues at hand.
"We were extremely disappointed to have to make today’s announcement," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. "The game deserves better, the fans deserve better and the people who derive income from their connection to the NHL deserve better.”
“This is not about ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ a negotiation. This is about finding a solution that preserves the long-term health and stability of the league and the game. We are committed to getting this done.”
The Deputy Commissioner also added that they are fully committed to getting the issues resolved sooner than later, but according to the players side, it seems highly unlikely that they will be getting a fair deal. The decision was termed to have been a unilateral
one by the team owners, who are in no way going to allow the players to get the same amount of share in team revenues as they have been getting these past seven years.
One of the biggest issues at the moment is the deadlock between the two sides on how much the players share in team revenue should be. The NHL and franchise owners want to lessen it by 10 percent but the labour union is not allowing that to happen at any
cost while terming it to be unfair as well.
Since the league was not at its best position during the previous lockout, players had agreed to lessen their share, but now, as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman himself has termed the past few years as being the best for the sport, the players are in no way
going to back down on their stance.
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