League, Players Association meet formally for first time since Lockout -NHL Update
It was bound to happen sooner or later as the National Hockey League (NHL) and NHL Players’ Association finally sat down on Friday, September 28, 2012, for the first formal negotiations since the lockout officially came into player on the 15th.
Many fans were hoping after talks kicked off in June, earlier this year, that both sides would be able to work out a new labour deal once the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end, instead, an ice cold deadlock between the two stakeholders
came into play to disgruntle the entire process.
For the participators, Friday could have been more significant in terms of outcome, but at least it was a start to the process.
"I wish we spent today on what we consider to be the more meaningful issues, but it is what it is," Daly said Friday, after the negotiations ended at the league office in New York.
Player share in team revenue seems to be the major issue of concern for both sides, as it is the biggest factor in holding a new collective bargaining agreement from coming into play, and until that problem is cleared up, the lockout prevails.
When Daly was asked about it, the blame was put on the Players’ Association, as expected.
"We really need to hear from the Players' Association on those," Daly said when asked why a lockout persists on core economic issue. "Again, we need some kind of sign that they're prepared to compromise their economic position because we haven't had that
since Aug. 14. We'll see if we get there."
But seeing how the league is once again forcing the players side to cut their share in the revenue by 10 percent, it is not all that easy agreeing with them.
For now, special counsel for the NHLPA, Steve Fehr, terms that there is no set plan to discuss the economic issues and no set date has been given on when the fans might see them discuss what really is holding a regular season back.
Meetings are expected to continue in the upcoming days, most likely next week some time.
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