No Significant Progress in Latest Labour Talks -NHL Lockout Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association met for the second time this week and after Commissioner Gary Bettman and team owners made a milestone of a proposal earlier on Tuesday, it was believed that there would be significant progress made.
Unfortunately, nothing important came out of the Thursday, October 18, 2012, meeting, which lasted for a little over an hour as the NHLPA tried to counter their deal with three of their own, but had each and every one rejected.
"The Players' Association came back and basically made three alternate proposals on the players' share, all variations, to some degree, of the one proposal that they made over the summer and really haven't deviated from since," Commissioner Bettman said.
"And none of the three variations of players' share that they gave us even began to approach 50-50 (revenue split) either at all or for some long period of time and it's clear that we're not speaking the same language in terms of what they came back to us
with.”
Bettman, the league and the labour union are still hopeful of getting a full 82-game regular season in play before November, but the way the Players’ Association had their proposals rejected, some term it to be a sign of an extended lockout.
Three different proposals that were made had different pros and cons for the league, but none of them suited their requirements after the players wanted a longer term deal based on realistic views as put by executive director Donald Fehr. The league on the
other hand, believes that their 50-50 offer was the most adaptable and suitable one based on current requirements and it seems like they are not willing to budge an inch on their stance at all.
Bettman’s latest offer is known as dividing the team revenue with its players on a 50-50 basis, but the union believes otherwise as $650 million will be extra on the owners part, leaving the players out of a major sum of money.
It has now been over a month since the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end on September 15, 2012.
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