No Talks Scheduled by League, Players Association to Discuss Labour Deal -NHL Lockout Update
It has been over two days since the 2012-2013 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season was scheduled to kick off and unfortunately, the league and Players’ Association have failed to make any significant strides in terms of getting a new collective bargaining agreement signed.
Fans were hoping that after the cancellation of the opening two weeks of the regular season, both stakeholders would realize how deep water they are in, which might force them to work even harder in getting a deal done to save the hockey year from complete disaster. Unfortunately, up until now, there are still no serious considerations being made by the two sides.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the league is currently stating that they need to continue meeting on a fulltime basis, but only time will tell whether they will follow up on their promises or not.
"Until we're tackling the major issues, I'm not sure what the urgency is to meet on a 24/7 basis," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPNNewYork.com.
"We were extremely disappointed to have to make today's announcement," Daly said in a statement, after the most recent talks came to an end earlier this week. "The game deserves better, the fans deserve better, and the people who derive income from their connection to the NHL deserve better.”
A few days after the previous labour deal came to an end on September 15, players from various franchises around North America had labelled the lockout as one being extremely serious and one which would last well into 2013. One of the most important events of every hockey year, the annual NHL Winter Classic is also on the verge of being cancelled, which would add drastically to the league’s already estimated losses of $200 to $300 million.
For now, there is no formal negotiation set for both stakeholders in the upcoming days despite their being a serious need to do so and no one is able to tell what the next steps will and should be for a labour deal to come into effect.
Updates should be expected in the upcoming days.
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