Players Association working on new Proposal to put forth -NHL Lockout Update
The upcoming 2012-2013 National Hockey League (NHL) is under genuine threat of being completely locked out and fans saw that when the league announced the cancelling of the opening two weeks of the hockey year, and now taking into consideration the seriousness
of the situation, the NHL Players’ Association is reportedly working on putting forth a new proposition.
In previous events, the NHL had clearly rejected each and every proposal made by the labour union and so did the Players’ Association when a deal was offered by the team owners being led by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Top executives of both sides, Bettman
and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr took part in a meeting in Toronto on Friday, but no significant progress has come about as of yet.
It is important to note here that both sides have been deadlocked ever since the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end on September 15, 2012, causing the stakeholders to bring the wheels of the labour discussion to a brake all of a sudden.
The league has already termed themselves as facing $100 million in losses due to cancelling the entire postseason and the regular season could just wreck havoc for them in terms of finance if it does not go through on time.
For fans, this news that the NHLPA is working on bringing a new deal on the table, which has limited options available to both sides, is something that definitely brings hope and most likely is the last to save the regular season altogether.
Many players around the league have already lost hope and moved on by signing with teams overseas to continue playing hockey with other clubs in Switzerland, Russia and Germany, but the NHL faces a dreadful lockout which will have long last effects on many
franchises.
Some teams are being hit very hard in terms of popularity, fan following and financial losses and seeing how an entire season may just go down the drain, the overburdening of money needing to be refunded to season ticket holders and many other factors have
them thinking what their next step should be.
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