Bettman rejects proposal; counteroffer turned down
Bettman intends to make counterproposal
My hope is that the union leadership recognizes that the owners’ resolve is great. We only know of really one approach to meaningfully address and fix our problems. And unless somebody can miraculously come up with another approach, which I am highly skeptical of but always [eager] to listen, we’re committed to fixing this the right way.
- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
If they stand by their salary cap, the chances are none.
- Ottawa Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson
Within the next few weeks, the 2004-05 NHL season will be flushed down the toilet. With it will go whatever credibility North American major professional hockey has left. Call it greed, pride, testosterone poisoning, or stupidity, but the end result will be the same. Those of us who love the game of hockey will end up haunting AHL arenas, waiting for the NCAA’s Frozen Four, or trying to score tickets to the Minnesota State High School tournament. Some of us will even resort to trolling the Internet for college scores. Yes, we’re a desperate, pathetic lot.
Given the complete lack of urgency displayed by both owners and players, it seems clear that cancelling the season is not exactly viewed as a crisis. Here’s the problem, though: if the season is cancelled, when is the NHL to return? Or WILL it return? If it does come back, will the fans return? If the fans return, how long will they continue to put up with some of the highest ticket prices in professional sports? Lost in this doomsday scenario is the fact that neither the owners nor the players seem to be taking the fans into consideration. Perhaps they’re all assuming that the fans will be so happy to have their game back that they will be waiting eagerly at the ticket windows, pressing their noses to the glass like desperate housewives waiting for the after-Christmas sales.
TORONTO — The NHL moved a step closer to losing the season Tuesday, when the league and players’ association rejected proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement.
The second negotiating session in a week lasted 3Œ© hours. The league turned down the players’ association offer from last Thursday and presented a salary cap-based counterproposal for an hour. The union then held its own discussions for 2Œ© hours before rejecting the offer and ending the meeting that came on the 90th day of the lockout.
No new meetings have been scheduled, making it quite possible that the NHL will become the first North American sports league to cancel a full season because of a labor dispute.
If this happens, both sides can and should take equal responsibility for killing the golden goose. The game will never be the same, and it is highly likely that a good portion of the fans, particularly in the US, will stay away in droves. A successful business cannot enjoy long-term success when it pisses off their customers. This is a very basic lessons that Gary Bettman, Bob Goodenow, and the rest of the usual suspects have yet to learn. For all the highly intelligent people involved in supposedly trying to resolve the lockout, they sure seem to heavily involved in taking the course of greatest stupidity.
Game on? Not likely, eh?
