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 News from Around the Americas | July 2005 
N.H.L. and Players Reach Agreement
 Dave Caldwell - NYTimes
| | Hockey fan Paul Andrie with his sons outside the pro shop at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston after the N.H.L. and the players association reached an agreement in principle on a six-year labor deal. (Photo: Elise Amendola/Associated Press) |
The National Hockey League and its players union agreed in principle yesterday on a six-year collective bargaining agreement, apparently ending a damaging lockout that stretched 301 days and led Commissioner Gary Bettman to become the first leader of a sports league in North America to cancel an entire season.
Bettman and Bob Goodenow, the executive director of the N.H.L. Players' Association, said in separate news releases that they would not comment until the agreement was ratified by both sides.
The N.H.L.'s Board of Governors and members of the players union are expected to ratify the deal within a week so that training camps for the 2005-6 season can begin on time in September.
"It's a great sense of relief to be able to ratify the agreement and look forward to training camp," Michael Peca, the center and captain of the Islanders, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "The players may have a few more questions about it than the owners, but I think it will be more of a question-and-answer thing than guys voting no."
Lou Lamoriello, the general manager of the Devils, said in a telephone interview that he also expected quick ratification.
Once accepted, the agreement would usher in a radically different era for the N.H.L., which was already considered the least popular of the four major sports leagues in the United States. A salary cap will become part of the N.H.L. fabric, and that could lead to dramatic differences in the makeup of many teams. High-priced veterans may be traded to teams that can squeeze their salaries under the cap, or they could have their contracts bought out.
"I think if you look at the salaries of some of the teams before the lockout, you can't think there's a way they can stay the same," Peca said.
The lockout cost the league fan support and future television revenue when ESPN, in late May, declined an option to pay $60 million for the 2005-6 season, saying it would prefer to make a revenue-sharing deal rather than pay an upfront rights fee. The league refused, but will now be looking for a cable partner, whether it is ESPN or another network. Whether it can find one willing to pay a rights fee is questionable.
Wayne Gretzky, the league's career scoring leader and the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, told The Associated Press yesterday, "At the end of the day, everybody lost."
"We almost crippled our industry," he added. "It was very disappointing what happened."
The tentative agreement also represented a defeat for the players union, which accepted a hard salary cap after insisting for months it would not agree to one. The proposed cap is widely reported to be $39 million for each of the 30 teams in the league. Players' salaries are not expected to exceed more than 54 percent of league-wide revenue. When Bettman called for the lockout last Sept. 16, the players union was steadfast in saying it would accept neither a cap nor salaries based on revenue. Goodenow has been criticized by his rank and file for caving in on both issues.
Players who are currently under contract are subject to a 24 percent rollback in salaries, a proposal initially made by Goodenow during the lockout. Bettman, who had said that he did not want to fold any of the teams in the league, appears to have won virtually every point in the battle, based on what both sides proposed earlier in the negotiations.
"I think the deal is not great for the players," Philadelphia Flyers center Jeremy Roenick said in an interview yesterday with The A.P. "It is definitely an owner-friendly deal."
Rick DiPietro, the Islanders' goaltender, said he wanted to look at the agreement first. "Honestly, I don't know what to feel right now," he said. "I think I'm going to play it safe until next week, and not get too excited or too disappointed."
The players' union opposed any salary cap until mid-February, just days before Bettman canceled the season.
Under the proposed deal, the Canadian Web site TSN.ca reported, no player can account for more than 20 percent of a team's total payroll. That means no player can earn more than $7.8 million in the coming season.
As a result, the open market is expected to brim with free agents. The two months before training camp could turn out to be the most hectic in N.H.L. history.
Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who will be 32 years old when training camp begins, had a $7 million salary for the 2004-5 season. He said he had heard that deals like his could carry over into this season.
Niedermayer, whose third season in the N.H.L. was shortened to 48 games by a lockout at the beginning of the 1994-95 season, said he was not angry about losing a season of his career because of a labor dispute.
Regardless of its uncertain cable situation, the league does have a small, weekend-based broadcasting deal with NBC Universal Sports that involves sharing revenue after the network recoups production and distribution costs. And the lockout did not jeopardize the league's Canadian TV deals with the CBC and TSN.
The new agreement is expected to include changes intended to increase goals in a league that has become dominated by defensive teams with good goaltenders, a trend that has hurt the game's appeal. The changes could include smaller equipment for goaltenders and restrictions on their puck-handling, along with bigger nets and overtime shootouts.
The league will reschedule its draft, with the consensus top pick expected to be Sidney Crosby, an 18-year-old center from Nova Scotia. Because last season was canceled, the N.H.L. has been said to be considering a weighted draft lottery that would favor the teams that have done poorly over the last few seasons, not only the 2003-4 season.
The league also said it would take a break in February 2006 to allow players to represent their countries at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
Richard Sandomir contributed reporting for this article. |
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