by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor
In their own words, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr, following Friday afternoon's whopping 90-minute confab in New York City...
All quotes courtesy of Renaud Lavoie, from RDS of Canada.
Bettman: "What I thought was a promising week ended with disappointment...there was some discussion on revenue sharing and I don't know why. It's a distraction...I did not decide to recessed. We are happy to meet anytime."
"We want a longer term deal. NBA and NFL did 10 year deals...the union stood on their initial proposal..."I'm disappointed. We offered to talk a year ago. The first session was on June 29th."
Fehr: "The only sport stable in America is baseball..."under our proposal (hockey related revenues) will snap back to 57 % in the 4th year. The owners objected to that..."we came to the conclusion (what is best) is to address the 4th year of our proposal."
"The proposal we made today was not accepted...at this point, the talks are off."
While there has been some minor whining from certain corners of the internet that Fehr should stop mentioning baseball in relation to labor troubles, it's a dog dumb thing to say. The circumstances of the 1994-95 baseball fiasco are imprinted in Fehr's brain and form the root of his negotiating philosophy in the same way his parents' deaths motivated Bruce Wayne to become Batman. There is no separation.
And besides, facts is facts. Though it tore the fabric of the sport apart, Fehr fought for MLB players and won.
I know of at least one instance where a colleague of mine attempted to mold his staff at a local radio station in the fashion of a successful one he just left, and was told to cool it on all the comparison talk. Only when the way things were run from the top failed was he called back for his opinion.
Sometimes, using examples from beyond your narrow sphere of influence is the only way to truly enact change, and small minds bent on protecting their own interests wrapped up inside the old ways who put up the most fight be damned. And it certainly shouldn't be avoided if some dissonant voice, disengaged from the process, deems it annoying.
There should be no way the players should be hamstrung into a long-term CBA, one which the owners can more easily exploit by front-loading numbers, including that demon percentage of Hockey Related Revenues that's been so hotly contested.
There should be no way that NHL revenue sharing shouldn't encompass the better-performing and richer clubs giving out a larger proportionate chunk of revenue to keep the weaker teams viable. BTW, that's not exactly capitalism, folks. Financial solvency and the nature of parity are two separate ideas: ensuring one does not mean the other will follow and we'll have 30 strong clubs in healthy markets all in the playoff hunt on March 1.
Look at the help the Royals receive as a bottom-feeder in baseball. It in no way ensured a competitive product on the field for the last 13 years, but it ensured that the team remained entrenched in the city where it was founded, where thousands of fans can still come and go, voice their pleasure or displeasure, and maintain a rite of passage for young fans.
The league is confident that the "best fans in the world" will return? Maybe in Canada. The American pastime needed a bunch of roided-up pitchers and hitters to bring back interest, and that took half a decade. How can the owners, fronted by a tool of a Commissioner, be so callous about hockey in the US, where the NHL is a sixth-tier sport at best?
To think the other side will fold like a cheap card table is delusional at best. That's 2004-05 thinking.
One additional telling quote, released by CSNPhilly's Tim Panaccio late today read: "agent on NHLPA: 'Back in 2004, the NHLPA was synonymous with apathy. That's changed since then. It’s a whole new world right now.' "
So, it's plain to see that while the Commish and the owners are content to sit back and wait and collect their money until the PA once again comes nipping at its heels, the PA has the confidence to dig in for what they want -- all courtesy of their bulldog Fehr.
They may be more in the right, but the fact that they did wait so long and never considered negotiating while the CBA was not so close to expiration or at the very least, considered working briefly without one is beyond me. It's incredibly difficult, in writing and in spirit, to support players who are making millions and complaining about losing salary, even if the principal of the PA not getting money back in some fashion is at issue.
Their livelihood is affected, sure, but it ain't like players are all Johnny Upton waiting for the other shoe to drop and return to the bleeping Chrysler plant.
Even the guys on the two-way deals and entry-level contracts should be told to think ahead: don't buy that third vanity car or the mansion in the hills. It all could end tomorrow and it would be your fault alone if you blew through your cash when the spit hit the fan. And get this thorough your heads, rookies and veterans alike: you are not even close to worth the money you're making, so don't complain to people who support you but who have to block out tickets to games every year at the expense of something more essential to living.
Besides, and I can't stress this enough, the players basically asked for this when they brought Fehr on board.
As Robert Tepper sang while Rocky Balboa revved his Ferrari into the night while thinking about Apollo Creed, "there's no easy way out...there's no short cut home."
As long as both sides aren't really willing to budge, and there have been agents who have said that both sides won't get serious until October, we're all left swaying in the hot, pungent air from both reps. What it comes down to -- and nothing has changed since before negotiations began or in light of other pro sports' labor troubles -- is the NHL doesn't want to give back more money with increased revenue, and the NHLPA can't accept less money when the league is rolling in it.
Sunrise, sunset. We're in for the long, pointless haul. Those darts in your eyes should be aimed at both sides.
There are 16 days until the CBA expires on September 15.
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