PA Cancels Players-Only Meeting Scheduled from the 24th-26th

[PantherBlood6*]

On #2 Goodenow is the one that calls the meetings and explains the CBA issues to the players .. The biggest flaw with your plan is that firing Goodenow now would set the talks back ( if thats even possible) for months .. A new guy needs to be hired and he may have a whole different approach and needs time to review Levitt and everything else involved .. If you want a deal by June 1 you don't fire your leader 2 weeks before the deadline. ..

Not neccessarily -- the NHLPA could just as easily promote Saskin(or anyone else that has been involved in the negotiations) and not lose anything except Goodenow's ego. Do I think they'll fire Goodenow? No -- but not for the reasons you stated.

 

[MobyHotel]

That's exactly it .. All posturing at this point by Goodenow .. He has neither accepted a Hard Cap nor Linkage as his signature appears on no new CBA ..

All plays made explicitly to avoid an IMPASSE CBA by the NHL .. Goodenow has beaten Bettman before and he plans on doing it again, only the will power of the players stands in the way of success of Failure of that plan ..

You do realize that if the PA gets it way thats the end of the NHL. I hope you enjoy watching a 5 team league.

The sad thing about this whole situation is that the player don't realize a league with 30 teams that have a fair shot at winning every year will be better for them.
Any way you slice it 30 healthy teams will create more revenue then 5 strong teams and 25 crappy teams.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

I get it , but would you be laughin if that was you?

if you can't live with 300,000$ two years, yes you are in big trouble.

 

[SENSfreak_03]

if you can't live with 300,000$ two years, yes you are in big trouble.

you become acustomed to the life you live with. if your making 300k a year, they likely have larger mortgage payments, and car payments and so on and so forth. if you made 300k a year for 2 years. you dont save all 600k of it. you lose alot of to taxes off the bat to lets not forget.

 

[Boltsfan2029]

On #1 if you are a player are you going to vote on a new CBA and then ask questions and have people explain it ?? That logic seems completely backwards .

It does, indeed. Sadly, tho, it may well be true. An article published here this week speaks of Brad Richards (in town rehabbing from abdominal surgery) deliberately "distancing" himself from the entire CBA topic. I don't think that's an unusual circumstance -- I think a lot of players are as sick of the whole thing as the fans are & just don't want to think about it.

 

[barnburner]

Unfortunately, the players will probably only remove Goodenow as a last resort, out of fear that the NHL would take it as a sign of surrender, and take even a harder stand. Goodenow's tactic remains the same as it has been in his past - duck, dodge, bait and switch, etc. - do anything to keep from actually being pinned down to negotiating on specific issues - just keep things going in a circle and wear down the opposition until they fold. What he failed to recognize, was that this time, he faces a group that had little to lose, and everything to gain by setting their minimums and refusing to go below it, no matter what.
Goodenow is prepared to lose a second or third nhl season - I doubt that his membership has the same resolve. My guess is that we will not go beyond losing half of the next season before the players force a resolution.

 

[djhn579]

they knew in 1999 the owners were gonna hardball them and this season could possibly be lost -
bob - lads save your money

If they new to save their money back in '99, it seems like some of them are still struggling, and this article only mentions Sabres players...

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050511/1019092.asp

Adam Mair shut off his cell phone.

Eric Boulton couldn't afford his mortgage in Clarence Center and had to sell his house.

Andrew Peters still lives with his parents


P.S. Didn't know that SNC had already posted a link to this article...

 

[mr gib]

If they new to save their money back in '99, it seems like some of them are still struggling, and this article only mentions Sabres players...

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050511/1019092.asp

Adam Mair shut off his cell phone.

Eric Boulton couldn't afford his mortgage in Clarence Center and had to sell his house.

Andrew Peters still lives with his parents

...knew it was gonna be a long lockout...

 

[eye]

Bob's strategy?

You mean the strategy that put the PA and its membership ahead of the game of hockey, it's reputation, it's players, it's employees, it's fans, associated businesses and at the cost of irreperable damage to the NHL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Takes alot of balls, no brains, no common sense, no forsight to stick with Bob's stategy. But who cares right Bob. You may yet have your final say just like the spoiled little kid that you are!!!!!!!

Cancelling this meeting was for one of two reasons. Either to remove leverage from the NHL or because Bob isn't in the mood to face hundreds of very angry PA members who will likely get together and vote to remove Bob if they were all in the same room together. Way to go Bob Goodenow. THE GAME IS BIGGER THAN YOU BOB AND SOON YOU WILL FIND THAT OUT.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Someone help Adam Mair get his cell phone turned back on

Thats really not that funny.

 

[nyr7andcounting]

Wow I think you are wrong on all accounts here ..

On #1 if you are a player are you going to vote on a new CBA and then ask questions and have people explain it ?? That logic seems completely backwards.

At this point, yes. The vote would have been close on a straight $42M cap...and since then the deal has gotten much better because linkage actually improves that number in a normal year (probably) and there is now decent revenue sharing (probably). At this point, I believe that anything the exec. committee puts to a vote would get voted for by the players, eventhough they probably won't have a big meeting about it until later in the summer. They don't want to go much further with this, they already are on some sort of linkage so what else do they have to fight for? And like I said, the exec might believe they can make a deal at one of the 3 meetings next week...so then why wait until May 25th to bring everyone together about it?

On #2 Goodenow is the one that calls the meetings and explains the CBA issues to the players .. The biggest flaw with your plan is that firing Goodenow now would set the talks back ( if thats even possible) for months .. A new guy needs to be hired and he may have a whole different approach and needs time to review Levitt and everything else involved .. If you want a deal by June 1 you don't fire your leader 2 weeks before the deadline.

You answered your own complaint. You think it would set talks back, but as you said, that's really not possible. After all this time the two sides aren't close to a deal and talks will improve at the slowest rate possible with these 2 leaders....how much worse can it get? The new guy WOULD have a whole different approach, which is why it would be better. I think replacing Goodenow, even if it's with Saskin or Gartner, would speed up talks dramatically and the players know that.

I think you missed the boat big time ,, Goodenow works for the players .. If at any time the Council Linden, Gartner, Damphousse etc thought a deal was on the table that the players would like to take to vote they have all the power to tell Bob that this should go to a vote .. If that is what the players want Bob would not stand in the way ,, He might not like the offer or recommend it to the players but would/could not stop it .. On principle as Bob MacKenzie said he may fall on his sword on and resign and step Down ..

That was the point of #1. The exec thinks that a deal could be negotiated right now which they would put to a vote and would probably get voted for, but they feel Goodenow isn't able to make that deal...so why have him there?

And like you said, Goodenow is probably going to step down before he ever allows a linkage/cap deal to even go to a vote, and that's exactly why the PA wouldn't sit and wait around for that to happen. It doesn't do them much good to have Goodenow reluctantly negotiate something and then step down.

 

[nyr7andcounting]

I get it , but would you be laughin if that was you?

One of the guys said it himself. He was making 14k before he made it to the NHL and now he only has a few years to make whatever he can. So why would they go around buying houses and cars on the only 3-5 years of 6 figure salary they might ever have? I'm sorry but if you were making 600k last year and have a whole year to make money wherever you want, you should be able to afford a cell phone.

 

[thinkwild]

The owners never proposed a $42.5mil cap. It was $38mil if we use the same reference as the players were using.

Wasn't it back in January, when we were wondering about a governors meeting to see if there would be a season, and Bettman cancelled the meeting because there was nothing to discuss? Goodenow is still following the frustrating process which is probably a smart thing for the players best interests.

No doubt the owners want to find an offer that the union will know is not in the best interests of their membership, but hoping the players will resign to voting to accept. Seems that vote wont take place in time for the schedule the owners are aiming towards. Maybe they will have to make a fair offer to get a season. But it seems that a salary cap wont work for the owners. Goodenow wants a resetting all the salaries to where the owners want them and then applying a payroll cap. Everyone knows this wont be enough to keep the owners from cancelling another season? Thats just status quo.

Hoping that Goodenow will resign so that someone else can come in an capitulate is one way of thinking I guess. Or you could hope that the owners for once comprmise and meet in the middle.

 

[Drury_Sakic]

I would not have been shocked to see the owners throw out a linked deal at 38ish and 26ish a day or so before the meeting and have said take it or leave it, you have a week to take it....


Thus the PA would have been up in arms, and possibly split...or at least Goodenow would have had to take a beating...


plain and simple...it was a move to take a potential power play away from the NHL...



And, there is that actual possiblity that a DEAL is close.... ....it seems like a reach, but the false hope is still there. Goodenow may not want to have to explain himself to the mass of players who lost over a Billion dollars last year holding out for a deal that he said he would never sign and that is 10 times worse than anything he could have gotten in Aug. of last year. Goodenow may just want time to let the new CBA soak in before he gets ***** slapped by the PA.


thats doubtfull.... but possible.

 

[DaveMatthew]

The owners never proposed a $42.5mil cap. It was $38mil if we use the same reference as the players were using.

Wasn't it back in January, when we were wondering about a governors meeting to see if there would be a season, and Bettman cancelled the meeting because there was nothing to discuss? Goodenow is still following the frustrating process which is probably a smart thing for the players best interests.

No doubt the owners want to find an offer that the union will know is not in the best interests of their membership, but hoping the players will resign to voting to accept. Seems that vote wont take place in time for the schedule the owners are aiming towards. Maybe they will have to make a fair offer to get a season. But it seems that a salary cap wont work for the owners. Goodenow wants a resetting all the salaries to where the owners want them and then applying a payroll cap. Everyone knows this wont be enough to keep the owners from cancelling another season? Thats just status quo.

Hoping that Goodenow will resign so that someone else can come in an capitulate is one way of thinking I guess. Or you could hope that the owners for once comprmise and meet in the middle.

No, the owners did propose a 42.5 million dollar cap for salaries, and 2.25 for luxuries. In total, it came to 44.75 million. This was in the letter before the season was cancelled.

 

[Sixty Six]

Thats really not that funny.

I agree totally, but you know they aren't the only ones either, this thing MUST get settled soon for everyone. I don't care if you're pro owner or pro player you haffta feel bad for those guys

 

[Jarqui]

The best move for the owners before the PA meeting would have been to do nothing: let the players get together and talk about nothing recent - stew about their situation. That way, more of the focus of the meeting is on Goodenow and his direction in this mess - which from a player standpoint, is probably what the meeting ought to have been about under those circumstances.

A lot of people seemed to embrace Domi’s recent words about "get a deal done or get out of the way".

I think this meeting was canceled because it was going to get ugly and Goodenow is buying time for himself. I get the sense that his time is running out.

 

[mr gib]

No, the owners did propose a 42.5 million dollar cap for salaries, and 2.25 for luxuries. In total, it came to 44.75 million. This was in the letter before the season was cancelled.

as messenger said though - when you think about it - all the back and forth wheeling dealing and posturing on both sides was to diffuse the impasse situation - the league didn't want to play and bob didn't want to deal either - long from over

 

[SuperNintendoChalmrs]

If they new to save their money back in '99, it seems like some of them are still struggling, and this article only mentions Sabres players...

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050511/1019092.asp

Adam Mair shut off his cell phone.

Eric Boulton couldn't afford his mortgage in Clarence Center and had to sell his house.

Andrew Peters still lives with his parents


P.S. Didn't know that SNC had already posted a link to this article...

It's worth reading twice. Poor Adam has to get the cell phone back up and running. The Repo man has been trying to contact him.

 

[Pepper]

Seriously, why didn't Goodenow & co. want to hear players give their opinion in front of other players? Sounds like CCCP-style to me, they found out that there's lots of unhappy players and didn't want to give them the stage to voice their opinions. Tie Domi for example, I bet there's lots and lots of unhappy players wanting to question Goodenow.

Even if they had no progress to show from the meetings, one could imagine they would like to discuss the whole situation with players in open forum but I guess Goodenow didn't want that.

 

[thinkwild]

Seriously, why didn't Goodenow & co. want to hear players give their opinion in front of other players? Sounds like CCCP-style to me, they found out that there's lots of unhappy players and didn't want to give them the stage to voice their opinions.

Hear their opinion on what? Whether they are now willing to capitulate on the same bad deal they said they were willing to sit out 3 years to prevent?

Of course the players are upset. They are being extorted to accept something not in the best interests of whoever is lucky enough to be one of the 700 people who get to play in the NHL each year. There's nothing CCCP about it. The players are free to fire Goodenow and accept a bad deal anytime they wish.

 

[Jarqui]

The players are free to fire Goodenow and accept a bad deal anytime they wish.

Didn't he just renew a pricey, multi-year, guaranteed contract ? I wonder if it has a 2/3rds buyout option ?

 

[thinkwild]

Didn't hear that. Last I heard, none of the PA staff including Goodenow were getting paid during the lockout.

 

[PecaFan]

One of the guys said it himself. He was making 14k before he made it to the NHL and now he only has a few years to make whatever he can. So why would they go around buying houses and cars on the only 3-5 years of 6 figure salary they might ever have? I'm sorry but if you were making 600k last year and have a whole year to make money wherever you want, you should be able to afford a cell phone.

Yup. Think about this. This bozo essentially got *42 years* of his old salary in one year. Others got 15 to 20 years. And he blows it all, such that he can't afford a $25 dollar cell phone bill each month?

And I'm supposed to feel *sorry* for this jackass?

 

[thinkwild]

I dont recall them asking for your pity