Bettman sends memos to Teams

[nyrmessier011]

Says season will be cancelled...all on TSN

Click to read more...

 

[HabsoluteFate]

According to this article on RDS:
http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/172709.html
The season is going to get cancelled...
They must have updated within the last 10 minutes since i've been checking a lot...

"Wednesday February 16, 2005 - (RDS.ca) - The NHLPA had until 11 this morning to accept or refuse the NHL's final offer. RDS has found out that they have refused the offer and the 2004-2005 season is cancelled.
More details to follow."

 

[A Good Flying Bird*]

Says season will be cancelled...all on TSN

Bluffing.
It'll be interesting to see how far he carries it.

There is no reason to cancel the season at this juncture.
The NHL has won too much from the players.
They might win more over the summer, but the amount they would win would not make up for the damage done to the game.
Bettman knows this.
He knows that the NHL players are desperate and that they are forcing Goodenow's hand.
He's trying to squeeze 6 Million more from the union.

 

[nyrmessier011]

I agree...If it's not I live in NY and I will personally seek him out and put Bettman's head through a wall

 

[plaugher]

Am at work with no speakers and no sports radio for nearly 1000 miles, but I'm going to assume that this is just an assumption based upon no other reports being given out yet post-deadline.

I hope, anyway. The gap is so small, there is no reason why they both can't jump a couple million and meet in the middle.

 

[pei fan]

Bluffing.
It'll be interesting to see how far he carries it.

There is no reason to cancel the season at this juncture.
The NHL has won too much from the players.
They might win more over the summer, but the amount they would win would not make up for the damage done to the game.
Bettman knows this.
He knows that the NHL players are desperate and that they are forcing Goodenow's hand.
He's trying to squeeze 6 Million more from the union.

You are soooooooooo wrong.
He is not bluffing.

 

[A Good Flying Bird*]

You are soooooooooo wrong.
He is not bluffing.

You wanna explain why?

Put it into a cost/benefit analysis.

The NHL has little more to gain at this point. They've won about 90 percent of everything they set out to win.
If Bettman cancels the season for $50 or $60 Million, after winning hundreds of millions in concessions, he's absolutley looney.
The damage to the NHL is serious now.
But we'll all be surprised how much of it disappears when the playoffs start and we start seeing the players hunt for the cup.
If this thing wipes out the entire season, the NHL will suffer even greater damage.
And given what's left to gain, I don't see how it could be worth it.

 

[pei fan]

How have they won 90% of everything they set out for?
They initially called for a $31M cap with linkage.
$42.5M without linkage isn't even close.

Anyway he's not bluffing.Check TSN at 1:00 ET.

 

[Luc Labelle]

Put it into a cost/benefit analysis.

As I noted in another thread the latest offer from the NHLPA has a clause 7 which has indexing based on the 2005-2006 which already includes the new zero dollar NBC contract. The financial hit the NHL is going to take should easily be in the 30% range with all of the fallout from this protracted dispute. It is extremely disingenious of Goodenow to use what should be the lowest revenue producing season going forward for the NHL. If and when the league recovers to the 2003-2004 revenue level that would index the NHLPA cap figures up to the level of $70 million. There is absolutely no way the NHL could survive with a cap at this level. Sneeky and inderhanded, exactly the reason why Bettman does not want to go forward and accept a deal until all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

This latest NHLPA offer is just PR fluff, the details are disgusting.

 

[pei fan]

As I noted in another thread the latest offer from the NHLPA has a clause 7 which has indexing based on the 2005-2006 which already includes the new zero dollar NBC contract. The financial hit the NHL is going to take should easily be in the 30% range with all of the fallout from this protracted dispute. It is extremely disingenious of Goodenow to use what should be the lowest revenue producing season going forward for the NHL. If and when the league recovers to the 2003-2004 revenue level that would index the NHLPA cap figures up to the level of $70 million. There is absolutely no way the NHL could survive with a cap at this level. Sneeky and inderhanded, exactly the reason why Bettman does not want to go forward and accept a deal until all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

This latest NHLPA offer is just PR fluff, the details are disgusting.

The problem is the media is helping them distort the true picture.

 

[Takeo]

According to this article on RDS:
http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/172709.html
The season is going to get cancelled...
They must have updated within the last 10 minutes since i've been checking a lot...

"Wednesday February 16, 2005 - (RDS.ca) - The NHLPA had until 11 this morning to accept or refuse the NHL's final offer. RDS has found out that they have refused the offer and the 2004-2005 season is cancelled.
More details to follow."

Hopefully, this is true! These goons deserve it!

 

[Luc Labelle]

The problem is the media is helping them distort the true picture.

You are so right about this. All morning TSN has been covering the countdown towards the inevitable cancellation press conference. I have yet to hear even the pro-owner analysts pick apart the clause mentioned. It is available in Goodenow's first letter to Bettman yesterday. Not only is the base of 2005-2006 disingenious, but how about this one:

payroll minimums & maximums for subsequent years either constant or increased by % change in greater of either hockey related revenues or only the gate receipts and broadcasting segments of hockey related revenues from the 2005-2006 base year.

Here they are cherry-picking % change greater to accelerate the increase in cap thresholds as quickly as possible. This deal is almost as bad as the 1995 CBA agreement. Bravo for the NHL for seeing through this charade and pulling the plug officially in the next hour. All this debate about 42.5 and 49 being close. The comparison is more like 42.5 and 70 without even taking into consideration that the 70 is a soft cap.