No one stomped out of yesterday’s bargaining session at NHL headquarters. No one blew or emitted smoke. One hundred and eight days into Owners’ Lockout III, the NHL has turned the page on both 2012 and ultimatums, finally prepared to engage in short-strokes collective bargaining with the Players’ Association.
With a Jan. 11 deadline looming for ratification of a new CBA in order to meet the targeted Jan. 19 puck-drop on a 48-game 2012-13 season, the NHLPA presented the league with a comprehensive counter-proposal to its offer of last Thursday as the parties met to negotiate for the first time since Dec. 6.
It is impossible to know just how short the remaining strokes are to complete a deal, with the NHL promising to review the union’s counter through the night. The league is expected to deliver a response by phone this morning that would likely spark further negotiation, debate and give-and-take in a meeting during the afternoon.
The NHLPA, which retains the option of filing a disclaimer of interest by tomorrow as the first step in dissolving the union should today’s talks go terribly awry, is believed to have focused primarily, though not exclusively, on transition issues as its split of hockey-related revenues declines from 57 percent to 50/50 in the new deal.
These issues include the cap for 2013-14 that the union would like to be higher than the league’s proposed $60 million; a cap on escrow for 2013-14 if not for at least another year; the timing and accounting of compliance buyouts; a limit on the amount the cap could drop during the three-season period over which the union will collect $300 million in make-whole payments; and perhaps an adjustment on the division of make-whole payments per year.
Including buyouts and the unpredictability of damage caused by this third lockout in the last 18 years of Gary Bettman’s reign, the union has calculated that escrow could rise as high as 15 percent under a $60 million cap for next season, and higher than that if the cap is set at $65 million. This, the PA believes, would represent a de-facto rollback on all existing contracts.
The NHL’s proposed drop of 14.53 percent in the cap from this year’s effective $70.2 million to $60 million is unprecedented in the history of hard-cap pro sports.
The NFL cap declined by 6.25 percent, from $128 million to $120 million, following its 2011 lockout in which the players accepted a cut in their share of league revenue, while the NBA cap remained level for the first two seasons following the 2011-12 lockout that forced the players to come down to approximately 50-50.