Talking to midnight for the second straight evening, and beyond Wednesday night, the opposing sides in the NHL Lockout III traded proposals in a marathon effort to move the negotiations off dead stop.
The sides followed 10 hours of talks Tuesday with at least eight more hours Wednesday in Midtown, starting around 2:15 p.m. and extending into the evening with several caucusing breaks and two hours for dinner. Talks broke off at 12:45 this morning and are expected to resume Thursday.
As they did Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and union head Donald Fehr remained out of the early talks, but were presumably kept well-informed of the dialog.
The union is believed to have presented a new proposal yesterday aimed at solving the sticky primary issue of the players’ share of revenue. It is believed the league countered, and the owners began their in-and-out shuttle to their private room upstairs from where they met with the players.
The league is said to have floated the idea of a 10-year deal, up from their previous seven-year demand, while the union had sought a shorter term. The league’s 10-year demand was part of an offer to improve their “make whole” scheme on existing contracts. The NHL is still seeking a five-year limit on new contracts.
Again, there were six owners in the meeting, but initially, 19 players, one more than participated Tuesday. The league was led by deputy commissioner Bill Daly; the union by special counsel Steve Fehr.
The unofficial talks took place after the league’s Governors emerged from their lunchtime meeting, saying optimism for settlement based on Tuesday’s 10-hour session was overblown.
One of the hard-liners insisted there has been no moderation in the league’s demands, and indicated that hope raised by Tuesday’s meeting was irrational exuberance.
Governors were reluctant to comment on their meeting, fearing hefty league fines, and while most maintained a generally sunny outlook, it is believed that the 10-hours of talk Tuesday did not deal in specifics on the key issue of the split of revenue.
Wednesday’s meeting initially was scheduled to start before the Governors’ meeting, but that meeting was postponed until after the Governors’ meeting to avoid interruption.
The players were said to have been concerned the progress from Tuesday night’s meeting was being so overstated they feared being hurried by the start of the Governors’ meeting.
“We are pleased with the progress that is ongoing and out of respect for the process, we are not answering questions,” Bettman said after the Governors’ meeting.