The Lockout to Continue Indefinitely : Hockey: The players’ latest proposal is called “a step backward” by Bettman. No talks are scheduled.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman indefinitely delayed the start of the season here Tuesday, calling the last proposal by the players union “a step backward” and questioning its good faith.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Assn., contended that Bettman’s interpretation “just highlights our differences,” adding, “It looks awfully difficult for us to be making progress in the near future.

“We’ve always told the players that this could be a long situation. Long could be months or a year.”

When Bettman postponed the season’s original Oct. 1 start, he reserved the possibility of allowing games to be played Saturday if he saw movement in the talks. With the unanimous backing of the league’s Board of Governors, however, he declared Tuesday that no ground had been gained and that the season would not begin until an agreement is reached.

“After reviewing the proposal, the board concluded there was no meaningful progress over the last 10 days,” Bettman said. “In fact, the board was a little baffled over the union’s course of conduct over the last 10 days and the delays we’ve had in meeting.”

He again avoided describing his action as a lockout. When pressed, he said the league had been in “a postponement mode” while a Saturday start was still possible. With that hope gone, he said, “You can draw your own conclusions.”

Goodenow spent five days preparing the plan he presented to Bettman on Monday in Toronto. It focused solely on the pivotal issue of the dispute--how to subsidize small-market clubs--and did not address differences on free agency and arbitration.

He said the proposal was a comprehensive plan for that single issue, but Bettman said the plan’s incompleteness indicated that Goodenow meant to slow the talks and maintain the status quo.

No further talks are scheduled, although Bettman and Goodenow said they will stay in touch.

“At this point, you have to believe it might last all year,” said Harry Sinden, the Boston Bruins’ president and general manager.

From Edmonton General Manager Glen Sather, whose Oilers would benefit from the small-market supports, to Mighty Duck President Tony Tavares--whose club’s $9-million profits last season ranked among the league’s highest--club executives joined Bettman at an afternoon news conference in a show of unity.

“Players just don’t really seem to know what’s going on,” Sather said. “I saw that a couple of players on the Calgary Flames, after the team opened the books and showed them a ($3-million) loss, were quoted (in newspapers) as saying a $1-million gain can be turned into a $1-million loss with the stroke of a pencil. They don’t get it.”

Said Tavares: “We have a very, very high incentive to play this season. But that incentive is a short-term incentive versus a need for systemic change for the league to make sure the league is flourishing in the future. Right now, if you look at the prognosis, it’s terminal.

“It’s kind of difficult when you’re suffering congestive heart failure, to be told, ‘Take three aspirin.’ That’s what (the players) told us with their last proposal.”

Through Tuesday, 57 games had been postponed. A full season might still be played by adding missed games to the end of the schedule, but that faint hope wilted in the face of the anger shown by the principal figures Tuesday. Bettman said the cancellation of games will be reviewed daily, beginning Saturday.

“Until the union is willing to address our needs and come back to us with a system that is sensible and allows us to grow, we’re not going to have a deal,” Bettman said. “We’re not looking to take back (salary increases). We’re looking to go forward and at dealing with the escalation of salaries.”

The union’s proposal sought to alleviate the financial woes of small-market clubs by imposing a gradual levy of up to 7% on the 16 top revenue-earning clubs. It would also have imposed a flat 3% levy on the gate receipts of the top 16 revenue clubs.

The NHL’s previous two proposals, which Goodenow rejected a week ago, included a gradual levy on all payrolls of a half-percent per million dollars up to $14 million. After that, the rate would have risen by 5% for every $325,000 to a maximum of 122%. A flat levy of 3% would have been imposed on the gate receipts of the top 16 revenue-earning clubs and credited against the payroll levy.

Goodenow said those measures constituted a salary cap, because clubs would limit expenditures on salaries for fear of triggering higher levies. He said his plan addressed the NHL’s stated concerns without restricting the growth of salaries through a rookie salary cap or the abolition of arbitration.

“(Tuesday’s) unfortunate decision makes it absolutely clear the NHL is not interested in the fans, the games and the small-market clubs and is only interested in a fight with the players,” he said. “The NHL has not moved in its demands. . . . Until the owners appreciate (that) the players are completely opposed to their take-away demands, we’ll have little to discuss.”

Bob Corkum, the Ducks’ union representative, rejected Bettman’s contention that players simply want to maintain the status quo.

“What we want is to market ourselves and be able to go into the market and have teams bid on us,” he said. “We just want to have a solid marketplace to shop our skills.

“Let’s not even talk about all the years owners had players in their hip pockets. They were out of sight, out of mind. Now the players are understanding the business. We know what’s right and we don’t feel we should be held back in any way, shape or form. I’m not saying we have things terrible right now. But if we did sign any one of Gary’s proposals we’d be cutting our own throats.”

Goodenow said the union will support players who want to play in Europe or in the International Hockey League during the lockout, but cautioned that he doesn’t know if legal obstacles might rule out those options.

He said he would investigate those possibilities if the lockout drags on.

Players fear it might last long enough to wipe out the season entirely.

“I hope not,” veteran King forward Pat Conacher said. “But then you look at what has happened in baseball, no World Series. Nothing is beyond the realm. That’s the scary part.”

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Times staff writers Lisa Dillman and Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.