Labor Talks Yield Little

Another round of negotiations involving NHL and NHL Players Assn. officials Tuesday seemed to only strengthen the resolve of both sides.

A three-hour meeting here, where the Stanley Cup finals opened Tuesday night, did nothing to close the crevice on the economic issues. The league held fast to its demand for “cost certainty,” a euphemism that the union translates to mean salary cap, to which it is adamantly opposed.

“I believe any dialogue is good dialogue,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said during his state-of-the-league news conference. “If I had to characterize this session, I would characterize it as good dialogue.”

The meeting stalled on the same issue that has separated the sides all along. No new meetings are scheduled, but another session is expected within a month.

“Our discussions were candid, but it would be misleading to characterize them as productive,” said Ted Saskin, the NHLPA’s senior director of business affairs.

The current labor agreement expires Sept. 15. League officials and team owners say they can’t continue to spend 76% of revenue on player salaries. NHL officials claimed to have lost $273 million last season and that 19 teams lost money. The union disputes those numbers.

The differences make a lockout in September seem more and more likely. Both sides have prepared for a lengthy work stoppage, the league with a $300-million lockout fund and the union by telling players to save their money.

Bettman dodged the lockout question, saying, “We can’t live any longer under the current collective bargaining agreement.”

Pressed on whether that meant a lockout, Bettman curtly replied, “I answered the question on the eve of the Stanley Cup finals how I wanted to answer it.”

Saskin said the union was prepared to make compromises on all issues, except one.

“The NHL seems fixated on negotiating a salary cap,” he said. “I don’t know why. Under the current system, all the teams have a chance to do well if they are properly managed. If you look at the playoffs in recent seasons, teams from different markets have been able to compete. But they seem fixated on a salary cap and won’t move off it and negotiate anything else with us.”

Bettman said that the last nine teams to win the Stanley Cup were from the top third in payroll.

He also denied that the league had proposed a $31-million salary cap but said that that figure was what was left for teams after expenses and a “modest” profit was removed from the $2 billion in revenues the NHL generates.

“We believe we have problems that are undisputable and need to be corrected,” Bettman said. “We proposed, demanded, suggested the only way to get us healthy. The union has a different view.”