Union Says No to Latest NHL Plan

Only a quick and stunning concession by Commissioner Gary Bettman or union leader Bob Goodenow will save the 2004-05 NHL season, a point made clear Wednesday after a proposal the league said addressed players’ concerns was rejected as a variation of the salary cap-driven formula the union has vowed it won’t accept.

Bettman and Goodenow, excluded from recent talks while their lieutenants tried to end the stalemate, will participate in today’s meeting in New York. However, a resolution appeared unlikely after Wednesday’s four-hour session in Newark, N.J.

“It’s like, do you want to buy a house in a swamp and then we’re going to put some nice curtains on it?” said Ted Saskin, senior director of the NHL Players Assn. “Maybe you still wouldn’t be interested, because the salary cap’s the swamp.”

Players consider a salary cap an artificial restraint. They have agreed to a 24% salary cut and would accept a luxury tax and revenue sharing. The NHL locked players out Sept. 15 and wants to regulate costs by linking payrolls to revenue. It contends it lost $497 million the last two seasons and $1 billion the last decade.

“We only know one way to fix that, and that’s by putting our player costs in a more proper and defined relationship with our revenues,” said Bill Daly, the NHL’s chief legal officer. “We’ve suggested that once we get by that point, we are more than willing to compromise over virtually any other issue that they may want to raise.”

The NHL agreed to include Bettman and Goodenow today because “Bob and Gary really have to be in the room to do the deal that needs to be done,” Daly said. But he said his side probably wouldn’t budge.

“Obviously, we’re at the end timewise in terms of being able to continue this process and still play games this season,” he said, “so there’s not a lot of room flexibility-wise.”

Said Saskin: “I don’t want to mislead anyone and suggest I’m optimistic at this point in time. Nothing the last few years and the way they’ve approached this would lead me to have any sense of optimism.”

Steve Rucchin, one of the Mighty Ducks’ union representatives, said players wouldn’t cave in on the salary-cap issue. “To me this is not even a proposal. It’s total utopia for the owners,” he said, emphasizing he spoke for himself and not the union.

The NHL offer linked salaries to 53% to 55% of revenue. It also proposed a team payroll range of $32 million to $42 million to be adjusted each season depending on revenue, guaranteed contracts and profit sharing that would kick in at a negotiated level and evenly divide league profits. It accepted the union’s 24% salary rollback.

It added an element -- appointing independent monitors to determine revenue -- and restored two missing from previous offers: entry-level bonuses and salary arbitration election rights for players and clubs.

The profit-sharing concept “should almost remove any hesitation on the salary-cap concern because it gives them an upside in the health of the industry,” Daly said. “We’ve made a lot of concessions in this proposal.”

Saskin said those were “very minor and cosmetic” changes to an offer the union rejected last week.

The union rejected the offer without relaying it to players for a vote.

“They say there’s still time, so there’s still time,” Rucchin said. “But from what they’ve offered, there’s not going to be a deal done.”

Daly denied reports a dispersal draft would be held so clubs could shed contracts and get under the $42-million cap. Trades would accomplish that, he said.

A source familiar with the talks said the union would reintroduce a proposal it made in December, which was rejected by the NHL, “and the meeting will break up and the gloves will come off and you’ll see a lot of acrimony on both sides. By the weekend, the NHL will be forced to call it quits.”

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NHL LOCKOUT

*Days of lockout: 140.

*Days of season missed: 113.

*Games missed Wednesday: 6.

*Total games missed: 762 of the 1,230 regular-season games and the 2005 All-Star game.

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League’s latest proposal

A look at the key points in the NHL’s plan Wednesday presented to the NHL Players’ Assn.:

* AGREEMENT LENGTH: The deal would cover the 2004-05 to 2010-11 seasons. The players’ union would have the sole right to reopen the deal after four years.

* SALARY CAP: It would ensure total league-wide player compensation in any year would not be under 53% of the league’s revenue or exceed 55%.

* PROFIT SHARING: The NHL would share profits equally with the players’ association once a negotiated threshold is exceeded.

* FLOATING TEAM PAYROLL: The range would be established by averaging total team payrolls. Each team would be required to spend at least $29.8 million but no more than $40 million in player salaries.

* UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENCY: Age for Group 3 free agency reduced to 30 beginning with the 2006-07 season.

* ENTRY LEVEL SYSTEM: Four-year, two-way rookie contracts would cap salaries at $850,000 per year, including signing and performance bonuses. The league also proposed giving its own entry-level bonuses.

* RESTRICTED FREE AGENCY: Qualifying offers from teams would have to be 100% of the previous year’s salary to players earning less than $800,000, and 75% or $800,000, whichever is greater, to players who earned $800,000 or more the previous season.

* SALARY ARBITRATION: It would be a mutual process in which players and clubs have the same rights to request arbitration. The NHL would reserve the right to eliminate arbitration by giving players unrestricted free agency at 28.

* PLAYER CONTRACTS: Minimum salary increases 62% to $300,000 per year. Guaranteed contracts would remain in existence, but the maximum length would be three years.

* JOINT AUDIT: Each year’s accounting would be performed by an independent firm, with fines and draft-pick losses established as punishment for violating disclosure rules.

* 2004-05 SEASON: To compensate players for a shortened 2004-05 regular season with a full playoffs, the players’ union would share money generated from the 2005 postseason.

* JOINT OWNER-PLAYER COUNCIL: A council would be established to discuss issues of mutual interest.

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Source: Associated Press