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N.H.L. and Players Union Reach Tentative Agreement to End Lockout N.H.L. and Players Union Reach Tentative Agreement to End Lockout
(about 4 hours later)
The National Hockey League and its players union reached a tentative agreement on Sunday to end the lockout, after a marathon 16-hour negotiating session. After four months of rancor, threats and mistrust, the N.H.L. commissioner and the head of the players’ union stood side by side on Sunday morning for the first time since the lockout began, a picture of amity and cooperation.
The end came at about 5 a.m. Sunday, the 113th day of the lockout, at a Midtown Manhattan hotel. “Don Fehr and I are here to tell you that we have reached an agreement on a framework for a new collective bargaining agreement,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said, referring to the union’s executive director. “We still have more work to do, but it’s good to be at this point.”
“Don Fehr and I are here to tell you that we have reached an agreement on a framework for a new collective bargaining agreement,” the N.H.L. commissioner Gary Bettman said, standing alongside Donald Fehr, the executive director of the N.H.L. Players’ Association. “We still have more work to do, but it’s good to be at this point.” Bettman was speaking at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, shortly after a 16-hour bargaining session that brought an end to the often bitter N.H.L. lockout in its 113th day.
“Hopefully within a very few days,” Fehr said, “The fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us.” “Hopefully, within a very few days, the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us,” Mr. Fehr said.
The N.H.L board of governors was expected to meet in New York by Tuesday to vote on the deal ahead of a hoped-for start of training camps on Wednesday. Players are also expected to ratify the agreement. Under the quickest timetable, play could begin by Jan. 15. But ratifications, paperwork and the players’ desire to have one exhibition game could push that date back. The N.H.L. board of governors was expected to meet in New York by Tuesday to vote on the deal ahead of a possible start of training camps on Wednesday. Players are also expected to ratify the agreement.
In interviews, union officials and players revealed some details of the tentative settlement. Under the quickest timetable, a regular season of 48 to 50 games could begin by Jan. 15. But ratifications, paperwork and the players’ desire to have one exhibition game could push that back a few days.
The agreement will be for 10 years, and either side can opt out after 8 years. The salary cap for the 2013-14 season would drop to $64.3 million from $70.2 million in 2012-13. Each team will be allowed two contract buyouts to get under the lowered cap. In interviews, union officials and players provided some details of the tentative settlement.
Individual player contracts will be limited to seven years, or eight years if a club is re-signing a player, the first time that N.H.L. contract lengths are limited. The agreement will be for 10 years, and either side can opt out after eight. The salary cap for the 2013-14 season would drop to $64.3 million from $70.2 million in 2012-13. Each team will be allowed two contract buyouts to get under the lowered cap.
To prevent contracts that try to circumvent the salary cap, no salary can change by more than 35 percent from one year to the next, and the highest-paid year of the contract must be within 50 percent of the lowest-paid year. Individual player contracts will be limited to seven years, or eight if a club is re-signing a player, the first time that N.H.L. contract lengths are limited.
When the lockout began in September, Bettman said it was needed so that N.H.L. owners could get the same kind of deal the N.F.L. and N.B.A. owners were able to get after lockouts in 2011. Those leagues, and now the N.H.L., have reduced the players’ share of revenues to about 50 percent from about 57 percent. To prevent contracts that try to circumvent the salary cap, no player’s salary can change by more than 35 percent from one year to the next, and the highest-paid year of the contract must be within 50 percent of the lowest-paid year.
Scot L. Beckenbaugh, deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, emerged as crucial player in ending an often bitter lockout. When the lockout began on Sept. 15, Bettman said it was so that N.H.L. owners could get the same kind of deal the N.F.L. and N.B.A. owners were able to get after lockouts in 2011. Those leagues, and now the N.H.L., have reduced their players’ share of revenues to about 50 percent from 57 percent.
Saturday’s negotiations went on as players voted to allow Fehr to dissolve the union if the talks stalled. Exercising that option would have probably ended the bargaining and push the proceedings into court. Scot L. Beckenbaugh, deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, emerged as a crucial player in ending the lockout.
But hopes rose that a settlement could be reached as the negotiations went into the early hours of Sunday morning. Beckenbaugh spent 12 hours Friday shuttling between the N.H.L. office in Midtown Manhattan and the union’s hotel two blocks away. Saturday’s negotiations went on as players voted to allow Fehr to dissolve the union if the talks stalled. Exercising that option would have probably ended the bargaining and pushed the proceedings into court.
Finally he determined that it would be worthwhile to bring the sides together for a bargaining session, which began at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at the union’s hotel and turned out to be by far the longest since the stoppage began on Sept. 15. But hopes of a settlement rose as negotiations went into the early hours of Sunday morning.
Altogether, Beckenbaugh, 59, worked more than 30 hours on Friday, Saturday and into the wee hours Sunday to bring the two sides back together and keep them focused on the issues.. Beckenbaugh spent 12 hours on Friday shuttling between the N.H.L. office in Midtown Manhattan and the union’s hotel two blocks away. Finally he determined that it would be worthwhile to bring the sides together for a bargaining session, which began at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at the union’s hotel and turned out to be by far the longest since the lockout began.
The lockout began Sept. 15, when the collective bargaining agreement that had been in place for seven years expired. The atmosphere was cordial at first, but became increasingly bitter as negotiations stalled. Beckenbaugh, 59, worked more than 30 hours on Friday, Saturday and into early Sunday to bring the sides back together and keep them focused on the issues.
On Oct. 18, the N.H.L. took less than 15 minutes to reject three union proposals, with Bettman saying he was thoroughly disappointed. When the session began Saturday afternoon in the ballroom of the Sofitel hotel on West 44th Street, there was a sense that the talks could just as easily blow up as lead to a settlement. As the talks were going on, the union voted overwhelmingly to give Fehr authorization to walk away from the table, dissolve the union and send everything to the courts. Such was the level of distrust between the players and the league.
“When you make three proposals and get shut down in 10 minutes, it’s hard to think the other side really wants to negotiate,” the Penguins star Sidney Crosby said. Instead Bettman and Fehr came to a deal. Tired but pleased, they faced reporters on Sunday morning, announced the settlement and walked away.
On Dec. 6, Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner, informed the union via a voicemail message that the league had rejected another proposal, less than an hour after the offer was made. The rejection came even as Fehr, surrounded by more than a dozen players, was announcing that a framework for a deal was in place. Fehr then turned to Bettman, patted him on the shoulder and said, “That was painless.”
Shortly afterward, an angry Bettman said he was bewildered by Fehr’s actions, and Daly told reporters that the issue of contract term limits was “the hill we will die on.” Hardly. The league was a growing $3.3 billion business in 2011-12, but the lockout cost almost half a season, alienated fans and sponsors and, according to Bettman’s own estimate, cost $18 million to $20 million a day in lost revenue.
Fehr was criticized for not informing the union membership of the true nature of the owners’ proposals — a claim that he and other players denied, pointing out that several players were present for every bargaining session. But despite that and other accusations, the players remained united behind Fehr. However relieved both sides were to reach an agreement, it came at a cost.
As the lockout dragged on, some players made comments that fed the atmosphere of distrust. The Blackhawks’ Dave Bolland apologized for reposting a Twitter message about “wanting Bettman dead.” The Red Wings’ Ian White called Bettman an “idiot,” and the Panthers’ Kris Versteeg called Bettman and Daly “cancers.” “The mood was nervous, but it’s been nervous for a while,” said Ron Hainsey of the Winnipeg Jets, one of nine players present for the marathon negotiations. “You want to be playing; you want to be done with this. I don’t know if it was any more or less, but I think you could tell we were making progress.”
The Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs and the Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold were seen as especially fractious figures during talks, with each getting into arguments with players on the other side of the negotiating table. Leipold signed the free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to identical $13-year, $98 million contracts just before the lockout, then sought to roll those and similar contracts back in negotiations. Owners were not present for the final, successful bargaining sessions. The players made most of the concessions under the new agreement.
The lockout was the third since Bettman became commissioner in 1993. The three lockouts together have led to the cancellation of about 2,400 regular-season games since Bettman assumed office, some 10 percent of the games originally scheduled. That percentage is more than three times higher than for any other major league in the same 20-year period. “It was concessionary bargaining right from the beginning,” Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes said. “We understood that, as much as we didn’t want that. We understand that the nature of professional sports has kind of changed in the last couple C.B.A.'s in football, basketball and obviously hockey. That’s the way it’s been going for the last 10 years.”
The first lockout cost almost half the 1994-95 season, as the league tried unsuccessfully to impose a salary cap on the players’ union. A settlement was reached Jan. 11, 1995, with play resuming on Jan. 20. Hainsey, the players’ chief negotiator, said that the new pension plan was the “centerpiece” of the agreement. It will be financed by the players, and guaranteed against shortfalls by the owners, although lawyers from both sides must still work out the mechanisms.
Each team played a 48-game schedule that year, down from the 84-game schedule of the season before. The Devils won the Stanley Cup on June 24, the latest finish to a season in N.H.L. history. Hainsey said the pension “was an issue for the players, and this deal would not get done without it, something they can rally around and be proud of.”
The second lockout canceled the e 2004-5 season, the only time a full season in a North American major sports league was erased by a labor dispute. The league was successful in imposing a salary cap as well as getting players to accept a 24 percent pay cut. He said the other gains for the players were really about preserving some of what they had in the last agreement, like arbitration rights and free agency. And, as Doan said, the chance to play hockey again.
In the aftermath, the players’ association was riven by dissension and ran through three executive directors before Fehr arrived in early 2010. He became executive director in December 2010, after leading the baseball players’ union from 1983 to 2009. “We all play the game because our parents or our grandparents or somebody really had a love of the game, and you still have that love of the game in you,” Doan said. “You play minor hockey and leave home at an early age, as we’ve all done to get to the spot we’re at, because we love the game so much.
In 1994, the N.H.L. was on a popular and financial upswing after the Rangers’ first Stanley Cup victory in 54 years, but the lockout stalled the momentum. But the league was losing money before the lockout in 2004, which, from the owners’ point of view, made it essential that they get salary cap on players salaries and more control of costs. But after months of contentious labor talks, Doan said he saw the other side of the game.
The lockout that ended early Sunday morning was seen as especially self-destructive, coming as the league was growing financially and generating record revenues, including $3.3 billion last season. “Once you get to the N.H.L., you start to see it’s a huge business,” he said. “There are businesspeople that are going to make business decisions. And you’re part of that.”
Stanley Cup victories by teams in big American cities — Los Angeles in 2012, preceded by Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Detroit — and strong contenders in Philadelphia and New York have helped raise the league’s profile. The 2010 Olympic hockey tournament, with N.H.L. stars in the spotlight, and the annual Winter Classic extravaganza brought high ratings and boosted fan interest in the United States. A strong dollar in Canada, where the N.H.L. remained the dominant sports league, raised revenues across the board. The lockout was the third since Bettman became commissioner in 1993. The three lockouts together have led to the cancellation of about 2,400 regular-season games, about 10 percent of the games scheduled. That percentage is more than three times as high as any other major league in the same 20-year period.
But the success was deceptive; 10 or more clubs were believed to be losing money. By canceling the three least profitable months of the season, the lockout assured that clubs like Phoenix, Columbus, Florida and the Islanders cut their losses.
The lengthy layoff angered fans, sponsors and television networks. In 2011 NBC agreed to 10-year, $2 billion TV rights contract with the N.H.L., which provided a significant amount of programming for the struggling NBC Sports Network. Fans and sponsors may be slow to return to a league seen as habitually troubled by labor problems.
The fear among many involved with the N.H.L. is that on the American sports landscape, it has returned to the shadows from whence it only recently emerged.
“Hate to say it,” Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock said last month, “but we could end up like bowling.”