Optimism doesn’t live here anymore

The Sports Network of Canada is reporting that the National Hockey League will flatly reject the latest proposal from the NHL Players’ Association, and instead make a counteroffer that continues the owners’ demand for “cost certainty.” TSN has obtained a copy of a confidential memorandum sent by the NHL to all 30 teams that delineates the NHL’s reaction to the Players’ Association’s proposal from last Thursday. "In sum, we believe the Union's December 9 CBA proposal, while offering necessary and significant short-term financial relief, falls well short of providing the fundamental systemic changes that are required to ensure that overall League economics remain in synch on a going-forward basis," NHL executive vice president Bill Daly wrote in the Dec. 12 memo which went to all governors and alternative governors, including many NHL general managers. "While the immediate 'rollback' of 24 per cent offered by the Union would materially improve League economics for the 2004-05 season, there is virtually nothing in the Union's proposal that would prevent the dollars 'saved' from being re-directed right back into the player compensation system, such that the League's overall financial losses would approach current levels in only a matter of a couple of years." The memo reiterated NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's intention to provide a counter-proposal to the NHLPA at a 1 p.m. meeting on Tuesday in Toronto. The memo said the counter proposal "will be an appropriate response to the Union's offer and will ensure the League's future stability and long-term health." In other words, the counter-proposal is likely to contain "cost certainty" or a linkage between salaries and revenues, which the NHLPA sees as a "salary cap" and a non-starter for negotiations. "It would not assist the collective bargaining process to comment on excerpts from a leaked league document. We will comment on the NHL's response to our proposal when it is finally delivered to us on Tuesday," said NHLPA Senior Director Ted Saskin in a statement Tuesday. This is a crushing blow after the encouraging signs that came out of last week’s bargaining session. The season is now days away from being cancelled. The timeline is quite clear: tomorrow afternoon, the NHL will make a proposal to the Players’ Association that includes significant salary rollbacks for all players making in excess of $6 million per year, along with a hard cap of $35 million; either immediately or shortly thereafter, the NHLPA will reject the NHL’s proposal and break off negotiations; the NHL, by the end of the week, will cancel the rest of the season; next September, the NHL will bring in replacement players to fill training camps, hoping that a significant number of bottom-salaried players break ranks with the union and become scabs -- leading to the union crumbling and allowing the NHL to unilaterally implement a new CBA that includes a hard salary cap. It’s very clear now that the owners’ goal all along has been to break the players’ union. They couldn’t care less about playing this season, a salary cap, a luxury tax, salary cuts, rookie contracts, salary arbitration -- nor the fans. All of these issues, even combined, are way too small to cancel an entire season over. The union is the big prize here, and the owners have their eyes clearly fixed on it. Looks like it won’t be a merry Christmas after all.