Some promise.
N.H.L. Offers Players a 50-50 Division of Revenue
By JEFF Z. KLEIN
Published: October 16, 2012
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The N.H.L. made a surprise offer in talks for a new collective bargaining agreement on Tuesday in Toronto, proposing a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue with the N.H.L. Players? Association and a mechanism guaranteeing that current contracts would be honored without rollbacks.
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It was the first significant movement in the negotiations since the league?s owners locked out the players Sept. 15 and subsequently canceled the first two weeks of the season.
Under the old agreement, the players received 57 percent of revenue. The owners? initial proposal would have given the players 43 percent, and a more recent offer, made Sept. 13, offered 47 percent. The players have proposed accepting diminished pay raises that would reduce their share of revenue to about 53 percent.
With its latest move, the N.H.L. has offered the approximate revenue split achieved by N.F.L. and N.B.A. owners after lockouts in those leagues last year. Commissioner Gary Bettman has often said that N.H.L. owners are seeking a similar agreement.
The league?s offer contained a provision for playing a full 82-game season starting Nov. 2. Bettman described the proposal as ?our best shot? at preserving a full regular-season and playoff schedule. Under such a compressed schedule, teams would play one additional game every five weeks, he said.
Donald Fehr, the executive director of the union, said he was hopeful that the offer would lead to an end to the lockout.
The union held a conference call with its members Tuesday night and is expected to respond to the league?s offer on Wednesday or Thursday at a meeting in Toronto.
Bettman said that to have a one-week training camp before starting the season two weeks from Friday, ?we have about 9 or 10 days to get this all put to bed, signed, sealed and delivered.? As part of that rapid timeline, more than 100 N.H.L. players skating with European clubs from Britain to Russia would have to return to North America.
A main point in the league?s proposal was the provision to protect the value of current contracts.
?We believe we addressed the concern that players have about what happens to their salaries as a result in this year of reducing the percentage from 57 to 50 percent,? Bettman said.
Details of the provision were not immediately available. But if it becomes part of a new collective-bargaining agreement, it will mean that owners will have to honor the big contracts they gave players in the two-month buying spree that preceded the lockout.
Contracts like the 13-year, $98 million deals Minnesota signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to last July, or the three-year, $18 million contract extension Boston gave Milan Lucic in the hours before the lockout began, would not be rolled back.
The Wild owner Craig Leipold and the Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs are on the N.H.L.?s negotiating committee, so it is significant that the league agreed to guaranteeing contracts, a key players? union demand. But players who must sign new contracts starting next season would face a lower salary cap and a substantially reduced payday.
Despite the optimism generated by Tuesday?s offer, potential stumbling blocks remain. Given the league?s robust earnings in recent years, a drop from 57 percent of revenue to 50 percent could constitute a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for the players. The league generated $3.3 billion in the 2011-12 season, and the players? 57 percent came to about $1.88 billion. A 50-50 split would have reduced their take to $1.65 billion ? a $230 million difference.
The N.H.L.?s proposal also includes a five-year limit on contract lengths, which is unchanged from the league?s original offer. Under the old agreement, there was no limit to the length of contracts, enabling clubs to sign players to deals of a dozen years or more that have deceptively low salary-cap hits.
The proposal increased revenue sharing among clubs from less than $150 million to $200 million, but short of the union?s proposed $240 million. The league?s offer raises the requirements for unrestricted free agency to 28 years old or 8 years? service, from 27 years old or 7 years? service.
