Open The Arenas, Break Out The Skates And Fire Up The Zamboni
After losing an entire season to a lockout, players and owners ended an all-night bargaining session Wednesday by reaching their goal: a tentative deal, which includes a salary cap, that virtually ensures hockey will return this fall.
The six-year pact still needs to be ratified by both sides. According to ESPN.com's Scott Burnside, the players' association has scheduled a members meeting in Toronto for next Wednesday and Thursday, and a ratification vote will be held next Thursday. The NHL board of governors had planned to gather next Thursday in New York for a vote, but that may be delayed as a result. "At the end of the day everybody lost," said Wayne Gretzky, the NHL's career scoring leader and the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes. "We almost crippled our industry. It was very disappointing what happened."
The last round of negotiations began Tuesday at noon and culminated around noon Wednesday with a joint news release announcing the deal. Though details won't be released until both sides approve it, a salary cap would be something players' union executive director Bob Goodenow never wanted.
Once everyone signs off on the deal, the league can begin the difficult task of gaining public support. No matter who won or lost, the fight cost the NHL a full season." To be totally honest, I really don't care what the deal is anymore. All I care about is getting the game back on the ice," Flyers star Jeremy Roenick said in a telephone interview during a celebrity golf event in Nevada. "I think the deal is not great for the players. It is definitely an owner-friendly deal. For the last 10 years, the players have made a lot of money and now we are in a position where everybody is going to make money," he said. "Unfortunately, it had to take a whole year to get to a point where we could have been last year."
This lockout was worse than any in sports, dwarfing the one that cut the 1994-95 hockey season nearly in half and resulted in the agreement that expired last September. In February, commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the season, making the NHL the first North American sports league to lose a year because of a labor dispute. While the NHL seems to have gotten what it wanted, there is no way to measure the damage done to a sport that already was the least popular of the four major leagues in the United States. Selling the sport might take a while longer.
It took all night and then some for the final round of negotiations to produce an agreement. The sides met for 10 straight days in New York, and it became clear Wednesday morning -- the 301st day of the lockout -- that they weren't going to leave the room without an agreement.
Bettman warned in February that offers the union passed up were better than any it would see once a year of hockey was lost. Just days before the season was wiped out, the players' association said for the first time it would accept a salary cap if
the league dropped its desire to link player costs to revenues.
That started a wild week that included the cancellation of the season Feb. 16 and a false hope three days later that it would be saved. Even Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux -- superstars turned executives -- couldn't resurrect it during an emergency bargaining session in New York. Negotiations resumed in mid-March.
The landscape of the NHL will be quite different than it was in June 2004, when the Tampa Bay Lightning skated off with the Stanley Cup in the league's last game before the lockout. For the first time since a flu epidemic in 1919, there was no Stanley Cup champion in 2005. When the league relaunches in the fall, it will do so with a new salary structure that keeps high-spending teams such as Detroit, Toronto, Philadelphia and the New York Rangers in check.
ESPN.com news services. Open the arenas, break out the skates and fire up the Zamboni. Wednesday, July 13, 2005.
They Need Us
Denis Leary asks the Bruins
Players agreed to a 24 percent rollback in their contracts, so you're not making as much cabbage as before. How do you feel about that?
Shawn is going to have to tell his wife to start shopping at Marshall's now. Tom Fitzgerald, right wing
It's tough. But I think it shows the fans we're not greedy. We did what we needed to do to play the game we love. Patrice Bergeron, center
How are you going to prove to the fans that hockey is still the greatest game on earth?
I guess whatever we did in the past, do differently. Because it wasn't working. We need to find ways to make the game more friendly. Shawn McEachern, left wing:
A Lot of people can't follow hockey on TV. Tom Fitzgerald, right wing
You know what that is? Most cameramen didn't grow up playing hockey. They played football or baseball - so when they film those sports, they have a good idea of what's going on. But when they shoot hockey, they can't anticipate what's going to happen to the puck, so there's a lag time. Shawn McEachern, left wing:
When people go to a live game for the first time, they see so much more than when it's on TV. Ian Moran, defenseman:
The one thing people always ask me is why we fight. If you're a player, you can kind of tell when there's going to be a fight. It would be interesting to have more mics so people can hear everything that's being said - the "fuck yous" that guys trade back and forth. I think it would realty open up people's eyes about what it's like. Shawn McEachern, left wing:
You'll need a seven-second delay on the broadcast. It wouldn't be a family show. Tom Fitzgerald, right wing
It would be great if we could get HBO to broadcast a game and show everything uncensored. Mics would be everywhere. That would show people that it's far and away the best game in the world. Ian Moran, defenseman:
NHL superfan Denis Leary explains how the NHL will kiss ass to win back fans. Metaphorically, that is. No one wants their ass kissed by a bearded Canadian guy. But he will give you five reasons to care.
The teams owe us now:
I love it when athletes and team owners have to come back to the fans. These guys get paid a lot of money - and were the ones paying it. They need us. Remember when Latrell Sprewell said he couldn't feed his family for $10 million per year? The normal response is, "What are they eating? Cars?" Well, now that these guys took a year off, there's a lot of ill will from the fans. And if we don't go to their games, they won't get paid. The teams are pushing for attendance now, which you're already seeing with the reduced ticket prices.
Players pound on each other:
Fighting is great, and the NHL needs to embrace it. It means you can't touch Wayne Gretzky on my team because he's my scoring king. And if you touch him, you're going to have to face me or our team's enforcer. Part of hockey is intimidation. Not only is that one of the true strengths of the sport, but it's also one of the most exciting parts to watch. Fans love that aspect, so its one of the things the league and TV producers need to start selling rather than ignoring.
It has sports' best trophy:
The Stanley Cup is amazing - it's the only trophy that you can look at and see the names of past winners printed right on the thing. I had it for a day once. The NHL held a street-hockey tournament in New York City, and the winning team got the Cup. My team was a bunch of firemen. When we won, we took it back to a firehouse. You should know as background that there's animosity between the fire department and the police department. At one point, a cop from the precinct nearby came in. One of the firemen goes, "You've been a cop for 25 years, I've been a fireman for 25 years, and you've never even walked into this firehouse." The cop had a camera with him, and he said, "I know, but the Stanley Cup's here now." So the Cup actually bridged the gap between two guys who hated each other. It was pretty awesome. Then the firemen went out on some calls with the Cup in the truck.
Rivalries will heat up:
The NHL has improved the schedule so that teams will now play within their division more. The Rangers and Bruins rivalry, for example, has dissipated over the years. The only way to revive it is to have these guys play each other, a lot throughout the season. All over the league, it will start building up those rivalries, where one city hates another city. And hatred is part of what sports are all about.
Boston has a shot at the cup:
The Red Sox, the Patriots, even the Celtics won some championships in the '80s - we're the last guys left. This is the Bruins' year.
