CBA: NHL, NHLPA to meet Wednesday
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
The NHL and NHLPA will meet Wednesday in New York as speculation
mounts that the the league is preparing to make a final proposal in hopes of
ending the lockout and salvaging the 2004-05 season.
The meeting was apparently set up Tuesday during an e-mail
exchange between the two sides. Reports are four people will attend the
discussion. NHL executive vice-president Bill Daly and outside counsel Bob
Batterman will represent the league. NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin and
outside counsel John McCambridge will represent the players.
It's not known if the league will make its offer at Wednesday's
meeting. The belief has been the offer would come some time this week. There are
conflicting reports about the details of what the proposal might entail, but all
of them say it will include a salary cap.
Here's a summary of the various reports on what the proposal may
involve.
|
Item |
Comment |
| Term |
TSN reports that the term will be six
years, not including this season. The New York Daily News report six
years with this season counting as the first. TSN also reported the
NHLPA would have the right to unilaterally terminate the CBA after
four full seasons. |
| Salary Cap |
The league is
sticking with its cost certainty plan and is ready to give players
55 percent of league revenues. The proposal reportedly calls for a
minimum team payroll of $32 million and a maximum of just over $42
million. Newsday and Stan Fischler of the MSG Network both report
the league could go to $45 million on the top end of team salary
cap. There will reportedly be no cap on individual salaries.
The New York Daily News reports the players' proposed 24 percent
rollback is believed to be part of the offer. |
| Luxury Tax |
The New York Daily News reported the
proposal will not include a luxury tax. Brian Burke reported on TSN
that the league will tell the NHLPA that it is willing to negotiate
a luxury tax. There is no indication that the league would replace
its cost certainty, salary cap proposal with a luxury tax system.
|
| Profit Sharing |
The league is
apparently ready to propose a 50-50 profit sharing system with
players when league-wide profits exceed a certain threshold. The
profit range is said to be $100 million to $115 million. The two
sides would apparently split any profits in excess of the threshold
equally. TSN also reports the league will propose the two sides
appoint a joint auditor to determine "mutually agreeable league
revenues and profits." The league will also reportedly propose heavy
fines against teams found guilty of under-reporting revenues and
profits. |
| Revenue Sharing |
The league continues to be evasive
about a detailed plan for revenue sharing, but it is believe the
league is sticking to its idea of sharing playoff money, not regular
season revenue to help lower revenue teams. |
| Arbitration |
The league is expected to offer a
system where both teams and players will be able to take each other
to arbitration. The league will reportedly not propose a cap on
awards. Each side would have walk away rights once in a given time
frame. |
| Qualifying Offers |
Teams would be able
to retain a restricted free agent's rights with a qualifying offer
equal to 75 percent of his previous season's salary. |
| Free Agency |
The age for unrestricted free agency
would drop to 30 from the current age of 31. |
| Entry-Level System |
TSN reports the
league is looking at a four-year system that would cap salary and
signing bonus at $850,000 per year. Performance bonuses would be
capped at $350,000, making the entry-level maximum compensation $1.2
million per year. |
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