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Cancellation of season looms after talks go nowhere

Friday, August 31, 2007

On Thursday the National Hockey League moved one day closer to losing an entire season due to a labor dispute. After talks broke down in Toronto, the league said no more talks were planned or expected in time for the two sides to meet this weekend's deadline to be drafting a new agreement  to save the 2004-05 season.

"Nothing today transpired to change that timetable," NHL executive vice-president Bill Daly said at a news conference, adding that the league will "make a formal announcement on the status of the season in the near future" if there are no breakthroughs.

And Daly didn't sound optimistic about the possibility of a breakthrough.

"Certainly there is no expectation or optimism on this side that anything will happen before that announcement is made," he said.

Daly described Thursday's four of talks as "pointless," saying that no new ground was covered and that two-and-a-half hours were spent with the two sides in caucus, which means they were talking among themselves.

"The union brought nothing new to the table, and they simply covered ground we had covered numerous times before," he said.. "No new meetings are scheduled and, as far as we are concerned, none are expected.

"At this point, we're out of tricks. We've made every effort to try and get something done with the players' association, we've made three consecutive proposals without a counter-proposal from them, and we don't have anything left at this point."

NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin had a different spin.

"We're the only people who have made any proposals of any magnitude in these negotiations and we're done," Saskin said at a news conference held about an hour after Daly's.

Daly said if there are new talks it will be up to the NHLPA to get them started, adding that the league will be ready talk.

"We are not going to pick up the phone this weekend," said Saskin.

The two sides remain deeply divided over the issue of the league's demand for cost certainty that includes caps on team payrolls and a fixed percentage of what share of league revenues would go to player compensation.

Daly said the two sides have moved no closer to an agreement or common ground since the lockout started back in September.  That leaves the NHL on the brink of becoming the first North American professional sports league to lose an entire season due to a labor dispute.