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Lights out Bettman announces cancellation of the 2004-05 season Wednesday, February 16, 2005The National Hockey League steered itself into uncharted waters Wednesday, becoming the first North American professional sports league to cancel an entire season due to a labor dispute. Commissioner Gary Bettman made the somber announcement Wednesday afternoon during a news conference in New York. "When I stood before you in September, I said NHL teams would not play again until our economic problems had been solved. As I stand before you today, it is my sad duty to announce that because that solution has not yet been attained, it no longer is practical to conduct even an abbreviated season. Accordingly, I have no choice but to announce the formal cancellation of play for 2004-05," said Bettman, who then apologized to fans and others for the action. "We profoundly regret the suffering this has caused our fans, our business partners and the thousands of people who depend on our industry for their livelihoods," he said. "We will continue to explore and pursue all available options in order to achieve a successful resolution to this dispute and to get the best game in the world back where it belongs -- on the ice, in front of the best fans in the world." A few hours later NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow responded in his own news conference. "I had hoped we would never see the NHL owners and their commissioner do the unthinkable and cancel an entire season. Unfortunately, Gary Bettman and the owners did exactly that today," said Goodenow, who then blasted the league's unwillingness to negotiate. After a rollercoaster last few days of proposals and counter-proposals the announcement brought some finality. "It's too bad...but at least we have an answer," Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund told TSN. "It's too bad for us players that we can't be out there to perform but there's a bigger picture, too." The cancellation came on the 154th day of the lockout, which had already wiped out two-thirds of the season. It also came after the two sides both made major concessions over the last few days of negotiations. The league backed off its insistence that overall player costs be linked to league-wide revenues. The players, who had said they would never accept any kind of salary cap, finally proposed a soft cap. When the negotiations finally ended the league was proposing a hard team cap at $42.5 million and the players were proposing a soft cap at $49 million. But there's a question if those offers will be on the table going forward. Bettman said at his news conference that the league will put linkage back on the table and that the last offer of a $42.5 million without linkage is out the window. "That offer is off the table and we have to, by necessity, be back at linkage because nobody knows what the damage to the sport will be. Nobody knows what revenues we can count on, predict on," Bettman said. "We're going to have to look at a completely different economic model and it is going to have to have linkage. The best deal that was on the table is now gone." When asked about Bettman's comment about linkage going back on the table, Goodenow said everything starts over and he said people could assume the players offer of accepting a cap and the 24 percent rollback are off the table as well. "If he said he is putting linkage back on that's fine," said Goodenow. "I think it is a fresh start. I think everything is off the table and we begin anew because we are under new circumstances. The process will commence again in a totally different environment. That is for sure." As for when the two sides might end up back at the negotiating table, Goodenow said "We'll have to wait and see."
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