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NHL
Goodbye lockout, hello Lightning
The NHL reaches a tentative deal to return its teams, including Tampa
Bay's defending champs, to the ice.
By TOM JONES
Published July 14, 2005
TAMPA - Gentleman, start your Zambonis.
After a 301-day lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 hockey season, the National Hockey League and its players' union agreed in principle Wednesday to a new collective bargaining agreement, almost certainly ending the longest labor dispute in North American sports history.
The deal, which is for six years and includes the hard salary cap the owners wanted, still needs to be ratified by both sides, but that is expected. The union will meet in Toronto on Wednesday and Thursday to vote, while the NHL's board of governors gathers next Thursday in New York. The new agreement is expected to be announced next Thursday.
Until then, neither the league or union will have an official comment. But players and team executives talked Wednesday as if the deal is done.
"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.
"We disappointed a lot of people and I don't just mean the average fan. I'm talking about TV partnerships, corporate partnerships, the fan, the guy who goes to one or two games a year with his son. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. It's not going to all change and be all nice overnight."
But it appears the healing can begin, especially because the league plans to start in October with a new set of rules intended to spice up the game and reach out to jilted fans.
"Obviously there has been a little bit of damage," Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Nolan Pratt said.
"People are sour with losing a full season. But I don't think anyone ever wanted that to happen. No one wanted it, not the players or the owners."
So who won the dispute? Both sides likely will spin it in their favor, but it appears the owners' risk of sitting out a season paid off. Philadelphia Flyers star Jeremy Roenick called it an "owner-friendly" deal, mostly because the NHL will have a salary cap for the first time in its history.
The players can receive no more than 54 percent of the league's revenues, meaning a hard team-by-team salary cap of about $39-million for the first year of the deal.
In 2003-04, the last season played, 15 of the league's 30 teams had a payroll of at least $39-million, including eight teams that spent more than $60-million. The Lightning's payroll was $33.6-million.
The new cap will increase or decrease each season depending on revenues.
In addition, the players agreed to a 24 percent rollback of existing contracts, and the canceled season will count as a full season on players' contracts, but players will not be paid for the missed time. "There are no winners and losers in this process," Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said. "We have to get back to playing, that's the most important thing. I don't even care about (who won or lost). I want to get the boys back and play."
Feaster said no team suffered more from the lockout than the Lightning, which was poised to defend the Stanley Cup won prior to the league shutting down in September 2004.
"It has been grueling," Feaster said.
However, Lightning officials supported the league's attempt to tie player salaries to revenues.
Lightning president Ron Campbell said during the lockout that small-market teams like Tampa Bay could not remain competitive unless a new CBA curtailed player salaries. The new deal does that.
In the short term, the Lightning has several high-profile free agents - including goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and forwards Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier - but has plenty of room under the salary cap. Team officials say they think the team can contend for championships for years to come.
"I hate to think where this organization would be if this labor stoppage had happened (two or three years ago)," Feaster said. "It would have played out very differently for us and we would be having a different kind of press conference right now.
"The fact that we went into the (lockout) as the Stanley Cup champions, I think it was important to sustain the momentum and give us the opportunity for growth coming out of it."
The lockout began Sept. 15 and the first half of the season went down the drain. Furious bargaining sessions in February came close to saving a partial season, but a deal could not be struck and the NHL became the first North American sports league to lose a full season to a labor dispute.
Details of the February talks are not known, but some, including a few players, have suggested the players have a worse deal now than they would have had five months ago.
"There was a lot to the deal back in February that people probably don't know about," Pratt said. "From everything I've been told, this deal is better for us and there was nothing in February that was like this. Bottom line is there is an agreement."
Tim Taylor, the Lightning's player representative to the union, agreed with Pratt and said, "I'm excited it is done. I think now that the players and owners both are relieved this is behind us."
The union and league finally reached the agreement Wednesday after 10 consecutive days of meeting in New York.
Even if the deal is ratified as expected, the NHL still has loads of work to do before training camps can open in mid September.
It's possible more than half the teams will have to slash payroll to get under the salary cap. Then begins a frantic period to sign free agents.
While that is happening, the league will attempt to secure a cable television contract in the United States.
In addition, the league will quickly put together an entry draft, tentatively scheduled for July 30 in Ottawa, that normally would have been held a month ago.
"But it's exciting that a deal is done," Feaster said. "Let's get this going and try to defend our championship. It's great to finally be at this point after all this time."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING HIGHLIGHTS
The details of the new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and its players' union have not been revealed publicly, but here's a look at what are believed to be the key points:
The players can receive no more than 54 percent of the league's revenues. That means a hard team-by-team salary cap, with a payroll no less than $21-million and no more than $39-million in the first year of the deal. Those numbers will increase or decrease each year based on revenues.
A 24 percent rollback on all existing player contracts.
No player can earn more than 20 percent of the team's salary cap, which for 2005-06 means no player can earn more than about $7.8-million.
Unrestricted free agency will be available to unsigned players who have reached the age of 31 in 2005, 29 in 2006 and 28 in 2007. In 2008, it's 27 or seven years of NHL tenure.
Revenue sharing, with the top 10 moneymaking clubs donating to a fund shared by the bottom 10 teams.
No entry-level (rookie) contract can be worth more than $850,000 a year for three years.
Participation in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
[Last modified July 14, 2005, 01:26:44]
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