It's Over: Bettman cancels NHL season
TSN.ca Staff with CP files
2/16/2005
From this moment on, the 2004-2005 NHL season will be marked with an asterisk and caption that reads "Season Cancelled."
A last-minute effort to put together a framework for a new collective bargaining agreement proved to be too little, too late on Wednesday as commissioner Gary Bettman officially called off the remainder of the 2004-2005 season.
"Every professional sports league owes its very existence to its fans," he said. "Everyone associated with the National Hockey League owes our fans an apology for being unable to accomplish what is necessary for our game and our fans. We are truly sorry.
"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.
Related Info
Bettman-Goodenow correspondence
Bettman had given the Players' Association until 11am et to accept the league's final offer, which featured a $42.5-million US salary cap. The union's counter-offer called for a $49-million salary cap. A publicized letter-writing campaign outlining $6.5 million the gap between both sides broke down late Tuesday night, prompting the league to send memos to its 30 teams saying the season would be cancelled.
The only other letter that came on Wednesday morning was a press release from the NHLPA saying it had scheduled its own news conference for 4pm et/1pm pt in Toronto.
"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."
It's the first time a major professional league in North America has cancelled an entire season due to a work stoppage. A Stanley Cup champion has been crowned every year since 1893 with the exception of 1919, when the Finals were canceled after five games due to a flu epidemic.
The union was willing to play with a salary cap at $49 million, but that was rejected by Bettman.
"If every team spent to the $49 million level you have proposed, total player compensation would exceed what we spent last season and, assuming for discussion purposes, there was no damage to the game, our player compensation costs would exceed 75 percent of revenues," the commissioner wrote. "We cannot afford your proposal."
Goodenow fired back with a spirited letter, stating the union would not present any future offers.
"Your claim that the clubs 'cannot afford' our proposal is based on your hypothetical fear of what would happen 'if every team spent to the $49 million level the players have proposed,'" he wrote. "I am at a loss to understand how you suggest your offer earlier (Tuesday) represents a $75 million increase when it only impacts the spending of nine teams!"
Early Tuesday evening, Bettman made what he termed the NHL's "last effort" to resolve the lengthy labor dispute, raising the amount of the previous salary cap offer of $40 million in an attempt to reach a new CBA with the players.
In a letter to Goodenow, Bettman put forth a "take it or leave it" offer and requested a response prior to his news conference Wednesday afternoon.
"We are increasing our offer of (Monday) by increasing the maximum individual team cap to $44.7 million ($42.5 million in salary and $2.2 million in benefits)," Bettman wrote. "This offer is not an invitation to begin negotiations - it's too late for that. This is our last effort to make a deal that's fair to the players and one that the clubs (hopefully) can afford. We have no more flexibility and there is no time for further negotiation."
Goodenow responded with his own letter to Bettman in which he presented a deal that would institute a $49 million cap - $3 million lower than the union's previous offer - plus $2.2 million in benefits.
Goodenow's six-year proposal also called for a $25 million floor that each team could fall below twice during the term, a minimum player salary of $300,000, a scale of payroll taxes and a 55 percent player share of 2005 playoff revenue.
While Bettman's proposal called for a hard salary cap, Goodenow's plan allowed teams the opportunity to exceed the threshold by 10 percent - up to $53.9 million - twice during its duration, with a 150 percent tax as a penalty.
After months of haggling over the issue of a salary cap, both the NHL and union made unprecedented concessions late Monday night. The NHL removed the linkage of salaries to league revenues while presenting a proposal that included a $40 million cap to the union.
Doing something it vowed never to consider, the NHLPA in turn backed away from its hardline stance against a cap and made a counterproposal that featured a $52 million limit on team payrolls. The union's latest offering also included the 24 percent rollback on existing contracts it presented in December and more aggressive tax thresholds and tax rates on team payrolls.
Under Bettman's proposal, NHL teams would have to divide less than $45 million among 24 players and would not be able to exceed the threshold. By comparison, NBA teams have nearly $44 million to divide among 12-15 players and also enjoy exceptions which allow them to exceed the cap without penalty.
Bettman locked out NHL players at the start of the 1994-95 season, when the league's average salary was $572,000. It has more than tripled to $1.8 million.
The lockout reached its 154th day Wednesday.
If an agreement was reached, Bettman said the league had in place a 28-game regular season followed by a playoff with 16 participants.
The work stoppage has been in effect since Sept. 15, when Bettman announced that the league would lock out its players following the expiration of the most recent agreement. He indicated that teams had lost $1.8 billion over the last 10 years, including $224 million in 2003-04. Bettman added that the owners needed "an enforceable, defined relationship between revenues and expenses," so that a team's ability to compete was not dependent upon its ability to pay.
Two-and-a-half months passed before the two sides agreed to meet in their first formal bargaining session since the lockout began. It was at that point that the players offered a 24-percent rollback in salaries as part of their proposal. Though Bettman said the union finally acknowledged the league's financial troubles, the offer was rejected by the league.
The two sides met again in January, this time in a much smaller setting without Bettman or Goodenow at the bargaining table. But after almost 10 hours of talks over two days, both sides continued to cite "philosophical differences."
On Jan. 27, the league put forth a framework for a proposal that included a team-by-team salary cap between $32-$42 million with no luxury tax and team payrolls linked to revenues at a rate of 54-percent. The NHLPA did not look favourably on the proposal.
With the deadline of the season being cancelled hanging over their heads, Bettman and Goodenow finally met again for two days in early February. Both sides reported no progress.
On Feb. 9, Bettman set a weekend deadline for getting a new deal in place or else the season would be cancelled, acknowledging for the first time that a formal announcement would take place rather than let the season fade away without recognition.
