When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and sport leagues everywhere were forced to shut down, we had entered a time where sports were at risk of not relating to labor agreements previously agreed to.
Luckily, most leagues came up with agreements between players and the owners of the teams and we only lost 4-5 months of sport, meaning revenues, which is key to running a business.
The NHL was at the forefront of it all and it took some quick negotiating, which funny enough, went without a snag and both parties came up with a new format, a bubble environment that produced 0 cases in four months of action, and on top of that, an MOU or memo of understanding for a new CBA agreement.
The agreement in place, 10 percent salary deferral and escrow was supposed to drop to six percent in the next three years and a frozen salary cap at $81.5 million for the next four years or when revenue reaches $4.84 billion. Now, Gary Bettman and the owners are asking the players to renegotiate what they agreed on, stating that they realized they are in a worse situation than previously predicted.
Of course, this didn’t go well with the players, who were forced to make big concessions, giving up almost 30-40 percent of their salaries and now being asked for a bigger cut. Escrow even was demanded an additional 10 percent, meaning 26 percent in total.
The NHL and NHLPA didn’t speak for almost a week, but since then, have reconvened to discuss a possible new agreement without going into specifics. Despite that, a potential January 1st start to the season looks ominus now. Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr, who have been known to butt heads, most notably did just this in the most recent lockout just a couple years back.
Here’s my take on it: a deal made should be honoured, and if there was an issue, it should have been brought up before the deal was agreed upon, although most hockey reporters are saying it’s most likely a rough patch and that they will find a way to get things done.
Frank Seravalli, a TSN Hockey reporter, gave his sense of the current issue.
“A portion of the owners believe that the NHLPA (players) are not paying back the money that they owe to owners fast enough, and that this season’s current payment structure balloons the debt to a level that is uncomfortable.”
Again, if that was going to be an issue, it should have been renegotiated at the time the deal was first made. It’s time for Bettman to go to the owners and put his foot down, which I doubt, but some sort of medium will be have to be agreed upon in order to salvage the delayed season.
Pierre LeBrun, another TSN reporter, gave his thoughts on the situation in his latest article on The Athletic.
“When push comes to shove, I suspect the NHLPA will agree to tweak on some of the salary deferrals, although not at the NHL asking rate, and certainly not without the players getting something in return. Nothing is free in bargaining.”
That’s the current situation we are in right now in regards to the NHL season, and we have to wait and see, but time is running out and we could potentially see a start later in January. Keep in mind that once a deal is done, whatever that looks like, teams need to call their players then there will be a quarantine period involved before doors can open for the start of training camps.