The National Hockey League locked out its players yesterday, threatening to keep the sport off the ice for the entire 2004-2005 season, and perhaps beyond, in an effort by management to gain massive economic change.
After the long-expected decision was approved unanimously on Wednesday by NHL owners, commissioner Gary Bettman repeatedly belittled the union's bargaining position, talked about the possibility the confrontation could extend into the 2005-2006 season and said the conflict has jeopardized the NHL's participation in the 2006 Winter Olympics.
"If there's enough time to play some games, we'll do it," he said of this season, "and if there's not, we won't."
Bettman called it a "bleak day," claimed teams had combined to lose more than US$1.8 billion over 10 years and cited bankruptcy filings by teams in Buffalo, Los Angeles, Ottawa and Pittsburgh. He said management will not agree to a labor deal that doesn't include a defined relationship between revenue and salaries.
"Until he gets off the salary-cap issue, there's not a chance for us to get an agreement," union head Bob Goodenow said in Toronto, adding that players "are not prepared to entertain a salary cap in any way, shape, measure or form."
Far apart on both philosophy and finances, the sides haven't bargained since last Thursday and say they are entrenched for the long run, echoing words of baseball players and owners at the start of their disastrous seven-and-a-half-month labor war of 1994-1995.
There is almost no chance the season will start as scheduled on Oct. 13, and Bettman told teams to release their arenas for other events for the next 30 days. Bettman said the season can't extend past June, and the lockout threatens to wipe out the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1919, when the series between Montreal and Seattle was stopped after five games due to a Spanish influenza epidemic.
"The union is trying to win a fight, hoping that the owners will give up. That will turn out to be a terrible error in judgment," Bettman said. "They are apparently convinced that come some point in the season, the owners' resolve will waver, and I'm telling you that is wrong, wrong, wrong."
NHL management claims teams combined to lose US$273 million in 2002-2003 and US$224 million last season. Bettman said the union's proposals would do little for owners, and said the six offers rejected by the union would lower the average player salary from US$1.8 million to US$1.3 million.
Goodenow said players had offered more than US$100 million in annual concessions.
"The notion that we don't have competitive balance is absurd," said Vancouver center Trevor Linden, the union's president.
Bettman made clear that declaring an impasse under US labor law and imposing new work rules unilaterally was an option, but said it had not yet been considered.
"I think it's pretty fair to say that we're at an impasse right now, and my guess is that we've probably been at impasse for months, if not a year," he said. "At some point when we're at impasse, we could simply say, `We're going to open and here are the terms and conditions. Let's go.' It's that simple."
Goodenow said attempting to impose terms would be a "very, very ill-advised strategy" and predicted "the results of it could be catastrophic." Bettman said the use of replacement players is not under consideration.
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