113 Days. 510 Regular Season Games. The All-Star Game. The Winter Classic.
That’s what the fans have been robbed of this season with the NHL and NHLPA bickering over a new CBA. For 113 days, the two sides could not come up with a mutual agreement that would play off a successful 7 years of record profit and record fan-base – until today. The NHL and NHLPA have finally agreed to a framework that would, depending on a start-date, would see the NHL dish out a 50 game schedule per team.
Gary Bettman:
Courtesy: Carlos Osorio/ Toronto Star
“Don Fehr and I are here to tell you that we have reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement, the details of which need to be put to paper. We have to dot a lot of I’s and cross a lot of T’s. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the basic framework has been agreed upon.”
So what’s next? The deal still has to be written out and ratified and a start date still has to be determined. If the season starts on January 15th then the league would have 50 games – January 19th would have 48 games.
The terms of the deal have been released.
Per Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun of TSN:
– The players’ share of hockey-related revenue will drop from 57 percent to a 50-50 split for all 10 years.
– The league coming off their demand for a $60 million cap in Year 2, meeting the NHLPA’s request to have it at $64.3 million – which was the upper limit from last year’s cap. The salary floor in Year 2 will be $44 million.
– The upper limit on the salary cap in the first year is $60 million, but teams can spend up to $70.2 million (all pro-rated). The cap floor will be $44 million.
– The 10-year deal has an opt-out clause that kicks in after eight years.
– Each team will be allowed two amnesty buyouts that can be used to terminate contracts after this season and next season. The buyouts will count against the players’ overall share in revenues, but not the team’s salary cap.
– The salary variance on contracts from year to year cannot vary more than 35 per cent and the final year cannot vary more than 50 per cent of the highest year.
– A player contract term limit for free agents will be seven years and eight years for a team signing its own player.
– The draft lottery selection process will change with all 14 teams fully eligible for the first overall pick. The weighting system for each team may remain, but four-spot move restriction will be eliminated.
– Supplemental discipline for players in on-ice incidents will go through NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan first, followed by an appeal process that would go through Bettman. For suspensions of six or more games, a neutral third party will decide if necessary.
– Revenue sharing among teams will spread to $200 million. Additionally, an NHLPA-initiated growth fund of $60 million is included.
– Teams can only walk away from a player in salary arbitration if the award is at least $3.5 million.
– The NHL had hoped to change opening of free agency to July 10, but the players stood firm and it remains July 1 in the new agreement. But with a later ending to the season, free agency for this summer will start at a later date.
So that’s the nitty-gritty of it. But what does this mean for the fans?
Will they lower ticket prices? Have more giveaways? Will players and owners reach out more to their respected fanbase and show more intimacy with them?
I’d love to see it, but I doubt it.
What’s going to happen is the same thing that happened 7 years ago after the entire season was shut down. The league will apologize to us Fans for what has occurred and Bettman will tell us that we are the most important thing to this sport. They will advertise the crap out of their stars and probably have some obscure muscian like Nickelback write a catchy “We Want You Back” song to grab our attention.
And you know what? It’ll probably work. Fans everywhere have been talking about not ever coming back and never giving money to this league again, but I can see that lasting about a week.
Why? Because I felt the same way. I was going to cautiously come back and take my time to reacclimate myself to the league. I said, “I’ll watch, but I’ll never go to a game if they’re gonna cry about how many millions they get.” Well you know what? That all went out the door this morning. I’m so excited to have my sport back that I’m forgetting that it’s January. I’m forgetting that the Winter Classic was cancelled. I’m forgetting that the players were selfish and the owners were greedy. I have my hockey back.
I’ll watch every game I can this season. I’ll don my Washington Capitals attire and grab a casual 12 of Natty Boh and root for my boys to choke in the playo… er, I mean battle their way into the playoffs. I have my hockey back.
The fans got robbed but we’ll never be compensated for that. Instead of crying foul, let’s support our favorite teams. Let’s get this league back to where it should be and hope that in 8-10 years this sort of thing never happens again.
I have my hockey back and I couldn’t be happier.
More to come…
