There obviously isn't a lot going on right now in terms of getting a new collective bargaining agreement, but there are a couple of things we can talk about that might kick-start negotiations.
I hear a common reaction from NHL players that the owners are asking them to solve this problem. They're asking them to make all the concessions and somehow make this system work when the owners have not put forth a meaningful revenue-sharing proposition - which I think the owners should do and I would challenge them to do that. For example, you could look at something like this for the first five years of a ten-year agreement.
 |
Revenue Sharing Proposal |
| Year |
Reg. Season |
Playoffs |
Total |
| 2005-2006 |
$50M |
$75M |
$125M |
| 2006-2007 |
$75M |
$75M |
$150M |
| 2007-2008 |
$100M |
$75M |
$175M |
| 2008-2009 |
$125M |
$75M |
$200M |
| 2009-2010 |
$150M |
$75M |
$225M |
Have the regular season revenue sharing at $50 million, increasing $25 million per year to $150 million in 2009-10. With playoff revenue sharing, you could get a total of $225 million available when all is said and done.
That might move the players' view on linkage and it might not, but it would certainly behoove them to do it and move the players off the linkage issue.
Proposal No. 1: The players have said that their proposal would work with their salary rollback and changes made to the system. Well, I'm from Missouri, and the motto in my home state is 'show me.' If you say this will work, then I would be asking the league if they would be willing to try it for two years.
Come back and play right now with no changes to anything but the rollback the players have put on the table and we play the rest of the year. Then we start a 10-year agreement starting in June and we take the players' proposal with six notable exceptions.
If the proposal works after two years, and the wages and revenues line up in terms of what the reasonable percentages should be, we stay on that system.
If it doesn't work, the players are capped for the remaining eight years of that deal.
Proposal No. 2: I would say the players' proposal is guaranteed, under what I just said, to move under a cap because it's not meaningful enough of a system. That being said, I would change six things.
1. A meaningful luxury tax of .75 cents on the dollar and have it start at a payroll of $38 million. The union has proposed a 20 percent tax starting at $40 million and it won't have any deterring effect on spending.
2. Maximize entry-level system bonuses at $300,000. If a player comes in and tears it up as a rookie, he can make some meaningful money - but not the millions and millions that so many young players have made. Pay that to the veterans.
3. Amend the arbitration system. Change it so that a player or a team can file, and only once every three years. If a two-year deal is awarded, they can only do it every four years. Go to a high-low system that's fair, keep the walk-away/walk-back option, but amend the arbitration.
4. Reduce the regular season schedule to 72 games. The league and the players play too many games - a fact that has been lost in the shuffle. In my mind, this is a meaningful thing for our fans that have been suffering through this. We play too many games, and the product suffers as a result.
5. Move buyouts to .50 cents on the dollar. Right now, it's either .33 cents or .66 cents. Make it simple at .50 cents.
6. Make qualifying offers at 75 percent. The union's proposal to re-tool it is meaningless in my opinion.
If you make those changes, and you try the players' proposal, I think it might work.
Now this set of proposals does not include a hard salary cap, and I don't know if the league will take anything but a hard cap. The owners have not moved off of cost certainty, but I think they're willing to consider a system that has cost certainty without a hard cap.
However, this cannot be done until the players move off linkage. It's not unreasonable for the owners to say this new system has to have a reasonable, rational relationship between the revenue the industry generates and the salaries that are paid to the players.
Former Vancouver Canucks general manager and NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke can be seen every week on TSN Sportscentre, Molson That's Hockey and the NHL on TSN.