HENDERSON, Nev. (CP) - A report to be released Thursday on the NHL's finances by the former chairman of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission will validate the league's claim of massive losses, a source familiar with the report told The Canadian Press.
The NHL commissioned the study but maintains its findings are independent.
Arthur Levitt, also a former chair of the American Stock Exchange, will announce his findings in New York on Thursday after a one-year study. The source said the figures will support the league's long-standing claim that it's total loses last season were just under $300 million US.
Levitt reported to the NHL's board of governors last Saturday during all-star weekend in St. Paul, Minn.
A major stumbling block in the current stalled collective bargaining talks has been the NHL Players' Association's mistrust of the league's financial numbers, which derive from the NHL's central accounting system called Unified Report of Operations.
It's expected Levitt will fully endorse the UROs for all 30 teams.
``We believe our bookkeeping is transparent, we believe in our numbers, we believe the URO is both comprehensive and accurate in all respects, the union has been getting the UROs since 1999, and we believe that even they believe that the numbers are accurate,'' league commissioner Gary Bettman said last weekend.
``There's no reason for them not to trust the UROs.''
It's believed 25 of the league's 30 teams say they are losing money, so Levitt's announcement Thursday won't be a surprise to them.
``All I can tell you is that our team has had some (financial) difficulties in St. Louis that we're uncomfortable with,'' Blues GM Larry Pleau said Wednesday after the league meetings wrapped up outside Las Vegas. ``We're hoping to make it right one day in St. Louis, that we can put our revenues and our expenses together where it makes sense for us to keep a competitive team.''
The next negotiating session has yet to be scheduled with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire in September.
The league desperately wants a drastically different-looking system from the one that has existed over the last 10 years. The current collective bargaining agreement, twice extended, has seen the average NHL salary grow from $572,000 US in 1993-94 to $1.79 million last season - a 212 per cent increase.
The NHL wants a system in place that guarantees cost certainty, that player costs won't overrun profits.
The league's numbers indicate that 76 per cent of total revenues last season went to player costs, leaving only 24 per cent to pay for coaches, travel, building costs, marketing and advertising - therefore not enough to make any money in their eyes.
The NHL's figures from the other three pro leagues in North America show that the NFL spent 64 per cent of its total revenues on player costs, compared to 63 per cent for Major League Baseball and 58 per cent for the NBA.
The union sees the league's `cost certainty' as some form of hard salary cap, which is a complete non-starter for its side. The NHLPA would probably settle for some form of baseball's luxury-tax system, which doesn't limit payrolls but punishes the big spenders.
But the NHL doesn't think that's good enough to ensure what it is looking for - a 60-40 split of revenues and expenditures.