NHL lock-out may be over; Thrashers prepare for season start in October
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Mary Jane Credeur Staff Writer
Officials with the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association have reached a new collective bargaining agreement in principal, which is expected to end a lock-out that began 10 months ago.
The lock-out began on Sept. 16, 2004, and killed the 2004-2005 season, marking the first time a professional sport in the United States has not played a full season due to a player work stoppage.
A key issue in the negotiations was owners' demands for a salary cap or some sort of system that would link their labor costs with the overall financial performance of a team. Industry watchers have speculated that this new agreement will include a 24 percent salary rollback, and that it may include a salary cap ceiling of around $35 million.
The tentative agreement must be ratified by the NHL board of governors and the NHLPA before it takes effect. If ratified, the Atlanta Thrashers could resume playing in early October, when professional hockey's regular season play usually begins.
Neither side intends to make details of the agreement public until it is ratified, which they both expect to happen next week.
Thrashers General Manager Don Waddell said Wednesday that executives with Atlanta Spirit LLC, which owns the Thrashers and the Atlanta Hawks, were preparing to start signing players as soon as the new agreement is ratified and signed.
The Thrashers already have 11 NHL players signed for the 2005-2006 season, but they still need to sign a few key players such as Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk, who are both restricted free agents right now. If either player gets another offer from another team, the Thrashers can match it, which Waddell said would be all but inevitable.
"If any team were to make an offer, we would have an opportunity to match any offer out there," Waddell said.
In adding other players, Waddell said he would ask team owners and CEO Bernie Mullin to approve "any deal that we think makes sense."
He added, though, that the Thrashers would not "do anything foolish and overpay and lock ourselves into a long contract for the short-term gain."
Other major changes expected in the new agreement are new rules that may shrink the size of goalie equipment and end tie games by adding a shootout to break tie scores - both things which Waddell said could make for "a more exciting game and more scoring" in addition to helping up-and-coming players as well as veterans differentiate themselves on the ice.
Thrashers fans reacted immediately to the news of a likely end to the lock-out, Waddell noted. The Thrashers sales staff has a large bell in their office that they clang each time they sell new season tickets.
"I was in a conference room making calls, and I heard that bell ringing constantly all afternoon," Waddell said.
Related Industry News |
Latest News |
Most Viewed Stories |
Most Emailed Stories |
