Executive director Don Fehr announced Monday that the NHL Players' Association would not exercise ... [+]
Hockey fans can look forward to at least three more years of labor peace.
On Monday, the National Hockey League Players’ Association announced that it would not be exercising its option to terminate the league’s current collective bargaining agreement before the beginning of the 2020-21 season.
Late last month, the league used similar language when announcing its decision not to exercise its own option ahead of its September 1 deadline.
“Based on the current state of the game and the business of the game, the NHL believes it is essential to continue building upon the momentum we have created with our Players and, therefore, will not exercise its option to reopen the CBA,” the league said in its official statement, released August 30.
“In any CBA, the parties can always identify issues they are unhappy with and would like to see changed. This is certainly true from the League’s standpoint. However, our analysis makes clear that the benefits of continuing to operate under the terms of the current CBA – while working with the Players’ Association to address our respective concerns – far outweigh the disruptive consequences of terminating it following the upcoming season.”
The cooperative nature of this round of labor talks marks a change of pace in the NHL, which lost half a season to a work stoppage before the current CBA was ratified early in 2013. That followed three other work stoppages — a brief player strike before the 1992 playoffs, a half-season lockout in 1994-95 and a full-season lost in 2004-05 before players acquiesced to the owners’ demand for a hard salary cap.
The latest round of talks between the league and the Players’ Association, represented by executive director Donald Fehr, has been described as being much more cordial. With revenues on the rise and a huge cash injection in owners’ pockets thanks to expansion fees totalling $1.15 billion from new franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle, league commissioner Gary Bettman said at the draft in June that the league was “not looking for a fight,” and that while there are always areas that could be improved from the perspective of his constituents, he hoped to work with the players to reach the next agreement without disrupting the schedule once again.
The two sides have been meeting since February, and have held numerous discussions in recent weeks. A large group of player reps also met in Chicago two weeks ago, at the same time as the NHL/NHLPA preseason North American player media tour.
“It’s a dialogue that continues,” Bettman said. “It’s a relationship that’s important, there’s mutual respect, there’s good communication flow and we’re busy focused on what may for each of our constituents be the appropriate path forward.”
Details of the negotiations so far have been scant, but one issue that has been in the forefront for players is finding a way to mitigate escrow deductions, often in excess of 10%, which come off players’ paychecks as part of the accounting procedures required to ensure the 50/50 revenue split between players and owners that’s required by the current CBA. Possible solutions that have been floated include changing the definition of hockey-related revenue to include more revenue streams and increase the overall size of the pie, or making tweaks to how the salary-cap ceiling is calculated.
League revenue is expected to rise significantly over the next few years, with new funds coming in through the expansion of legalized gambling and a new U.S. television-rights deal ready to be negotiated before the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
The league and the players have also been working to establish a structured international hockey calendar which would include a return of the World Cup of Hockey — a league-run event that generates significant revenue for all sides, unlike the Olympics.
Bettman, now 67, has served as the league’s commissioner since February 1,1993. During his tenure, he has overseen tremendous growth for the game and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, but many fans view his history of acrimonious labor disputes as a black mark on his leadership record.
By choosing not to exercise their re-opener, the Players’ Association will now continue its good-faith negotiations with the league. If both sides can agree on tweaks, amendments to the current agreement can be put in place. Most likely, those would come in conjunction with an CBA extension that would guarantee further labor peace for an additional three or four years beyond the scope of the current deal — potentially as far as through the 2026-27 season.
