The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Talks between the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association broke down on Thursday after the NHLPA presented a less than acceptable proposal, according to NHL Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Bill Daly. After the meeting, he released this statement: "We are extremely disappointed with what the Union presented to us (Thursday). Not only did the Union's proposal fail to move the process toward a resolution but, in fact, represented a step backwards in the process. "As we predicted, two weeks ago in Ottawa, the Union has simply repackaged its original unacceptable and ineffective proposal from 15 months ago ? and even watered it down. Even under the Union's modeling and projections, which we do not agree with or accept, more than half of our Clubs would still lose money and nearly a third of the Clubs would still lose in excess of $10 million each season. "Nothing more clearly demonstrates the Union's unwillingness to acknowledge or meaningfully address this League's problems than this recycled proposal. "No further meetings are scheduled at this time." The current agreement will expire at midnight on Wednesday, and a lockout will likely be imposed by the owners. The current collective agreement has seen salaries grow from an average of $733,000 in 1994-95 to $1.83 million in 2003-04. League-wide revenues have also risen during that span, but the NHL says not at the same pace. In fact, the league says it lost just under $300 million in 2002-03.
