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.
Tuesday on TSN, NHL lockout negotiators Bill Daly (NHL) and Ted Saskin (NHLPA) appeared on The Hot Seat - a one-hour special where the two faced tough, pointed questions from TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie, TSN play-by-play voice Gord Miller and Toronto Star columnist Damien Cox. The three pressed Daly and Saskin until they got the answers hockey fans want - and deserve - to hear. Daly and Saskin were interviewed separately and were not able to hear each other's answers. The following are excerpts from The Hot Seat with Ted Saskin. Excerpts from Bill Daly were in The Reminder yesterday. For the complete transcript, log on to www.tsn.ca. Ted Saskin - NHLPA Senior Director Q - Bob McKenzie: Ted, does public opinion matter? A - Saskin: It matters to some extent, certainly, but I think the party's that live and work and are compensated under this system have to do what is fair for both sides. And that is what is going to drive the result here. Q - McKenzie: If public opinion translates into we'll buy tickets for replacement players then isn't that public opinion a huge problem for the Players' Association? A - Saskin: Well that might be where the rubber hits the road. Because I think at the end of the day, the fans support the great hockey players that we have and are fortunate to have in our sport. And if the league, who alleges that they are doing this for the fan, suddenly comes out with a watered-down product that they try to implement, I think fans would react negatively to that. Q - McKenzie: Ted, if this lockout goes the entire year, there are many people who believe that the 30-team league could become a 28-team league, a 26-team league, a 24-team league. As an association, are you more interested in protecting jobs for your membership or protecting the earning power of the stars at the top end? A - Saskin: What we're interested in, again, is a fair system for the players to operate under. If the owners' lockout goes a length of time that jeopardizes certain teams in certain situations, unfortunately that's not something we can control. That's something the owners have decided in triggering their lockout. Q - Gord Miller: Ted, do you think hockey's a good business right now? A - Saskin: Well certainly for some clubs it's a good business. For other clubs, whose management practices are more questionable, it's a more challenging business, and for other clubs due to market situations, it's a difficult business. You have 30 different clubs, you have 30 different businesses. What we're trying to do is a fair solution that allows all teams that are managed responsibly to succeed and do well. Q - McKenzie: We know that some of those teams as you pointed out are quite healthy and make a lot of money, so if you've got 12 teams with losses of $50 or $60 million, is that healthy? A - Saskin: Well no, what I've said though, is when you look at the league-wide number that they like to throw out of $224 million, that obscures the fact that there are particular market situations that need to be addressed. That's what our proposal and our framework tries to do. It tries to address situations rather than just hide behind a league-wide number and try to negotiate the player costs down to some minimal level that's going to apply across the board. Q - McKenzie: Is there any negotiating planned? What happens next for the fans? A - Saskin: We don't have any planned right now. We are still looking at different solutions and hopefully some point in time the league is going to be prepared to negotiate with us. Right now they haven't been expressing any interest in negotiating they want a cap and that's it. Q - McKenzie: So there is no proposal coming from your side any time soon? A - Saskin: The last proposal as you know came from us. So I would think the ball is in their court.
