wild/nhl

The real victims here are the fans who year after year pay outrageous prices for tickets and get a sub par product. It's too bad the fans don't have a bargaining agent to get prices lowered and force the owners and players to get paid a lot less. Check out European hockey. It's great.

Godd stuff Marcus....when it comes to the owners and/or Bettman being the problem I think we can agree on both. The owners could get rid of Bettman and get new leadership if they disagreed with his dishonorable negotiating tactics while Bettman could walk if he disagreed with the owners tactics. Glad to find someone else who understands that Fehr is just trying to keep the players from getting taken to the wood shed again !

northsport... I understand your post and agree with your points, however, my point about the Commish is that I don't believe he is the one that is setting the agenda from the leagues standpoint. As I have said before, I don't believe him to be a passive player in the game, but I think he puts his five cents worth in and then the owners find their own consensus based on their predetermined goals. I think this CBA is being led by a rather small group of hard line owners who, in the face of all of the leagues recent success decided they want to play like all other big corporate entities in this country and see what they can get back from the people who make their success for them. It's Snider/Philly, Jacobs/Bruins, Dolan/Ranger, maybe Illitch/Wings and a couple of others. They have become the big market power core of owners within the league circle IMO and wield a lot of power right now. We don't have hockey right now, because of a group of real greedy owners. Their financial problems w/some of their small market clubs are of their own making. They should be solving them amongst themselves, with revenue from their share of HRR not the players. This is why I find their whole positioning so distasteful. I am at the point now where I think we are going to lose another entire season. Thank you owners. Putting this on Fehr's back is utterly ridiculous...

Fehr wrecked baseball. He will now permanently destroy hockey. This was coming as soon as Fehr got involved.

Marcus....great points and you are right on with the exception of Bettman. He is their chosen leader but he is no stooge and has led the owners to 3 work stoppages(lockouts) to date. He has never provided proactive leadership to resolve contract issues ahead of time to make for a seamless work environment. Yes, his tactics have lined the owners pockets and put the PA on the defensive all 3 times but that is why the PA brought in Fehr also. Fehr is smart enough to see through Bettman's bogus offers and dishonorable tactics here. I do agree that the owners are still responsible for this nonsense as they hired him knowing how he operates. Most of us are frustrated because we don't have hockey right now but blaming Fehr is mis-placed anger. The owners have offered to take money that they are contracted to pay, reduce it and pay it out over the next few seasons with interest in exchange for a bunch more concessions by the players on critical issues. As I have said before, that is like a thief stealing $1000 from you and then offering to pay it back over 2 years plus interest in exchange for your lawn furniture, boat and atv. What a deal, huh ! Fehr has every reason to be skeptical with any deal the owners bring to the table !

jacksoncage, the league is not bankrupt. They have been making record revenues, and with it record profits. I know you were speaking figuratively, but I will also point out that never has the NHL filed for bankruptcy. Some teams, such as Phoenix, have been losing money but league on the whole is provably not. That information is all available online.

Donald Fuhr has wrecked everything he has touched. Everyone knew there would be trouble when the players hired him. They will never recoup the money that they have lost.

I see that its popular on here today to blame Don Fehr for all of the problems and intracacies of the lockout. I'm not interested in cracking anyone on here, but you had better do some reading and research first before reaching ANY conclusions. And based on the nonsense bargaining tactics of the owners thus far, I would find it hard to take positions with them. I understand why they are doing what they are doing, but I disagree with them. Whats going on this week is more feel good stuff for the fans that want this bologna to come to an end then any substantitive meaningful negotiating. Like Fehr or not, IMO he is right to be skeptical about the latest league offers. The league dangles good looking goodies to the press and fans, then blows it by insisting that the players go along with other articles of debate that are clearly distasteful to the PA. The owners are going to shove 50/50 down the throats of the players, they want it right away, the PA wants a gradual move toward that. The league has made strides toward a make whole proposal that, on it's face looks good, but then they insist on having players give up a year of arbitration eligibility, then allowing the team the ability to file for same in any year that the player can do so, extend Free agency waiting period to age 28 or 8 seasons, limit contracts to 5 years and limiting contract variance to no more then 5% from contract year to contract year. These tenets, on a player by player basis are not good, and add them all up and they give the owners and GM's considerable sway over a player and their overall careers. These items are guaranteed deal breakers from the players stance. Like it or not Fehr is correct to question this malarkey. The deal is that the owners 1st offer was complete nonsense and hasn't improved a great deal. I'm not interested in people cracking Mr. Bettman either, he is the owners lackey, nothing more nothing less. I am thinking that most on here taking either side have probably never been in a labor or contract negotiation. When the league gets real, (if and when) then we will have a deal and an end to this....

If the owners aren't coming to the table with a better offer they must really have their backs against the wall financially. They are the ones incurring costs without any revenue coming in, so they are digging in their heels for a reason......the math of the current system isn't working. Meanwhile, each player gets a year older, and knows that for every one of them who has made it to the big leagues there are 10 hot prospects in the minors willing to play for a lot less whenever the lights go back on. The owners can wait out a stoppage by dipping into their pockets a little deeper, but a veteran player's clock is ticking, and he can never regain the missing year of his career. The players have a lot more incentive to settle, but it sounds like Fehr is going to fight this to the bitter end......meanwhile, a bunch of veterans have probably stepped off the ice for the last time. Sad.

Time for the players to come to their senses and fire Fehr and his brother. Get the deal done. The NHL is the 4th of the 4 pro sports in the U.S. - It is not MLB, NBA or NFL. 50/50 is more than fair and matches what the other leagues get.