(Photo Courtesy of AOL Sports)
Last night the NHL fans in the Twitter universe went bat poop crazy as word quickly spread around 9pm ET that the NHL podium was being set up, meaning a presser was set to occur at some point in the future. Many fans, myself included trolled Twitter, refreshing the page every few posts, anxiously awaiting to hear the announcement. As the wait hit the 60 minute mark fans began to peter off, most claiming they had to wake up early for work or had some amount of school work to do. Around the 120 minute mark there were only a few people in the running still fishing for information and as the 180 mark approached, I was seriously beginning to question my sanity. For three hours I refreshed my page waiting for the news that was to be announced from behind the podium. Finally at 12:15 I called it quits and shut down the computer. The initial announcement that came through yesterday was that the NHL and NHLPA came to terms on the 2013 Pension Plan.
So, what was so importantly discussed last night that even the media was offered pizza, well, that has been kept tightly under wraps with very little leaking out. However, an ABC report states:
“Very little information leaked out of the meeting room, but it is believed that the sides exchanged proposals and spent much of the time apart discussing what had been offered. One point of contention is the length of a new contract, with owners looking for a 10-year pact, and players wanting a shorter term.”
With these we could make the assumption that players want a similar deal to that of the 2004-2005 agreement in which they want a shorter term because of the conceded contracts, promising to revisit when the CBA expires…look how well that’s working out for them right now. We can also assume that the Owners are going along with whatever the players want for money, tossing the 50/50 split out the window, at least to begin with.
At around 1:00am ET, Bill Daly made a statement:
”We had good candid, dialogue,” Daly said. “A lot of issues. There continue to be some critical open issues between the two parties and we understand the union should be getting back to us [Thursday] on some of those issues.”
The only player to speak of the negotiations was Winninpeg Jet defenseman Ron Hainsey:
“We had a series of candid discussions. We will meet again tomorrow.”
The current rumor circulating is that the NHL/NHLPA want a season to start between December 15 and 20 with TSN proposing a want for a 60 game season. With 60 games the NHL would get all of its sponsorship resulting in the green Benjamin form. Not to mention, with games resuming before Christmas, there is still room for teams to press ticket packs on fans for Christmas presents, what better gift than giving hockey back to your loving fan! In other words, spend what we’ve been missing we have millions of dollars to make up!
For now the talking/negotiations remain, with the inkling of hope coming from a rumor that the NHL Network’s Director flew to NYC last night to talk to the NHL. We can hope this is to discuss programming so we can finally see something other than Oil Country and NHL 36 re-runs. Keep believing everyone, the best is yet to come…hopefully. For now, keep checking in with @NHLPodium for humorous sarcastic updates.
