WE HAVE HOCKEY AGAIN At last, our long North American nightmare is over. We finally have hockey as the warring factions of the NHL and NHLPA finally reached agreement on a new 10-year CBA in the wee hours of Sunday, January 6th. The deal was brokered by a federal mediator as there was too much distrust between the parties to resolve the issues face to face. Throughout the collective bargaining process, as a hockey lover, I was glued to the daily reports from TSN and CBC to get the latest news and went through the rollercoaster of ups and downs. I kept my mouth shut even though, like millions of hockey fans in the US and Canada, I was extremely irate with the tactics and posturing of both sides. Now that the sides have reached a tentative agreement, it’s time for the fans to drop the gloves. Relations between the NHL and NHLPA have a long and tortuous history. In the past 20 years, there have been lengthy work stoppages and even the cancellation of an entire season. Yet, fans returned to the game in droves. Last year, the NHL itself generated over $3 billion in revenues. Given that on the whole, the League is in the midst of an unparalleled streak of revenue growth, do you think that reasonable minds could come to an agreement that is fair without harming the consumer? Professional sports’ CBA’s are markedly different than industrial CBA’s in that there is a vested interest by fans and those businesses that depend on fans for revenues, especially those bars and restaurants that heavily rely on fan traffic to stay afloat. For every NHL team, there are hundreds, if not thousands of everyday folks that need that paycheck to survive. The negotiation of any professional sports CBA needs to acknowledge that it does not occur in a vacuum as a starting point. The NHL and NHLPA failed to recognize those persons and entities that depend on hockey-related revenues and can ill-afford any work stoppages. In their zeal to “win”, they simply ignored everybody else. This negotiation was badly misplayed from the git-go. In the old agreement, the players received 57% of all Hockey Related Revenues (HRR). The NHL’s initial proposal was to slash the players’ share down to 43% of HRR. This was a serious blunder by the League as it only served to agitate the players and their primary collective bargaining agent, Donald Fehr. In response, the PA did absolutely nothing with the offer over the summer months. This was also a tactical error by the PA. By the time that the sides finally sat down (just prior to camps opening) the atmosphere was so toxic that the sides could not agree on anything. So on 15 September, the League initiated a lockout . The subsequent “negotiations” went in fits and starts. The PA found no reason to make concessions based on increasing revenues while the League insisted that concessions were necessary to provide economic security to the teams that were hemorrhaging money. The Players (rightly) retorted that they had no say over the cities in which NHL granted franchises. (Whose idea was it anyhow to put hockey in places like Miami, Atlanta and Phoenix?) With the Atlanta franchise now thriving in Winnipeg, some consideration should be given to shipping off a couple of weak sisters to Québec and the GTA. September drifted into October…November…December. Still, there was little or no movement by either side and the number of cancellations continued to pile up. At one point in December, the League made its best and final offer to the players only to see the players comeback with counterproposals. The League responded childishly by removing their offer from the table and stomping off in a huff. It was not until the end of December when the NHL cancelled games through January 11th and the Commissioner announced that there would be no less than a 48-game schedule that both sides appeared to be serious about negotiating in good faith to salvage the season. The give and take that should’ve occurred four months ago finally happened in January. They pretty much ended up in the middle on HRR (50/50) and both sides compromised on all of the outstanding issues. Who “won”? Who cares? Why couldn’t both sides pushed for the middle from the outset? Why were there needless games of strident posturing when this deal could’ve been resolved months ago? (And don’t suggest that I don’t know of which I speak: In the 80’s and early ‘90’s, I was part of a union negotiating team that collectively bargained complex agreements with two Fortune 500 companies that were resolved fairly and without rancor or unreasonable delay). Who’s “to blame”? That’s an easy one: both are! There have been agreements over nuclear disarmament that have been accomplished in less time. This was a charade, a cruel joke and the true “losers” in this negotiations were the countless fans who love the game and all those who depend on the game for their daily bread. So, who’s coming back? There are a lot of angry fans out there in hockeyland that made bold proclamations that they’d never return. Yeah, right. I’d guestimate that 90% of the faithful will be filling the rinks and watching on the tv and will forget about this CBA nonsense within a week. Once the puck drops for real those who are hungry to see the action will be back in force after a well-deserved chorus of BOOOOO’s to the owners and players. Hockey’s finally back, so the least we can do is simply enjoy it for what it is. Go Bruins!