Print Interview on NHL CBA

Ken Warren of Postmedia/Ottawa Citizen/Montreal Gazette, etc., interviewed me this week on the NHL's CBA proposal. The article is entitled, "NHL’s opening salvo to players not unexpected".

The article is located here.

Here is an excerpt:

The NHL’s “ambitious” initial proposals towards a new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ association aren’t completely surprising, according to sports business and law expert Eric Macramalla.

 

But Macramalla, a partner at Gowlings, who hosts the weekly show Offside: The Business & Law of Sports on The Team 1200-AM, anticipates the union to respond quickly in kind.

 

“I would expect the union to be equally aggressive,” Macramalla said Monday. “Negotiations are full of ebbs and flows. If (the NHL) proposal has been accurately reported, I would also suspect an initial ambitious response from the players’ association, so it doesn’t seem like they’re delaying before they come back.”

 

…When the NBA and its players’ association initiated talks towards a new agreement — the 2011-12 NBA season was delayed due to a lockout — the league originally asked players to accept 46 per cent of revenues, down from 57 per cent, exactly the same situation as the NHL.

 

Ultimately, NBA owners and players agreed to accept a 50/50 split of basketball related revenues.

 

Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, argues that the rest of the sporting landscape has changed since the current NHL CBA was signed in 2005. NFL and Major League Baseball players receive 48 per cent of revenues.

 

“I’m not surprised the NHL has tried to align itself with the other leagues,” said Macramalla.