It's not quite official but that's how it looks, at least. According to a memo obtained by TSN, the league will reject the players' proposal and present a counter-offer tomorrow. The memo, written by NHL executive VP Bill Daly, says in part: "We believe the Union's offer was more about trying to unify the players and ensure player solidarity with what they would perceive as a very substantial proposal than it was about making a good faith effort to reach agreement with us ...The Union needed the 'rallying point' that it felt this offer would provide with the players to effectuate this strategy. Under this scenario, the Union will likely [and quickly] break off negotiations."

It's like they're saying, "Let's just drive off the cliff anyway. It'll hurt some but we'll be fine" and they don't realize they're in for a 5000-mile drop.

frown

This was the top story on CTV News (not sports) tonight, and yes indeed it looks like the NHL owners have unanimously turned down the players' offer. The meeting on Tuesday will be a short formality. I can't say I'm surprised at all, as the cost-certainty of a salary cap was fundamental to the league's position. I suppose the players have won some points with the public, but I had a feeling their offer was doomed. frown

I too read this very discouraging report in my sports section this morning. This sucks, totally and completely, and my anger is starting to get really bad right about now. Yesterday I was perusing "The Hockey News" website, and read quite a few interesting letters there. One fan wished to thank the NHL for turning him onto AHL hockey, and he mentioned the really affordable ticket prices to the games and all, and said he thoroughly enjoyed himself at the game with the Fantoms.

Something occurred to me yesterday that I didn't even think about before. Let's say I wanted to boycott the NHL the same way people stayed away from ballparks after the '94 World Series was wiped out by the strike. Now you'd think that I could go to Phantoms games to get my hockey fix. But if I really wanted to boycott, I can't. Who owns the Phantoms? Same company that owns the Flyers. So they'd get my money either way.

Hey Jip, you see what I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Phantoms played the Springfield Falcons last night at the St. Pete Times forum? Well, approx. 13,000 in attendance for the game, which I think speaks volumes for those who criticise Tampa Bay Fans. Actually, it wasnt as close as the score showed. The game was on our statewide Sunshine Network, score was 4-1 with just over 5 minutes to play and Springfield score making it 4-2 and then with 20 seconds to go made it 4-3.

Another article appeared about the situation in my Spokane Spokesman-Review this morning about the current situation. The article says that there is only about a month to go before, if things don't happen or change, for the season to be completely gone, and I have very little confidence based on what I am hearing reading, that things will change, and it sucks totally and completely. frown

Do the Lightning charge $20 for plaza level; $15 for club level; $10 for terrace level and general admission for their games? The 13,000 figure may be more a reflection of price than anything. Keep dreaming.

What does it matter what the Lightning charge for ticket prices, yeah our ticket prices are some of the lower ones in the league, yet our team still managed to win a cup and the team made approx $10 mil in profit after their run. If other cities made hockey AFFORDABLE to go to they would draw more. For most people, $100+/ticket for decent seats is extremly unreasonable. I'll give you an example, my parents went to a Flyers game last year at the Wachovia Center, sat in the next to last row in the upper deck and the tickets were $80/tix. I went to a playoff game at the St. Pete Times Forum and paid $60 for a ticket only 10 rows up in the upper deck. It's about building a fan base, which I think they are doing a good job of. Why not have reasonable tickets so you make more in concessions and merchandising, also last year they talked about what the Lightning made off the tickets, for each sellout the team made $1Mil profit during the regular season. Know the information before you insult the fans.

UTampaSpar10:

What does it matter what the Lightning charge for ticket prices??? Let me explain this to you.

My post was regarding the attendance of this game (which Kenny boasted about Tampa being such a great sorts town). Had the fans been charged what the Lightning charge for their games, there would not be 13,000 fans in attendance. Do you dispute this?

Read the context of the post before you insult yourself by posting nonsense.

Had the fans been charged Lightning prices for the AHL game they wouldn't have been there. But there's no way any team would charge NHL prices for a minor league game, so the argument is silly. If the NHL weren't shut down the AHL game wouldn't have been there to begin with.

As I see it, the fact that 13,000 people showed up because they haven't gotten to see a hockey game all year is a good thing (assuming there weren't lots of no-shows or a phony attendance figure given out).

Last year, we had a NFL Monday Night game in Sun Devil Stadium that was sold out. Yes, a sold out NFL game in Arizona. Go figure.

The tickets were free.

Had the tickets not been free, would the game have sold out? Not a chance. Did the fact that 70,000 people showed up for a game in Arizona mean that Arizona has great fans? No. Attendance was directly a result of pricing, nothing else.

The same could likely be said for the game in Tampa. Just because 13,000 people showed up for a hockey game does not mean the city's fans are great hockey fans. How does this "speak volumes" for the Tampa fans?

And by the way, the Tampa Tribune makes a point in their story today that 13,000 was the "announced" attendance figure.

[ December 17, 2004, 10:26 AM: Message edited by: coyoteugly ]

That is a flat out lie CU, but I do know you like putting words in peoples mouthes. SHOW me where I said "Tampa is such a Great Sorts" town, which you allege I said? If you cannot find where I said that, admit you lied and made up crap. Another sad example.

I said "I" thought it spoke volumes about people being critical of Tampa fans because it shows they are missing Hockey, and unlike a team like the Philadephia Phantoms, the team they went to watch(Springfield) is so far away and not a team they are really all that familiar with.

And thank you JIP for pointing out the obvious, why would anyone pay full price to watch a minor league team? Duh??? Talk about "speaking nonsense and insulting ones' self", follow your own advice there bro.

[ December 17, 2004, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Kenny ]